Commodore's Comments
by Ted Avellone, Commodore 2025!
Greetings Club Members!
FESTOONS!
What a fantastic Wind Ceremony we just had! Thanks to everyone who pitched in! Great food, great music, great bonfire, and even mother nature gave her (hopefully) last coldish blow of the season. Sometimes I wonder whether we are a sailboard club that happens to
have a great band among its members, or if there is a great band whose members happen to windsurf. I remain continuously amazed by the quality of our FESTOONS performers. And to top it all off, THE TRAINING TRAILER IS BACK! And it’s better than ever. I heard it even has decorative flamingos on it now. And a veranda-like bench around it! Will wonders never cease? In all seriousness, we all owe a huge THANK YOU to all of those who helped with the trailer refurbishing. Physically, mentally, and monetarily. It was a huge undertaking and many members came together to get it done, ESPECIALLY the ROADIES and the other usual suspects who always seem to be there doing a lot of heavy lifting when the call goes out for help.
See you all out on the beach and in the water …and on “rounding the Tripods” trips! (Hint hint see the “Honorable Shellbacks” article.)
Ted Avellone
Commodore 2025
Shell Point Sailboard Club
APRIL 2025
Trailer Saga Continued . . .
March 19th was the Big day where we actually moved the trailer back to the beach. We first had to relocate all the concrete blocks we had accumulated down to the beach to use as support pilings and the mats the tires were going to roll on and rest on. A little after 1pm, Cracker rolled in with his truck and the trailer was hitched up. We were all thankful to see that the tongue weight was not bad since the suspension on the truck moved very little. The tricky part in moving the trailer is the exit from Snug harbor which goes up to Shell Point road and then, when on the right side of the road goes down, creating lots of stress points at the hitch location. Why Shell Point road is banked there when the speed limit is 15mph is anybody’s guess.
When the truck started rolling, we collectively held our breath as Cracker masterfully negotiated the exit and headed down the road reaching speeds of 5mph. He headed up into Aloi’s driveway and deftly backed the trailer up to where it is located. Work then began on securing the trailer, moving the front porch back and the drying platform.
Though there is still some work to do, the ROADIES were given a break on the following Wednesday, giving Tina, Joe, Perry, and BobG an opportunity to come down, clean out the trailer, and rig the training equipment. In cleaning out the trailer it was evident a few mice used the facility during the colder months as we threw away quite a bit of nesting material. We removed everything, blew out all the sand and other debris on the floor, shortened a couple shelves and sorted through everything with some stuff going to the trash pile. We were able to get the training equipment rigged up and stored back in the trailer.
The ROADies returned to SP on Thursday, April 3, to clean up the messes they made in getting the trailer ready and moving the past commodores lounge into place. Tools and Huh? had their trailers and all the metal debris was loaded on one and wood on the other. Fractions, Suds, and Wanker came along to the dump as we made our way to the Wakulla County landfill. On our return, we went to the beach where we joined up with Polack to move the past Commodores lounge into place, which is heavy! Thankfully, since it was a windy day, Jeff Georgas and Paul Mihail where sailing and came into shore to help along with another young man standing on the beach named Drew.
Still need to rebuild the outside board racks and maybe reconfigure the inside trailer to accommodate more boards.
SPSC Club Minutes, Tuesday, 3/11/2025
Place: District 850
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm with 19 members present.
Minutes from February meeting approved at 7:01 with nary a dissenting voice.
Commodore: Going fishing then sailing because SPRING IS HERE! Thinking maybe the folks overseeing Rabbit island have been DOGEd so visiting may be easy.
Vice: IGN
Scribe: Thanked Wright for his help in writing the article about the training trailer upgrade.
Purser:
-
The trailer is looking like the fixes may come in around 3.5k, well under the 5k budgeted for.
-
Taxes have been paid which we owe on the shirt sales from the Wind Ceremony and the Endless Summer.
-
Memberships stand at 87.
Past Commodore: Thanked folks for reaching out when her mother had passed.
Discussion items
Training Trailer: Wright spoke about much that was done. Made benches out of the 4x6 beams that were used to elevate the trailer to put the new wheels and such underneath. Spoke on where it will sit on the beach and was thankful for all the folks that worked on it.
Wind Ceremony: Order your shirts on-line. A budget of 4k was approved for the Wind Ceremony
Beach Workdays: Trailer rebuild has consumed a lot of time so those workdays have been put off for now but coming soon. Commodore noticed more sand leaving beach.
Smith Regatta: Wright says the regatta needs someone to chair registration.
Program:
-
After much finagling with the projector since there was not a USB-C connector, Bob Andrews brought up pictures from his phone and spoke eloquently about his trip to the South Pacific. Very entertaining with many of us wishing or hoping to go there someday.
Adjourned when all was said and done at 8:02.
Upcoming Events:
-
Wind Ceremony, March 22, Chair: Rick Upson
-
Smith Regatta, April 25-27, Chair: Andrea
-
Rum ‘n’ Root Beer, August 3, Chair: TBA
-
Atlanta Fall Classic, October 4-5, Chair: Chris Voith
-
Endless Summer Sailboard Classic, October 17-19, Chair: Ted Avellone
-
Christmas Party, December 13, Chair: Rick Upson
-
Festivus, December 21, Chair: TBA