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New Guy's Guide To The Arizona Yacht Club
By Mike Ferring
Mike is our Junior Staff Commodore (immediate past Commodore), but he wrote this in 2000, when he joined the club. He's kept it up-to-date since then.
Want to know what to expect from AYC? I wrote this as an AYC New Guy, so maybe
my experience can help you.
 I
first ran into some AYC members at the annual winter boat show. I picked
my way through bass boats and Sleek machines toward the only masts in
the place and met Tom Errickson of the Sailboat
Shop. Tom explained that there really was sailing in the desert
and he even knew a band of sailing nuts to hang out with. I ran into three
of them later, got excited as they talked about the club, and picked up
a Compass Points newsletter.
After a half dozen visits to the Sailboat Shop, I had my boat and began
poking around this Web site to learn more about the club. I dropped in
on one of the monthly meetings and joined days later.
Monthly Meetings
I think the monthly meetings are the best way to connect. They're always
on the second Tuesday of the month. The 19th Tee at Rolling
Hills Golf Course is a little hard to find the first time, so check the
map. It's next to the Phoenix Zoo and almost across Van Buren Avenue
from the Hall of Flame firefighter's museum. There are two entrances
to the 19th Tee, one somewhere in the center of the building, through
some iron gates and the other at the south end of the building.
Arrive by 6:30 or 6:45 pm in order to check in and grab a beer or something to eat if you like (burgers with fries seem to be popular and I recommend the Greek salad). As you walk into the room, chances are you'll be greeted by membership
people Matt Rands and Wendy Larsen. They'll check you in, give you a name
tag and some propaganda, and introduce you to some people who will introduce
you to more people and you're on your way.
We've just created a system to try to make sure every new person is properly greeted and introduced to members. I know it's hard for me to walk into a room of strangers and try to be comfortable; now we're working to make it easy for you. (If you have any trouble, please let me know!)
The 19th Tee is a friendly bar and restaurant. (And there's no smoking; smokers go outside.) Meeting attendance varies a lot, from
about 40 to over 100. You'll find families with kids. A wide range of
ages. More men than women.
At 7 p.m. somebody will stroll to the microphone
and begin a meeting that lasts an hour to an
hour and a half. There are reports from various officers and people planning
events followed by a program of some kind. It's a little rowdy, but it's usually a relaxed good time.
Zillions of Events
I've been surprised by how many events there are. There's something happening
all the time. People who have been in the club a while know about all
the regular, recurring events, so I've found it's a little hard for a
newcomer to know everything that's going on. They seem to assume you already
know the drill. I'll help address that by keeping this Web site current,
and it's a good idea to get on the "Listbot" e-mail list, because you'll
read things you might miss otherwise. (Join on the home page of this Web
site. You don't have to be an AYC member.)
Scan the calendar and you'll spot the big "anchor" events. There's a huge Birthday Regatta the first of the year that in 2007 raised $78,000 for The Leukemia
and Lymphoma Society. The Tall Cactus cruise in April is a lot of fun. The Commodore's Celebration in May is the year's social highlight, where you'll see
some of this bunch actually wearing "business casual" clothes. There's a cruise
to Catalina after July 4th, complete with parties and gag races. There's
a campout in late summer. There are two complete schedules of races on Lake Pleasant, one in the fall, the other in the winter and spring. Oodles
of races on Tempe Town Lake nearly year around, including the "Heat Stroke" series all summer.
Around these main events you'll find a constant buzz of smaller ones.
Fleet parties. Informal races run just for fun, without trophies. "Raft-ups"
of members on weekends. Cruises in Mexico. Weekend work sessions to spruce
up the Juniors' boats or the Committee Boat.
The Arizona Sailing
Foundation (ASF) is a nonprofit arm of AYC that specializes in teaching
sailing to adults and kids. ASF has Start
Sailing Right! classes a couple times a year and there's a great
Junior
program to teach kids how to sail.
Racing
I'd never raced until I joined AYC, but I thought it would be fun and
a good way to meet people and a way to learn how to be a better sailor.
Instead of taking out my own boat, I hitchhiked on other people's boats.
They didn't seem to mind too much that I kept asking which way the course
went and what we were supposed to do next. Sometimes we sat becalmed,
cursing the wind gods and watching a wisp of smoke curl off the end of
a stick of incense. Other times we screamed along at wild angles, trying
to crank a winch and douse a spinnaker at the same time. In other words,
I had a ball. I highly recommend it.
If you want to go racing on someone else's boat, just register
as a "cling-on" and ask around for rides. Don't wait for them to ask
you; you need to ask them. If you're experienced, they'll snatch you up.
If you're not, do it anyway. These people love this sport and want to
help you enjoy it too.
The races themselves are pretty relaxed, at least on the surface. Some
of the sailors are very skilled and some of the boats are tricked out
with Kevlar sails and carbon fiber masts, but the bulk of the people are
just out there for the fun of it. Protests are minimal. Aside from some
trophies, the main prize is being able to talk about it over a beer at
the end of the day.
If you'd like to take the helm at races but are a bit rusty at it or
have never done it before, there are a couple good options. One is the
Challenger
Fleet where you can learn to race in a low-pressure atmosphere and
be guided by an experienced racer as a coach. The other is an "adopt
a boat" program, which is available at Tempe Town Lake (TTL for short).
You can use an AYC Sunfish or Capri 14.2 free of charge to race in TTL races. We're
hoping that you'll also want to keep it well maintained and sparkling.
Ask one of the membership people about how to play.
Volunteer
Running a club with this many events means relying on gobs of volunteers.
Everybody pitches in. The membership people will ask you to take some
job or other and offer the club "two or three hours a week." Try it. It's
a good way to get to know how the club works and to meet people. If you've
ever tried to run an organization with volunteers, you know what it's
like. If you do the work, you'll be a prize.
A large number of very capable people put in a lot of hours (exceeding
the minimum weekly requirement by a bunch). They work hard and get little
recognition, but do it because they care about the club. We're not stopping
world hunger here, but I think it's impressive.
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