Sailing Awards and Winter Meeting

Happy almost March! For those who couldn’t be with us at the annual meeting I’m happy to report it was well attended and all our awards recipients were there in person to receive their awards. It was my honor to present The Wesley C Morck Award for promoting WRYC and Sailing throughout the Southern Chesapeake Bay, to seasoned member and former Fleet Capt. Scott T. Besides Chairing the Gov Cup Regatta last year, Scott also participated in the Cape Charles Cup Race in his Alberg 30 and continues to promote our Clubs involvement with sailing thru his postings and shared articles using social media. Congrats Scott!

I was also honored to present The Sailor of the Year Award to newcomer Stephanie P. who has been a wonderful asset to the Club and helped all year to promote both our Sunday sailing as well as the adult sailing Saturdays. In addition, Stephanie crewed in the Gov Cup Regatta, Albacore Nationals and Hampton OD Nationals, and helped organize a women’s sailing group I’m calling “Women on the Ware”. Steph and her husband Gary joined just last year! Congrats to Stephanie and all the award recipients.

In addition, we held our annual winter sailing org meeting on February 19th and were fortunate to have 15 members in attendance. We were able to line out our sailing season for the year, discuss a reservation calendar we’ll be rolling out soon, use of our keel boats and some cruises around the bay, as well as setting dates for spring cleaning, boat prep, and organizing our sail loft. Several new members stepped up to take Chair positions and I want to specifically recognize those folks for volunteering:

• Dinghy Sailing/Loft - Stephanie P.

• Boat Maintenance - David W.

• Adult Sailing - Joe M.

• Cruising - Scott T.

I’ll be taking on R/C duties and helping the other Chairs manage things throughout the year. We have some seminars planned around racing rules and hopefully some more clinics to set up. MORE TO COME!

Respectfully

Jim Garrett - Fleet

2021 Jr. Sailor of The Year

Each year since 1994, the WRYC Board of Directors has presented an award to the Junior Sailor that best exemplifies not only sailing skill & character on the water but is an example of these traits on shore. With three full Jr. Sailing sessions and several young sailors participating in the Regattas that were held in 2021, there was a sizable pool of young sailors from which to choose. However, one experienced sailor who was enrolled in our Jr. Sailing Camp stood out for several reasons:

• She showed a genuine love of passing along her knowledge of sailing to new sailors - both on land and on boat - by asking different beginning sailors to crew for her.

• She planned to race in the Jr. Division of the Governor’s Cup and could have asked any number of experience sailors to join her. However, she heard about a novice sailor who was extremely eager to participate in the regatta but who lacked the skills to captain his own boat. So she asked this young man to join her and they sailed together finishing just outside of the top 3 spots.

This kind of character is what we love to see, not only in the sport of sailing but in life itself.

The Ware River Yacht Club presented the 2021 Junior Sailor of the Year award to Naomi D. at the Annual Meeting on February 12th. . Best of all, Naomi and her entire family came down from Purcellville, VA for her award presentation.

2021 Booster Award

Thank you Harry and Autumn T., the WRYC Boosters of the Year for 2021. Your hard work and dedication, getting involved and helping out whenever needed is exactly what WRYC needs to keep it alive and vibrant for the next 50 years!

We also look forward to having Autumn as the new Social Chair. She has some really fun ideas for upcoming events to get the new year rolling!

Wesley C Morck Award - Jeffrey Wettig

From L to R: Chris Smith, Scott Titus, Jeffrey Wettig, Joe Morgan, Jim Garrett

The WRYC has long been a way for sailors to get together and enjoy the sport of sailing in and around the Ware River, Mobjack Bay and lower Chesapeake Bay and tributaries. In recent years the club has increased efforts to make sailing accessible to as many people as possible. Adult sailing classes, the youth sailing program, the Sunday Sailing Series, and access to three keel boats make sailing very easy to access for club members and the community as well. Why then do we rarely see sailboats on the Ware and Mobjack? That and many other topics were taken up during a recent podcast interview featuring the Ware River Yacht Club.

At this year’s WRYC Annual Meeting, the 2019 WESLEY C. MORCK AWARD was presented To Jeffrey Wettig, host of the Shooting the Breeze Sailing Podcast. The Wesley C. Morck Award is presented in recognition of contributions to sailing on the Bay. Jeffrey’s podcast features interviews from a range of guests, but started as a way for Jeff to tell the stories of fellow sailors around his club, Hances Point YC on the northern Bay. Many of his episodes have featured sailing adventures on the Bay and serve to highlight local Chesapeake Bay sailors.

When Jeff was down at the WRYC to receive his award, he graciously offered to feature the club on his podcast. Joining Jeff and I were Joe Morgan, Jim Garrett and Chris Smith. Chris is a Gloucester resident and fellow podcast host from the Bonnie Boat Sailing Podcast. We were later joined by Jonathan and Erin Matthews. For a couple of hours, the group discussed everything Ware River Yacht Club. The conversation covered club history, the local sailing grounds and the future of sailing for the WRYC as well as the local area. One of the topics we focused on was continuing to make sailing accessible for all. Jeffrey has done the club a great service by publicizing all the WRYC has to offer. Please take some time to take a listen. The podcast can be found via Jeff’s webpage or on any podcast app.

The Shooting The Breeze Sailing Podcast, Episode 118