FROM THE EDITOR...
By Steve VanderVoort, Tiller Time Editor
August was really a hot one, wasn't it? For those of you who've been out on the lake frequently this past month, the weather has seemed a little strange at times, beautiful sunny days followed by heat waves that at times seemed intolerable, and then the thunder storms that raced through the city and over the lake. While these quickly changing conditions created some occasional challenges for us sailors, we seem to have managed them well, without any serious damage to our fleet.
The days are getting shorter, though, and that means fall is approaching. Let's take advantage of what's left of the the season where, hopefully the weather conditions will moderate and we can close out the year with some good memories of the fun times on the water.
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NEW WEATHER BUOY BENEFITS CHICAGO SAILORS
By John Lemon
The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) has recently installed a new weather buoy about 1.5 miles due east of Navy Pier. This buoy fills in a critical gap in our weather knowledge along the lakefront, as it provides real time readings of wind speed and direction, as well as wave height, wave period, and wave direction, close to shore. The wind sensor is 5.5' off the water surface, compared to the sensor at the Harrison-Dever crib, which is 85' above the water surface.
The buoy is listed in the NOAA National Data Buoy Center as "Station 45198 - Chicago Buoy" (www.NDBC.noaa.gov), so the data is available to anyone with a smart phone or tablet.
This means that sailors can get accurate information about not only wind speed at the surface, but also wave height and direction, just before departure. Taken together with the crib information and the IISG buoy at Wilmette, skippers will have accurate information of weather conditions at the time of departure. We recommend that skippers use this data when filling out the pre-sail checklist.
The link to the buoy will be added to the Sail Chicago landing page to make it easier to find.
IISG archives buoy data for the past 45 days, so this should help in incident investigations.
Here is the link: NDBC - Station 45198 Recent Data
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SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY CRUISE OUTINGS
By Rachel Granneman
 We held our first two sets of Community Cruise Outings (CCOs) in August as part of Sail Chicago's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiative. One set of CCOs was for families from the Jackson Park Yacht Club Foundation youth sailing program, and the other was for members of Sending in Color, a group focused on increasing DEI in rock climbing. Both sails were a great success! We took out a total of 30 people on two Saturdays, introducing a diverse group to the wonderful world of sailing! A huge thanks to the 14 Sail Chicago volunteers who made this community outreach possible!
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HIGHER WINDS ARE ABLOWIN'
By Matt Stuczynski, Lead Instructor
Now that the usually higher winds of Fall in Chicago are nearly upon us, here is a reminder that our Sail Chicago wind guidelines strongly recommend that the engine be running and ready to be IMMEDIATELY engaged, if needed, within the harbor while departing and returning to the can. Although we maintain our ideal that all sailors should be able to sail on and off the can when needed (e.g. if the engine fails), the boat's engine should be used to avoid collision and anytime, in the skipper's judgment, that conditions do not permit safe sailing on and off the can and within the inner harbor. As a reminder, here are the guidelines below.
- Up to 15 knots, acceptable conditions for all boats. (15 knots MAX for single-handling).
- 15 - 20 knots, proceed with caution for more experienced skippers.
- Greater than 20 knots, don't go out or return to harbor once that wind level is reached.
- It is strongly recommended that the engines on the Colgates and Rhodes be running anytime the boat is between the mooring can and the inner-harbor mouth. A trained member of the crew should be at the engine and be ready to engage it immediately if needed.
- The ultimate decision to sail or not to sail is the skipper's. Should a skipper not observe the above guidelines and an accident occurs, existing rules and regulations provide for possible Board responses. Every skipper should review Sail Chicago Rules and Regulations, Section 5, paragraph 5, section 2 for possible consequences.
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SPOTLIGHT ON VOLUNTEERS
By Norris Larson
This month we focus the spotlight on another emergency at sea deftly handled by long time SC member Dan Stein. On a Sunday afternoon in early June Dan was teaching a First Mate Class on Meridian when she was dismasted due to the failure of the port chain plate. They were approaching the outer harbor from further out on the lake on a port tack when the mast went over the starboard side. No one was injured and Dan put out a “pan-pan” indicating serious difficulty in a situation where there was no immediate danger to life or the vessel. (If anyone had been seriously injured or Meridian were sinking, the proper call would have been “mayday-mayday.”)
Dan recalls hearing a loud “pop.” No one had any idea of what caused the noise. Half-a-minute or so later they heard a second more metallic sound, followed by a “swoosh,” and then the rig was in the water. Dan said (expletive). He immediately deployed the anchor and issued the pan-pan. Both crew, students Natalia Povarova and Jeffrey Rinkenberger, responded well to the crises and are to be commended for providing effective assistance to Dan.
The Coast Guard and the Chicago police water patrol both responded to the distress call. The crew and Dan and the boat were safely returned to the pump out dock in Monroe Harbor. (Docking at the tender dock is generally not allowed.) The Coast Guard issued a "No Violation" report resulting in no fines after affirming there were current flares and a horn on board.
Dan first joined Sail Chicago in 1989 when it was still a subsidiary of American Youth Hostels (AYH), Chicago chapter. He had learned to sail as a child and earned his skipper card his first season. He ran the tiller time program for the next two years. To facilitate student access to the program he set up the “Tiller Phone Line” using the answering service Sail Chicago relied on back then before we went digital. Dan then started teaching in his third year with Sail Chicago and has continued to teach at least one course a season since then except during four seasons when he trained and crewed on Mac races.
Dan earned his Basic Keelboat Instructor certificate in 2003 as part of the second group to take the three-day U.S. Sailing exam. He was named instructor of year in 2004 for his Pew-Sail Orientation demonstration of how sailboats work using a fan and boat model among other props. In 2019 he was honored as the volunteer of the year.
Dan lives in an East Rogers Park apartment on the lake front. He is an avid paddle boarder and kayaker and launches his crafts from the beach at the end of Touhy Avenue. The beach there, at the north end of Loyola Park, is one of several stops on the Lake Michigan Water Trail.
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TENDER ETIQUETTE
By Rachel Granneman
We want to remind our members about proper etiquette aboard the tenders at Monroe Harbor. The tender drivers’ job of holding the tender in place next to a moored vessel can be difficult, especially during high winds or heavy chop. Failure to follow these rules can not only frustrate the tender drivers but can also create safety issues, and can force the tender to do additional passes to pick up all passengers.
Please always comply with the following:
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As soon as the tender pulls up next to your boat, be ready to promptly move from the tender to your boat, or from your boat to the tender.
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When you are on the tender and the tender is pulled up next to a boat, do not try to assist by holding onto the other boat. This is not helpful and you likely are actually pulling against the tender driver. The tender driver is making sure the bows of the boats are together to allow people to transfer. Pulling the boats together farther aft often pulls the bows apart.
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If you are the skipper, make sure everyone on your boat understands rules #1 and #2.
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SAIL MORE OFTEN WITH SHARE-A-SAIL
By Andy Devoto, Share-a-Sail Coordinator
If you're a skipper looking for crew (or are just willing to share an otherwise open seat) or if you're not yet a skipper and are looking for more time on the water, you can reach out to other sailors via Share-a-Sail. Join the Sail Chicago Slack Group and chat your requests in the #share-a-sail channel. Slack is a group messaging app that Sail Chicago uses for general communications, maintenance and other groups, and we're excited to include a Share-a-Sail channel as well.
Then you're free to list requests or reply to others.
As we've used in the past, you can also join the Share-a-Sail google group and communicate over email.
- Go to the Sail Chicago Share-a-Sail Google Group page: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/shareasail
- Click "Subscribe to this group"
- As a group-member, email shareasail@googlegroups.com with the details of your request (your name, date and time of sail, boat size).
- All members of the google group will receive every email sent to the group email address. Replies will only go to the original sender.
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SAIL CHICAGO REMINDERS
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Missing Previous Issues of Between the Sheets?
You can always find the current issue and an archive of previous issues of Between the Sheets at the first (and open to the public) page of the Sail Chicago website.Look under "News/Newsletter."
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Click on the links below to find more information about Sail Chicago.
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