FROM THE EDITOR...
**By Steve VanderVoort, Telltale Editor**

We’ve got another successful sailing season under our belts. This year about three-hundred-and-fifty members participated in a variety of activities offered by Sail Chicago. Thanks at least in part to the “Care for our Colgates” program and a tightening of our wind guidelines, we had fewer incidents and accidents than in past years. All in all, it’s been a really successful year for us. And we couldn’t have done it without you, our member-volunteers, who have logged in countless hours making our programs work and bringing the joy of sailing to our greater Chicago community. Let’s congratulate ourselves on a job well done!

VOLUNTEER REPORTING IS HERE!

By Gerry Stacy, Chairman

Our 2022 volunteer season ended on October 31, 2022. THANK YOU to all our members who gave so much of their time to keep our organization running. We all enjoyed another great summer of sailing because of YOU.

Now that the season is over, there’s one more job that we need you to do and that’s to complete your volunteer reports. This is a really important step in our volunteering process because it:

Helps us maintain an accurate record of who volunteered in every position.
Helps us confirm that you met your 2022 service time requirement.
Lets us know if you want to continue in your current volunteer positions in 2023.
Gives us an estimate of how much time our members are spending volunteering.

In the next few weeks, you’ll receive an email from the volunteering team listing all the positions you filled during the 2022 season. You’ll be able to click through on each position, provide an estimate of the hours you spent doing that work, and tell us if you want to keep working in that job in 2023. And if we missed any volunteering that you did, you’ll be able to tell us that too.

Please make sure you complete your reports as soon as you can after you receive them. After November 30, we will close the reporting process, record service time flags for 2022, and open the volunteer site to signups for 2023.

And if you have any questions about volunteering at Sail Chicago or the reporting process, please reach out to the volunteer team at volunteer@sailchicago.org.

CPR/FIRST AID CLASS PREPARES INSTRUCTORS FOR EMERGENCIES

By Monte Lewis

In October, we had 14 instructors attend a CPR/First Aid class. For our US Sailing certified Basic Keelboat Instructors (BKI) CPR/First Aid is required every three years to keep their certification. Kim Bell associated with the AHA along with her assistants, Paula and Mary kept the session interactive and engaging. The class included the most up-to-date information about providing CPR and using the AED.

SAIL CHICAGO WELCOMES NEW 2022 COLGATE SKIPPERS

By Matt Stuczynski, Lead Instructor

Many hearty congratulations to this season's new Skippers: Diana Armacanqui, Dominik Arndt, Aravind Athiviraham, Tamar Heitz, Ashley Lutterly, Christina Mosnick, Chad Skarpiak, Doug Sink, Jake Sprecher, Jacob Worely-Hood (returning) and Jan Vit. Instructor Daniel Hazlett has organized a New Skippers Happy Hour on Sunday, October 16th from 6-9 p.m. at D4 Irish Pub. Hope to see you new SC Skippers along with "Skippers in progress" there that night!

As a new Skippers, keep in mind that you must sail with another Sail Chicago Skipper and crew appropriate to your skill level and experience during your first twelve months as a Colgate 26 Skipper. More than anything, simply getting time on boats and then time on the tiller, getting practical hands-on experience is the best thing to do. Of course, that goes hand-in-hand with more book-learning about sailing skills and best boat handling practices that you can learn on your own time whenever you can.

For boat time, please think about Sail Chicago programs such as Tiller Times, Share-a-Sail, Member Cruise Outings, help with Maintenance crews/deliveries and, of course, our Racing Program. For book learning, try to become as familiar as you can with the Sail Chicago Rules and Regulations, on-the-water Skipper Skills Standards, the U.S. Sailing Basic Keelboat text, videos and other material on the U.S. Sailing website, weather apps. etc.

When you sign the "Sail Chicago Keelboat Skipper Personal Statement", you agree to the idea that receiving Sail Chicago Colgate Skipper status does not guarantee that you are a great skipper, but rather, indicates that you are "trusted to continue learning while sailing the Colgate 26". Sailing is a thinking-person's sport where the learning never ends, which I believe, is why so many of us love sailing so much and it makes us want to continue learning for a lifetime. See you on the water; we all look forward to continuing learning with you.

VISIT TO THE CHICAGO MARITIME MUSEUM JANUARY 21

By Deb and Jack Griffin, Social Coordinators

We are planning a get together at the Chicago Maritime Museum in Bridgeport on January 21 from 4:00pm-7:00pm! More details to follow, but mark your calendar now!

SPOTLIGHT ON VOLUNTEERS

By Norris Larson

This month we feature two new members, Tamar Heitz and Adarsh Shetty, who saw volunteering as an opportunity to learn about boats and not as a chore to satisfy their Service Time.

Tamar Heitz dreamt about sailing as a young girl growing up in landlocked Switzerland. There are lakes there, but she dreamed of sailing out-of-sight of land. She and her husband Georg moved to Chicago in 2020. She was excited about being next to our Great Lake and went sailing several times during the 2021 season with a friend who owned a boat. She looked into Sail Chicago and was impressed by its community mission supported by the cooperative volunteer efforts of its members, so she joined this year. She skipped Crew class based her skills acquired sailing with her friend and started in a First Mate class. She sailed on some 15 Tiller Times, mostly in the afternoons and passed Skipper Prep class. Next season she plans to sail more with the goal of developing sound habits of sea-sense (seamanship) and taking a Cruising class.

Tamar began the season volunteering in the boat yard, to clean, wax, and polish the topsides of Colgates. She and other volunteers inspected sails and worked on other tasks as needed. At the end of the season she helped un-step masts at two sessions and crewed on two river trips to the yard with Richard Costello and Gary Stacy.

Tamar and her husband Georg Heitz live in the South Loop. She bikes to Monroe Harbor and their apartment is high enough so she can see our boats in the harbor. Tamar is on an informal sabbatical from a management position in a commercial firm. Tamar and Georg love Chicago and so do family and friends who visit from Switzerland.

Adarsh Shetty became interested in sailing during visits to Belmont Harbor. He took some lessons with Chicago Sailing before it went under during the pandemic and liked it instantly. Last year he took a few lessons at the Columbia Yacht Club sailing school. An instructor there suggested he look into Sail Chicago. Adarsh did and liked what he saw. This year he joined us and completed a Crew class, joined the racing program, and sailed on about ten Tiller Times. Adarsh was unable to get into a First Mate class as they all filled up before he was ready and he looks forward to earning his skipper ticket in 2023. Adarsh is not new to outdoor activities. He skis and enjoys camping and hiking in national and state parks.

In his first season with us, Adarsh took advantage of several opportunities to learn about boats. Towards the end of the season he served on the maintenance team for Recess with team leader Ben Carls. At the end of the season he helped un-step masts on two occasions and made two river trips to deliver Colgates to the yard for the winter.

Adarsh came to Chicago three years ago, first settling in Lakeview, not far from Belmont Harbor. He currently lives in a condo unit on the Gold Coast, not far from Monroe Harbor. He is a data architect with a background in mathematics and works for a financial firm.

SAIL CHICAGO REMINDERS

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