Well, it’s the end of the year and pretty soon the sun will be taking a turn back toward us. Rather, of course, we will be taking the turn that brings our side of the world to the sunny side. We were extraordinarily blessed with a warm a delightful fall. None of us can complain that winter started too early this year. The bets are out on whether we will be having a cold or warm, wet or dry winter. Juju Senfft is certainly looking forward to snow as she didn’t grow up with it. I myself prefer snow to cold so I vote for warm wet winter, but not everyone likes the snow. We are inclined to want to call our snow days during the summer as we love to get outside, and on the water, when we have perfect days. So much for a discussion of the weather, everyone agrees that summer here is too short. This is definitely the time of the year when we get ready for all the stuff we shove into our too short boating season. At 4 years old we are really starting to look like a real organization. We are developing real long term plans and figuring out what we need to add to the programming to make ourselves more relevant to the community. The team in the office is strong; developing programs, and community outreach. Matt Wierzbach and Whitney Kent are figuring out how we work more closely with Sheboygan Youth Sailing Center so that our programming is complimentary, while developing a better understanding of who our audience/clients are and how to better serve them. Lisa Hartman is taking on a lot of the responsibilities I had shouldered previously while doing an awesome job with community outreach.
Geoff Rudolph (Fleet Maintenance Director), along with Jason Berdyck and Tony Orlebeke, have their plate really full and are still making plans for our new boat building. They are doing a great job working with the limited space they currently have and dealing with an extraordinary repair list. One of the things they discovered was that the trailer that we use down on the waterfront had a bunch of rotted wood and rust issues, so they have been rebuilding it. We had a few bad incidents with the boats this last summer which added another level of complexity to the usual maintenance. Also they still have to get Katie, our new adaptive boat, ready to be launched in spring. We really appreciate all the boat guys do as we couldn’t do anything without them. Juju and Whitney jump in to help with the boats as well. We did get our industrial sewing machine repaired so that we can do the easy repairs to our sails, saving on repair bills.
There will be a number of classes over the winter, taught by various members of the team. Please see what we are offering and join us, and let us know if you have ideas to make what we do better.
I wish all of you the most blessed of Holiday Seasons, Leslie