January 21, 1997 - 7:30 p.m.
Membership Meeting
First Christian Church
1835 Walnut - Carrolton, TX
(See Program News)

Welcome to SAILING 1997 with the Venture/MacGregor Yacht Club.

Hope you had a good holiday season and are getting ready for another year of sailing. The new board met early in January to set the stage for the year. They worked to put together a tentative and very full calendar of activities, with something for just about everyone who sails. Racing, cruising, programs, finance, social, teaching. I was amazed, and sometimes a little overwhelmed and confused, as the group worked to lay out all the things you see in the calendar. I could tell from their enthusiasm, experience and confidence that this will be a year to remember.

Our club is only as successful as we make it. Our first order of business and fun is the Winter Boat Show, starting January 31st. The Liggetts generously allow us to use space in The Rigg Shop booth where we advertise and sign students up for our famous Learn to Sail Classes (which, in turn, help finance many of our other activities). So, we need everyone who can to lend a hand at the booth during the show. Please sign up when your Fleet Captain calls. You get into the show free, and we'll have displays and flyers ready. What we need now is a commitment from you.

Then there is Racing, with classes for new skippers, and Cruising, beginning with my personal favorite, the Bachelor's Cruise, and possibly an offsetting Ladies' "Cruise" (with credit card and checkbook). Along the way, we will meet, and eat, and enjoy the company.

So come aboard. 1997 should be a fun sail!

My crew abandoned ship. It looks suspiciously like a mutiny. Bryan got a new job that requires he work weekends, and Jennie signed up for Saturday classes. And I thought we were getting better toward the end of the last season. Not once did we round up, do a 360 or get into irons... in the last race.

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I got an early (but welcome) wake-up call to my new duties the first week of January. I have now entered two new members, Anthony and Shirley Cuchiara of Del City, Oklahoma into the 1997 club membership, the only "Sooners" in the club! The Cuchiara's have a 1997 M26X with sail number 2.

1997 Boat Show

The Rigg Shop is again graciously giving the club a part of their booth space at the Dallas Boat Show at Market Hall. The show runs for 10 days from Friday, January 31, through Sunday, February 9. We use the space to bring new members into the club and to promote the Learn To Sail Class we co-sponsor with The Rigg Shop. The sailing class provides a community service and usually brings the club a member or two within a year or so. The $50 fee for the sailing class also raises a significant amount of income for the club.

I am coordinating the participation at the boat show. I have started a sign-up sheet. Give me a call and I'll put you on the schedule. Call now for the best times. Volunteers get free access to the show - you don't have to pay to get in and help the club. Some couples like to get together with others and schedule the same time so that they can keep each other company and catch up with what is going on in each others lives. Come and support your club; you'll probably have a good time.

1997 Membership

It is time to renew your membership in the club. It is $25 well spent; the membership fee is a real bargain. The club is definitely the best for Venture and MacGregor owners that I have heard about. Please fill out the enclosed membership form today and mail it (and the dues) to me at the address on the form. Renew early to ensure your inclusion in the 1997 Venture/MacGregor Yacht Club Roster that will be provided to all members.

Please take the time to think of any programs you would like to see in the coming year at the monthly meetings. Are there other activities that the club might want to consider, such as last year's tour of the Valiant Yacht Factory? Who would have thought that Lake Texoma is home to a blue water yacht company? What are the best programs from years past? You know, the ones that you can still remember? Our new members may need or enjoy that program, too.

Acknowledgments

Steve Hanes set up the membership roster on a computer database, and entered all the flyers and forms on the computer also. This should make my job a lot easier. Thanks, Steve!

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Our By-Laws state that a Fleet Captain will coordinate all fleet activities, assign committees to act as fleet representatives during all sanctioned or unsanctioned Venture/MacGregor events, and shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by the Board of Directors or Commodore. Each Fleet Captain shall submit a report of fleet activities.

As we start with 1997, the Twenty-Five Fleet has 20 Boats listed in the 1996 Roster: I will be calling all of you to keep you informed on the club meetings and activities, so please advise me of any information you want forwarded to our membership through the Venturing or fleet phone calls, such as births, illness, moves and etc. Don't forget your dues so you will be in the Roster, and I can call you.

Les and I moved into our new home that we had build at Ticky Creek Park overlooking Lake Lavon . Now we can keep you informed of the weather and lake conditions. Just give us a phone call .

Report on Lavon: The great drought of 1996 is apparently over. Heavy rain fell in November and the reservoir's pool elevation has risen to 488.41 feet (normal elevation is 492 feet). All ramps are open and conditions seem to be back to normal on Lavon.

LETS GO SAILING
AND KEEP THE 25'S ALIVE

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I have to admit that after attending and thoroughly enjoying six of six family cruises since joining the club, we weren't terribly surprised when Dave Taylor called and asked us to chair the Cruising Committee. (I found the chair -- but where's the committee?) Still, the look on Martha's face when I told her that "we" had the job after the Thanksgiving Potluck.... After all, some people will do anything to get out of being a Fleet Captain. But things started to warm up on the way home as she and the kids began describing their favorite cruising activities and games. The net result is that our already overworked refrigerator magnets have been asked to support yet one more list: "Cruising Ideas"

And we'd love to hear your suggestions, too -- PLEASE! At the November meeting, Al Barboza was talking about bringing back some of the 'old' racing events such as something called a LeMans Start. I'm sure that many of the more experienced cruisers could make similar contributions. The Balloon Race that Sam and Donna Blake hosted last season is a perfect example. Besides, you might want to respond in self-defense! Some of the ideas that Erin and Nathan have come up with sound more like work than fun.

"Season Premiere"

If you think it's too cold for a cruise, you may be right; but we're going to give it the old V/MYC try anyhow. The annual Bachelor's Cruise will be held on March 1-2 at Grandpappy's Marina on Lake Texoma.

And for the first time, there will be a cruise for the ladies on the same weekend! Martha is organizing a Boats Optional Cruise to the Outlet Mall in Gainesville for Saturday, March 1. Give her a call if you would like to attend.

Look for more on both of these events next month.

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FEBRUARY

22-23   Midwinters, Houston

MARCH

1-2     Bachelor’s Cruise, Lake Texoma
14th    New Skippers, Class
15th    New Skippers, Race
22nd	Spring Series: Races 1 & 2 - Lake Lavon
        (9:30 a.m. Skippers Meeting - 11 a.m. Start)

APRIL

5th     Spring Series: Races 3 & 4
18-20   V/MYC Regional Championship/
        Texoma Lakefest Regatta

MAY

3rd     Spring Series: Races 5 & 6
17th    Spring Series: Races 7 & 8
31st    Summer Night Series: Race 1 - Lake Lavon
        (6:30 p.m. Skippers' Meeting - 8 p.m. Start)

JUNE

15-20   Dallas Race Week, Lake Ray Hubbard
28th    Summer Night Series: Race 2

JULY

12th    Summer Night Series: Race 3
26th    Summer Night Series: Race 4

AUGUST

9th     Summer Night Series: Race 5
16th    Summer Night Series: Race 6

SEPTEMBER

20th    Fall Series: Races 1 & 2 - Lake Lavon
        (9:30 a.m. Skippers' Meeting - 11 a.m. Start)

OCTOBER

4th     Fall Series: Races 3 & 4
18th    Fall Series: Races 5 & 6

NOVEMBER

1st     Fall Series: Races 7 & 8

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I want to thank Donna Blake and Kay Vaughan for their help with the Christmas Banquet. From all comments I have heard, everyone had a great time. We have already firmed up the date of December 13 for the 1997 Banquet, so put it on your calendar now.

Sign up sheets for refreshments for the monthly meetings will be available at the January meeting.

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Our first monthly membership meeting for 1997 will be
Tuesday night, January 21st,
with various club members sharing their
"Boat Maintenance Tips".

The February 18th program
will be a
"Swap Meet".
Here is your chance to
trade your junk for someone else's treasure.

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(The following is an article written by Marshall's dad for his sailing club newsletter. Since many of you know Scott and so many have asked about him, we thought you would enjoy reading this.)

How many of you button-down collar and briefcase types out there have dreamed in your wildest flights of fancy of ever sailing off into the sunset over the horizon, and to just keep on sailing for weeks and months? Even to the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere.

Our Scott has! Scott is Bennie and my 26-year-old grandson, who is alternately a professional sailor or a beach bum, depending upon whether he has a boat or not. Scott came by sailing naturally, having grown up in the Venture / MacGregor Yacht Club of Dallas. His parents, Marshall and Carol McKenzie, are both superb sailors and have the trophies in every room of their house to prove it. They were high school sweethearts and all of us, including Bennie and I, learned to sail in our little 7-foot wooden sailing pram before Marshall went off to the U.S. Navy.

Scott had a go at Junior College, but that really wasn't for him. A succession of small jobs finally landed him in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, where he signed on as Mate on the "Sol Amante," a 50-foot sailing vessel in charter service. After a month of this, the Captain/Owner turned the boat over to him to Captain, which he did for a year, taking charters out for a week or more or on dive trips and sunset cruises. He also did all the mechanical maintenance, varnishing, and bottom painting while careening on a sand bar.

But then the wanderlust overtook him, and he made a boat delivery to Panama and secured a berth on "The Great Escape" and other vessels which took him through the Panama Canal to Aruba and ultimately to Antigua and the sun-drenched islands of the Lesser Antilles.

Scott has made many, many passages as part of a delivery crew. It seems that the rich, and I'm talking here the really, really, filthy rich, want their boats in the Islands in the winter and in New England in the summer. Can you think of anything better than spending your winters in Antigua and your summers in Newport? Our Scott has. One such owner had his 70-foot "Donnybrook" brought up from St. Vincent, West Indies, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a single race --- a race which never came off! On the return passage to Tortola, Scott asked his Captain if he would like to have another, unpaid, crew member, his Dad and our son, Marshall. Scott then went home to Garland, TX to visit, and then he and his Dad went back to Fort Lauderdale for the return voyage to Tortola. You just can't beat that for breaking the winter monotony of working long hours at AT&T!

Scott has made many boat deliveries since, as well as taking many groups on charter trips in the Virgin Islands, and he has been part of the crew on many sailing races in the Caribbean. His longest passage has been when he was on the crew that delivered the 83-foot maxi-racer "Matador II" from Newport, RI, to Sydney, Australia. An 83-foot boat is a really big boat for the crew of only 8 to handle. It was over 10,000 nautical miles and they were at sea 2 months, only making landfall twice, once when transiting the Panama Canal and again when they called from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Later, I asked Scott how he liked Australia. He said, "don't know, I flew home the next day, a plane ticket was part of my pay!"

Scott then spent time in Newport, Rhode Island, working in the shipyards doing boat repairs as well as making more deliveries. He is currently back in the Caribbean working on "Itasca," a 176' converted salvage tug, now a pleasure craft, and is presently enroute to the Grenadines.

We really worry about Scott, of course we do. I worry about the twin pitfalls of drugs and AIDS, but so far he has had the strength of character to avoid both. Strangely enough, I do not worry about the perils of the sea. It is his chosen profession, his passion and his dream. I wish him well on every journey, that is all I can do.

He is doing what most sailors only fantasize about. He is unfettered and as free as the wind. He has only to hoist his sea bag on his shoulder and he is off on yet another adventure. Money, no, but there are some things that money just can't buy -- dreams that become a reality.

I was talking to Scott's brother Chad, a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. I said maybe Scott is storing up experiences that will one day enable him to write the great American novel. I hope so.

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