Yesterday afternoon marked the first sail by yacht club members. The Pondit, DPYC Commodore, and Joel, DPYC Vice Commodore [aside – Joel is responsible for all vice at the DPYC], launched their sailing vessels at the club mooring on Dickerson Pond. There was a brisk wind blowing in from the south and with the assistance of cabin boy Jack and inspired by the lady Pamela both the SS FAHEG and SS Pamela were christened in the clear waters of our pond. As these two fine sailing vessels left tacking gently against the southerly breeze, champagne was quickly uncorked and all by the lad Jack, started their imbibing.
Now perhaps I have failed to mention that both the SS FAHEG and SS Pamela are model sailing vessels and are controlled using radio signals by their captains and crews who remain at the mooring site. Another possible oversight is that neither the commodore nor commodore of vice has ever sailed previous to this afternoon. We have carefully studied Sailing for Dummies, K.I.S.S a Guide to Sailing and A Night to Remember. These fine references have told us what to wear when sailing, how to load and unload our sail boats from our boat trailers, how to carefully board our sailing vessels, what emergency gear to have on board during our sail, how to raise and lower our sails and most importantly not to sail near icebergs. I do believe there were a few paragraphs on how to handle the tiller and trim our sails in the first two references. We did not read some of those sections, and as you can see from the pictures, careful attention to clothing recommendations was not heeded.
We did, however, sail with few incidents. SS FAHEG did not have her jib sail properly rigged and limped in for repair once and the jib sail was dragging in the water at the end of her maiden voyage. SS Pamela spend the first fifteen minutes of the sail within twenty feet of the dock making several, no making many, small circles. It turned out that the vessel did not have its tiller fastened tightly to its rudder. Both vessels only collided once, but no one on board [There is no one on board!] or at the mooring site was injured. We estimated that SS FAHEG was sailing at least two hundred feet from the mooring site with satisfactory radio reception.
The entertainment committee did not bring nearly enough champagne and both captains and crew, except for cabin boy Jack, were forced to switch to beer to keep from dehydrating in the scorching sunlight. While gathering our equipment and empties after the sail, the SS FAHEG was blown off her mooring perch, a three foot high stone wall, and suffered significant damage. The boat is in the dry dock at this time but the shipyard foreman assures me all will be well by tomorrow.
The Dickerson Pond Yacht Club is opened to new members at the fancy of the membership committee. Fees are negotiable and separate discussions with the commodore or commodore of vice could lead to a more favorable membership fee. Please remember we accept no power vessels and we rely on natural gases for our propulsion. Sail On!
Below are some photographs taken by Pamela at our sailing event:
SS FAHEG at the Dickerson Pond Yacht Club mooring site prior to her christening. Commodore of Vice, Joel, is holding the SS Pamela.
Champagne in hand and controls mostly ignored our ships sail on the afternoon breeze.
Commodore Pondit moving the SS FAHEG a port on a quarter lee. Notice the straight back and attentive eyes.
The Commodore of Vice is still drinking champagne and has handed over the tiller of the SS Pamela to cabin boy Jack who no longer has the boat sailing in small circles near the dock.
Both vessels sailing peacefully about 150 feet off shore.
SS FAHEG being brought to shore for rerigging her jib sail.
SS FAHEG in dry dock after the stone wall incident. Thank the Lord for Crazy Glue!
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