Commodore Captain Jesse “Mitch” Mitchell

First Mate Anne Marie Murdock M/V Release

OLYMPIA YACHT CLUB January 2021

Ahoy OYC!

This is my final Beach-comber article of 2020 and I, for one, will be more happy to say good bye to this year. Our club has managed to cope with this COVID pandemic fairly well with respect to contin-

uing to conduct our business operations and keeping all of us safe. I applaud all of you that continue to work with your committees and exe-cute your positions this year. We did have a huge positive this past month. Vice Commodore Danny Wrye and his First Mate Jackie put on an incredible drive thru Christmas Party. They formed a decorating committee to make the outside of the clubhouse look amazing and then coordinated for us to pick up a delicious meal prepared by Masonry Café. We also appreciate all of you arriving at staggered times (great idea PC Ted Shann!) so we didn’t have a huge rush at the beginning.

At the latest BOT meeting it was decided to close the clubhouse and all social events through the end of March. We have consulted with our fleet surgeon Rich Hurst many times and we appreciate his guidance as we navigate

these strange times we live in. I’m sure we’ve all heard about the vaccination program. Obvi-ously, we don’t know when we will be able to meet in person again, but this is very positive news. Perhaps we will able to participate in an Opening Day Ceremony this spring. Yes, the Commodore is always hopeful.

We had so much fun with the drive through Christmas Party that we are going to do the same thing for our January Membership Dinner Meeting. Vice Commodore Judy Setina has been working hard at getting the menu ar-ranged and set up. The reservation line should be open before this Beachcomber is published. I will also host the meeting on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84657484624. I will also attempt to broadcast using the FM Transmitter on 90.3 FM.

I also would like wish each and every one of you a fantastic start to your New Year! You have all been extremely supportive of your club and bridge as we worked our way through the last 6 months of 2020. I am sure our club is go-ing to more than thrive during 2021!

See you on the dock soon,

Commodore Mitch and First Mate AnneMarie

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84657484624&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw13cDeVplDxgjBahIyYKDX8https://www.google.com/url?q=https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84657484624&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw13cDeVplDxgjBahIyYKDX8

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Directory Bridge Commodore, Jesse Mitchell 360-951-5880 Vice Commodore, Danny Wrye 360-701-8359 Rear Commodore, Judy 360-789-5500 FC Sail, Lenora Tanaka 360-942-8783 FC Power, Kristalene Stormer 360-259-4934 IPC, Mark Welpman 350-633-1825 Board of Trustees Bill Wilmovsky, chair 360-786-1829 Walt Schefter 360-491-2313 Mark Peckler 360-561-3349 John Zermer 360-798-5912 Patrick Richmond 206-730-2570 Bob Hargreaves 360-561-8144 Melissa Ashcraft, Secretary 360-520-8197 Commodore, Jesse Mitchell 360-951-5880 Other Contacts Anchorettes, Aileen Zelis 360-459-2557 Beachcomber Editor, J Grady 253–905-3377 Budget and Finance, Gary Ball 206-484-2818 By Laws, Dave Elliott 360-866-4724 Clubhouse, Open CSP, PC Les Thompson 360-352-7628 mvecstasea@aol.com Com’ty& Gov’t Affairs, Meg VanSchoorl 360-789-8884 Directory, Polly Rosmond 360-866-9687 OYCyearbook@gmail.com Environ’l Awareness, John Sherman 360-754-7657 Foofaraw, Chris Cheney 360-790-6147 Historical Committee, Karol Kersh 503-363-6093 Island Home Committee, Earl Hughes 360-352-3748 Long Range Planning, Gene Coakley 360-269-2012 Lunch Bunch, Kelly&MaryAnn Thompson 360-402-9999 Main Station Hamaker/Howatson 360-481-1879 Membership, Dennis Royal 360-259-2113

Moorage Master, Mark Fleischer 253-691-9601 Office Manager, Holli Howatson 360-389-3722 OYC Foundation, Pete Janni 360-956-1992 Quartermaster, Margaret Snyder 253-219-1876 Reciprocal Committee, Gary Gronley 360-866-3974 Safety & Ed. Committee, Paul DuPriest 360-490-0623 Sailing Education Prog Curtis Dahlgren 360-236-8221 Sunshine Committee, Deb Waldherr 360-943-1685 Treasurer, Holli Howatson 360-389-3722 olympiayachtclub@comcast.net Webmaster, Ron Morsette 360-790-2002 WIC Representative, Kim Shann 360-491-3786 Caretakers Main Station: Robert Ludlow 360-280-5757 or Bill Hamaker 360-481-1879 oyccaretaker2017@gmail.com Island Home: George Whittaker 360-688-0059 oyccaretaker@gmail.com Reservation line 360-705-3767

Harbor Patrol Swantown Marina answers (24/7) 360-528-8049 Boat phone— only when manned 360-507-2650 Associate Memberships Boat US grp: Olympia Yacht Club Group # GA83470Y

Main Station: Olympia Yacht Club 201 Simmons Street NW Olympia, WA 98501

Island Home: Olympia Yacht Club 4921 E. Pickering Road Shelton, WA 98584-8889

Photos in this issue:

The Beachcomber is published by the Olympia Yacht Club each month during the year (except July) and distributed by postal mail and email to the membership and associates. - Distribution: Postal mail 198, email 345 - Editor: J Grady oycbeachcomber@gmail.com - Printer: Minuteman Press www.olympia.minutemanpress.com/ - Advertising: $125/year contact J Grady oycbeachcomber@gmail.com - Change of address (or boat): Webmaster rmorsette@gmail.com

OYC’s Online Presence

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/olympiayachtclub/

Website: www.olympiayachtclub.org

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Greetings OYCers!

Jackie and I hope sincerely you are doing well this unusual year and share in our joy that an effective vaccine has been approved and is currently on its way.

Our first attempt at COVID-proof Christmas Drive Thru dinner was a success! We thank all of you who helped or participat-ed in making it so! On December 12

th, the date that would

have been our Annual Christmas Dinner, Jackie, I and Bridge members served 141 take out Prime Rib dinners in a drive thru at the OYC Main Station. This event was made possible for the efforts and help of many OYC members. Thanks go to Deb Waldherr, Peg Grady and Nancy Stolarik for their initial design work for the Christmas Ball that morphed into the Drive Thru.

Along with the Bridge, Jim Harden, John Sherman, PC Bob Connolly, Gary and Ka-ren Johnston helped decorate the clubhouse. Bill Hamaker came up with the idea and then directed traffic into the parking lot the night of the event so that members safely arrived to pick up their din-ners.

Thanks also to Gary and Melissa Ashcraft and PC Matt Mills for arranging to have Santa (2!) and Mrs. Claus attend!

Thanks also to Craig and Deb Brown for letting OYC broadcast Christmas music of their band, Blue Ringer. And of course, Commodore Mitch and First Mate Ann Marie, Rear Commodore Judy and First Mate Chris, Fleet Captain Lenora, and my Absolutely Most Wonderful First Mate Jackie all helped during the decorating and at the night of the event. Thanks to all these folks, thanks to Ma-

sonry Careering, and thanks to members who participated who made this event safe and a bit of bright light in dreary times! Oh, and thanks to the Sun god who shone brightly on the day of the club-house decorating and that kept the rains away on the night of the event!

All of these, plus the announcement of an approved COVID-19 vac-cine the next day after our Drive Thru Dinner are all signs of good

things to come! And that is what Jackie and I wish for you in 2021!

Vice Commodore Danny and Jackie Wrye

Vice Commodore Captain Danny Wrye

First Mate Jackie Wrye M/V Sea Chalet

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Happy New Year OYC’ers

Wow, 2020 has finally passed and we are all look-ing forward to a new bright-er 2021! January is known as being the month, “that is the Door to the New Year” and It Is going to be a Great New Year!

Our first Holiday “Drive-Thru” Dinner was a great suc-cess! I want to thank all the OYC club members that took part our event, with and a “Special Thanks” to our Vice Commodore Danny and his First Mate Jack-ie Wrye, who put on such a Great Holiday Dinner! Also, thanks to our OYC Bridge, Craig and Deb Brown, and the visit directly from the North Pole by Santa and Mrs. Claus (aka) Melissa and Gary Ash-craft.

The Holiday Dinner was such a big hit with our mem-bers, that the Bridge has decided to do it again! On Wednesday, January 6th, we are going to have anoth-er “Drive Thru” Dinner, prepared again by the won-derful Masonry Café Catering!

This month, our dinner is going to be Pot Roast, Gar-lic Mashed Potatoes, Green Salad, Roasted Vegeta-bles, and Carrot Cake. For those of you that are not beef eaters, we are offering an alternate meal of Grilled Chicken or Baked Salmon. If you are request-ing one of the alternate meals, please leave your re-quest on our reservation line, along with your RSVP.

The meals will be prepared and distributed at the main station parking lot starting at 6:00. We have a

contactless method of payment – the cost of $25.00 per person will be attached to your regular monthly OYC bill. Again, masks, social distancing and sanitiz-ing will be required for the event.

After picking up your delicious pot roast dinners you can enjoy them in the comfort of your car, on your boat or at your home.

Please RSVP by calling our OYC Reservation Line at (360) 705-3767, or by emailing me at jset-ina1@gmail.com. Since this is a new type of event for our club, all attendees must make reservations, even if you are normally on the Permanent Dinner List. Reservations must be received by noon on Monday, January 4th. New to the Beachcomber! The “Critter Crew Cor-ner”. The Bridge is always trying to plan more fun events, and we are always trying to think of ways to keep in touch with our OYC club members! As anoth-er way to get to know everyone better and keep in touch we are starting the new “Critter Crew Cor-ner”, which will be featured in our monthly Beach-comber newsletters.

Starting in February, each month we are going to fea-ture a pet (or two) as our “Critter Crew”, with their OYC human(s). Please send us a picture of your crit-ter(s) and tell us about them or tell us about your fa-vorite story with them! Email the picture of your critter and story to: jsetina1@gmail.com

See you all out on the water, docks, parking lot or on “Zoom”

Rear Commodore Judy Setina

Captain Chris Welch

MV Andiamo

Rear Commodore Captain Judy Setina

First Mate Chris Welch

M/V Andiamo

It’s fun to spot seals and dolphins, but an Orca sighting is worth writing about. There are many kinds of Orcas several of them elusive and only found in the broad sea.

As a group, Orcas come in ecotypes. They differ in size and appearance, hunt differently, like different foods, and general-ly don’t interact with other Orcas.

The Antarctic has at least four kinds of Orcas who eat everything from toothfish and seals to pen-guins and minke whales, depending on their species. There are shark-eating Orcas in the north Atlantic.

Up here we know about our salmon eating resident Orcas but there are other residents running across the Aleutians down to Japan. In the middle of the Pacific hide the elusive Biggs Orcas who eat mammals including their cousin whales.

Moral of the story? If you can’t identify the species that surfaced by your boat, don’t go swimming with them and we should be 500 yards away anyhow!

--- Rick Taylor

Kinds of Orcas? Really?

mailto:jsetina1@gmail.commailto:jsetina1@gmail.com

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(no report)

Fleet Captain Power Captain Ron Stormer

First Mate Kristalene Stormer

M/V Rondezvous Deux

Hello to all my fellow members and friends:

I hope you are enjoying the time on the docks, as this is the time of year I start my detail work on the boat. This season I will be

forgoing the temptation to start early, as a new paint job will be done in the spring. Changing col-ors was not an easy decision but was long over-due and will finally include the official name change. I invite you all to the ceremony this sum-mer, officiated by our awesome Vice Commo-dore Danny Wrye and his beautiful bride, First-mate Jackie Wrye. Of course, the hope is that we can do it without any Covid restrictions. Stay tuned.

I am taking the suggestion of several of our members, who thought I should title my book rec-ommendation every month. So here it is:

The Captains Monthly Must Read: The Insid-er's Guide to Boat Cleaning and Detailing: Pro-fessional Secrets to Make Your Sail or Power-boat Beautiful by Natalie Sears.

Truly, the best $13 I have ever spent. Genius ideas covering every square inch of a boat, with-out harming the environment. I highly recom-mend it for those of you who find joy in detailing. In which, I am one that has true pleasure in mak-ing things show room gorgeous! Yes! I am a gal that has no problem getting her hands dirty! The pay off is for the overwhelming pride and happi-ness I feel, at the finish, in knowing "I" did that.

I would like to give a huge shout out to Danny and Jackie, for a delicious holiday dinner. For those of you who were not able to come and see the effort first-hand, it was a well-oiled machine first go! Hands down, absolutely amazing! I feel so blessed to have them working so hard for us. Thank you both. Being on the Bridge, in my first year, they have gone from OYC acquaintances to becoming life-long friends. I cherish that.

Hopefully, the New Year will bring a lot of bless-ings we can all cherish as well. The biggest one, of course, being our health. I wish you the best in 2021. May you always be surrounded by those who you care about the most. I hope you have an adventurous and safe boating year.

Happy Cruising,

Fleet Captain Sail Lenora Tanaka

MV Sea Life

Fleet Captain Sail Captain Lenora Tanaka

M/V SEA LIFE

Famous sailor Anne Bonny hid her feminine wiles until she needed them. It saved her life.

Anne was born in Ireland about 1700 but, following her father, she ended up in the Carolinas. She married a small-time pirate named James Bonny who took her to Nassau, then known as the Republic of Pyrates. There the fiery red-head met a big-time pirate named Calico Jack Rackman and took to a sea with him disguised as a man. She became dastardly enough to make the Massa-chusetts Governor’s list of Wanted Pirates.

She and Jack had a good two-year run until caught drunk at sea by the Brits in 1720. The whole crew was sentenced to death, but Anne and another woman on board “pled their bellies.” Sentence was postponed for them until their “time of confinement” should end. The other woman died of a fever, but Anne gave birth…and disappeared from history. There is no record of her execution or release. -- Rick Taylor

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The days are getting longer, and the old year is over. Two things: I for one am very happy to see it behind us, and I always dislike the dark days of December. But, I am usual-ly sorry to see the old year gone. It is hard to imagine anyone who will remember the COVID year fondly.

The board hopes that we can get back to normal operations in 2021, but has voted to cancel all social events and keep the clubhouse closed un-til at least March 31, 2021.

The business of The Olympia Yacht Club contin-ues onward. We have two new members: Chris and Jocelyn McCabe and Ed and Eileen Pauley. Welcome to your club. Olympia Yacht Club is happy to have you. There were ninety-four votes cast with our remote voting method. That could be a record. Please take time to read the biog-raphy of the two prospective members this month and vote online. They are Jim and Beth Wilcox and Richard Wills.

The Port of Olympia Destination Waterfront De-velopment was unveiled to the board at the De-

cember 9th meeting. The Port has some signifi-cant changes in the works and as a very inter-ested party, the Olympia Yacht Club has re-quested to have a representative on the advisory committee. Port Commissioner, Joe Downing will sponsor an OYC representative to be added to the Port of Olympia Advisory panel. The Olympia Yacht Club has an obvious and compel-ling interest in activities at the Port of Olympia. Our acceptance on the advisory committee is a process in protecting our interests.

Olympia Yacht Club will have a new website platform that should be up and working by the time you read this. It proposed to be easier to work with and contain more information. You can check it out at: www.TheOlympiaYachtClub.com.

We are still in need of a House Committee chair-person. When the club opens up again, it will be extremely necessary to have a chair and com-mittee for the management of the clubhouse. Please consider volunteering be the chair or a committee member. Your efforts will be appreci-ated, and your reward will exceed your labor.

Bill Wilmovsky

Board of Trustees Bill Wilmovsky, Chair

M/V True North

Still confused about PORT and STARBOARD?

You are in good company. Centuries ago they had to change one of the names because the original words sounded too much alike during the shouting match that many of us call docking.

Starboard is really two Olde English words: stéor ("steer") and bord ("the side of a boat"). (Wait a minute…I thought they were Viking words. Yes, Virginia, but remember the

Vikings owned half of England by 1000 AD and both languages – already related by the Saxon inva-sions – were close enough for folks to be understood - until 1066 when the French showed up. Boats then didn’t have a centered rudder but relied on a steering board (a huge oar) to change di-rection. Since most folks were right-handed, it tended to be on the right side of the boat. Hence, the right side became the steering side: STARBOARD.

Opposite the steering board was the ladder board. Helmsmen didn’t want the steering board ham-pered by the dock, so they tended to put the other side against the dock and then climbed down the ladder… ladderboard. Some researchers claim ladde is the Olde English for back. Since a right-handed helmsman would have his back to the other side, they claim it was called laddeboard: back-board.

The sailors didn’t give a hoot about propriety or research and called the left side LARBOARD.

Starboard and larboard were way too easy to mix up, so eventually someone decided the ladder went down to the PORT and larboard was dropped for port.

Doesn’t help?

Left, port, and wine all have four letters. So PORT is left. AND the port light is red like the port wine. Why not have some now? Anything else is starboard…unless it is ABAFT, ABEAM, ASTERN or ALOFT. Now will you have some wine? - Rick Taylor

https://www.theolympiayachtclub.com/

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Website: Please read Webmaster Ron Morsette’s article about our new website www.theolympiayachtclub.com. Each member is required sign up because nearly all communica-tions going forward will be electronic and we want to make sure we include you!

Payments: The new payment option I’d previ-ously mentioned is now live. We will be doing two ACH transactions each month, on the 5th and the 25th (or the next business day if either of those fall on a non-banking day) to automatically receive payment from member checking ac-counts. The new process will truly be automatic as I won’t have to process the authorizations manually in the way I have been. It will also save the Club on transaction charges. This is a volun-tary option. Please let me know if you are inter-ested.

2020 Recap: It’s been quite a year — in so many ways. We added 17 new memberships (34 new friends!) this year. We moved our voting online as well as our invoicing and payment pro-cessing. All of our current records are scanned and stored securely in the cloud and old records are slowly being archived. The LLC parking lot was paved and the loans were paid off. We have a new fenced yard, roof and boardwalk. We

have a new-to-us work boat and barge. For the first time ever, we are providing our employees with health insurance. We spent a lot of money but we aren’t increasing our dues, reserves or moorage rates. I've been at this a year and look forward to undertaking and completing additional projects in the coming year and welcome your suggestions.

Among the core principles I embrace are that money should neither be wasted nor hoarded, but should be well spent; every decision is a fi-nancial decision; everything is connected to eve-rything; and, understanding the ramifications of the decisions we make isn’t always possible, but understanding that there will be ramifications is.

As always, the money we have belongs to our Club and if you have questions about it, I hope you’ll feel free to ask.

Here’s to a great New Year for all.

Holli Howatson

360-389-3722

treasurer@theolympiayachtclub.com (new!)

Treasurer Holli Howatson

The OYC website has been re-created on a new platform and is now available at:

www.TheOlympiaYachtClub.com (caps not required)

Most of the content from the old site (Clubrunner) has been added to the new site. The new site will include much more member-only content which will require a login to access. Each person wishing to become a member of the site should click the Login button on the upper right and follow the di-rections to "Sign Up." Your access will be approved within a day. Once logged in, you can access all of the Member's Area content. Initially, you'll find a searchable Club directory, BOT minutes, Club documents, Beachcomber, committee and officer blogs, and links for various Club services, all of which will continue to be enhanced over the coming months.

You can also manage your individual member profile and website account by clicking the down ar-row next to your name (upper right box on home page). Please note that any changes you make to your profile are for the website only. If you need to update your OYC account for any changes, please email those to Holli Howatson at treasurer@theolympiayachtclub.com.

Work is ongoing to fill a few gaps on the new site and your comments and suggestions will be ap-preciated; please email me at webmaster@theolympiayachtclub.com.

Thank you’s for work on the new site go to Mark Welpman for establishing the basic framework, Holli Howatson for ongoing creative problem solving and content, and Don Cotey for ensuring that the Club's archive of over a thousand images stored within Clubrunner have been saved.

New OYC Website

Ron Morsette

http://www.TheOlympiaYachtClub.commailto:treasurer@theolympiayachtclub.commailto:webmaster@theolympiayachtclub.com

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Light

I can see the light at the end of a long tunnel and am keeping a good thought that it is not a freight train heading our way. I am writing this column to inform you that vaccines have side effects and I am in no way trying to dissuade anyone from get-ting the vaccine when it arrives. I will personally stiff-arm any 90 year old trying to beat me to the front of the line.

Expect a sore arm. If that didn’t happen, I would worry the vaccine was not working. Maybe a fe-ver for a day. That is what the body does when it mounts a fight against an invader – in this case the vaccine that “looks” like a bad guy. Headache and flu-like symptoms for a day. This again is the body’s defense being mounted with the formation of an antibody defense. Most of these will be short and at worst, an aspirin or Tylenol will help. Any of you who have had the Shingrix shingles vaccine will recognize these side effects. Very common, but better than the occasional life-altering pain after a shingles attack.

There have been several serious anaphylactic reactions – in people who have had those reac-tions to other vaccines and, duh, should probably not get the vaccine – or at least with rescue med-ications available. Ever notice the ads on the TV that say “don’t take if you are allergic to any of the ingredients of …”

Bell’s palsy is a condition that paralyzes half the face. It usually goes away and is thought to be caused by a previous viral infection. There were 4 cases of this in the vaccine group and none in the placebo. The experts concluded that this was on the order of what would be expected in the general population statistically. 0 to 4, huh? The face paralysis is not obvious until a person would smile, then only one side of the face smiles. Tem-porary face paralysis or a ventilator? No contest.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine was temporarily halted when one person experienced a temporary trans-verse myelitis. That’s a paralysis of the lower half of the body. The swine flu vaccine was associat-ed with Guillain-Barre temporary full body paraly-sis. Fortunately, there is now a treatment for this rare problem. If these were common, I’ll be the one wearing my mask and thinking hard about the vaccine.

When millions of people have been vaccinated instead of just 40-60 thousand, other side effects may become obvious. Most will be of little conse-quence, but we will all hope no deal-breaker shows.

It will be a while before old-retired-farts can get in line, just give way if you see my arm out-stretched.

Rich

Fleet Surgeon Richard Hurst, M.D. (“Rich”)

No Report

Community & Government Affairs

Meg VanSchoorl Chair

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The Pandemic and the Environment

With the recent introduction of vaccines against Covid-19, we can hope that 2021 will be much more enjoyable than 2020 with the restoration of many of the social activities that make our club, and society at large, so satisfying. During 2020, most of the pro-grams and activities of the Environmental Aware-ness Committee—as most OYC activities – were suspended for the duration: the April Safety and En-vironmental Awareness day, our participation in the Mason County Adopt-a-Road program to pick up roadside litter in front of our wonderful outstation, as well as our close cooperation with the Clean Marina Washington program that seeks to sustain and im-prove the water quality of our playground—the Pu-get Sound and Salish Sea. Hopefully, these will re-turn in 2021.

Nevertheless, in the midst of this pandemic, two lo-cal bright spots are worth celebrating.

First, on December 15, the British Columbia Capital Regional District (CRD-the City of Victoria and sur-rounding communities) announced that it is now providing tertiary sewage treatment of community wastewater. After decades of debate, an investment of over USD 600 million, and over four years of con-struction, the CRD is no longer dumping untreat-ed sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Some of us sailors may recall boycotting the annual Swiftsure race in past years in an effort to encour-age this project--well, activism sometimes achieves its intended, beneficial results. And with the recently enacted Puget Sound No Discharge Zone (NDZ), we can all look forward to cleaner water and a re-covery of bio-diversity in the future.

Every fall, more than half of the Coho salmon that return to Puget Sound’s urban streams die before they have a chance to spawn. In some streams, all of them die. Finally, after over 20 years of research by UW and WSU scientists, the agent responsible has been finally identified--a highly toxic quinone transformation product of N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N'-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine) (6PPD). Now, that’s a mouthful. But it boils down to this—do you have a car? Do you drive it? Ever notice that your tires wear out? Well, that rubber that was so plentiful when your tires were new has to go some-where. As you drive down the street, your tires wear ever so slightly. And that tire dust—oxidized by the air and sunlight, winds up running off the streets dur-ing fall rains (does it ever rain around here?) and into local streams where Coho salmon are arriving to complete their life-cycle and spawn a new gener-ation of fish—some of which we may hope to catch and enjoy on our dinner table someday.

As it happens, tire manufacturers add 6PPD, a glob-ally ubiquitous tire rubber antioxidant, to inhibit tire

rubber from degrading. But that chemical, while orig-inally non-toxic to fish, becomes very toxic when it undergoes a chemical transformation spurred by ultraviolet light from the sun and the oxygen in the atmosphere. It is this secondary reaction that made the detection of this toxin so devilishly difficult to dis-cover—you can grind up a new tire and feed it to fish, no problem. But when that product degrades from forces in the natural environment, it becomes deathly toxic.

So what to do? Well, it’s unlikely we’ll all stop driving rubber-tired cars anytime soon. When confronted with the evidence, the initial reaction of tire manufac-turers was to suggest that the problem belongs to state and local governments who are not adequately treating rainwater runoff from roads. Not my prob-lem, they claim.

Hopefully reason will prevail, and some alternative to 6PPD will become available and employed that does not cause mass die-offs of Coho salmon (or anything else, for that matter). While better treat-ment of storm water runoff is certainly needed (copper from brake-pads, for example, also increas-es salmon mortality, and petrochemicals and heavy metals are toxic to many forms of life), it is impracti-cal to do so universally anytime soon.

Meanwhile, this episode serves as a reminder of the devious complexity of the cause-and-effects of tens of thousands of industrial chemicals introduced into our environment with little oversight or regulation. Salmon are one thing--who knows how waste chem-icals and chemical by-products may be affecting our children and grandchildren?

John Sherman, Chair, OYC Environmental Aware-ness Committee

SV Grendel

See also:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/12/09/science.abd6951 https://www.crd.bc.ca/project/wastewater-treatment-project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8_U5-Ofq44

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7498239/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201203144228.htm

Environmental Awareness John Sherman, Chair

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/12/09/science.abd6951https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/12/09/science.abd6951https://www.crd.bc.ca/project/wastewater-treatment-projecthttps://www.crd.bc.ca/project/wastewater-treatment-projecthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8_U5-Ofq44https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7498239/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7498239/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201203144228.htmhttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201203144228.htm

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It's January and time for the DFW fish transfer at the Island. They will be setting up Dec 30th and start transferring on the 5th. This will take 3 to 4 weeks. They will be using a portion of the outside of the main

land dock by the bridge.

We are just waiting for a few more parts before we can start working on the new kids play equipment. They will enjoy the new items.

Stay safe.

Earl Hughes

Island home Chair

MV Lady Bee ll

Island Home Earl Hughes, Chair

Happy New year everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas despite the restrictions that have been put in place. As the end of the year for CSP has been completed the 2020 hours are submitted to Holli for billing. You will begin seeing any hours owing on your January statements. Members were credited hours based on an aver-age of the last 3 years. Those hours are reflected in the social column along with any social hours that were performed last year.

With the new year beginning, CSP will return to status quo. Members will be required to do 24 hours with a value of $30 per hour. No adjust-ments have been made on 2021 requirements.

As the year progresses if adjustments need to be made they will be determined at a later date nearer the end of the year. There are many ways to get CSP even with social events cancelled or done a different way. The Bridge is getting very creative with that, the main station always has jobs to do as does Island Home. Committees still hold meetings virtual etc. Get involved early and you should be able to get hours in for the year.

Any questions don't hesitate to contact me or Holli about hours or billing amounts. Stay safe all, wear your masks. Hope to see you around the docks soon.

PC Les Thompson

CSP guru

Club Service Program PC Les Thompson, Chair

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Celebrate and Donate!

We made it through the very challenging year of 2020. Thanks to our coach Sarah Hanavan and her assistant Niki Alden, our new chair Curtis Dahlgren and all the SEP committee members working behind the scenes, the sailor’s parents and families and community members. Let’s hope that 2021 shapes up to be an upgrade for all involved.

Though you may not be seeing a lot of kids on the docks due to the fact that only our laser sail-ors are practicing at this time, there is a lot hap-pening behind the scenes.

This is the time of year when we do repairs and also plan our summer sailing schedule for both our youth program and our adult program. This takes an extraordinary amount of time and effort, planning and coordinating with 6 months in ad-vance under normal circumstances. But this is especially so for all involved at this time, espe-cially in relationship to the Covid-19 pandemic and the future possibility of a vaccine roll-out.

Our Christmas tree fundraiser through the SOCS organization was very successful. Thanks to all who made the trek out to Steamboat Island Road to purchase holiday greenery. It was fun to see everyone (with masks) and their dogs hiking through the pasture grass to pick out their favor-ite tree. Thanks as well to Terry Kissik, the owner of the trees who donated all proceeds to the Sup-porters of Olympia Community Sailing non-profit organization (SOCS). SOCS was formed by the OYC members, parents and community mem-

bers who support our sailing program through fundraising. We cleared about $12,000 from just this one fundraiser this year. All proceeds going directly to the purchase of boats, maintenance and upkeep.

Usually in November we have a big dinner auc-tion that usually raises enough funds to purchase big ticket items, such as new boats, new out-boards, new chase boats etc. In the past 6 years we have been able to purchase several new (to us) chase boats, 6 new FJ’s, and 3 new Van-guard 420’s. Our original fleet of 420’s were pur-chased from Notre Dame’s team 8 years ago. So you can imagine the amount of use they have had in their lifetimes. Our Optis, which are the 8’ prams that our youngest, most inexperienced sailors start with, are even older - some probably 20 years old - requiring repairs year after year. We are hoping to add a couple of new boats to both these fleets this year through our next fund-raiser, in lieu of having a fundraising dinner, to raise money to purchase boats. Our chair Curtis has included a “fund a need” letter in this issue.

We hope you will take a few minutes to write a check to support our program. Sailing is the only co-ed interscholastic sport for high school and college students, and we are rated as one of the top programs in the Northwest. COVID-19 may have slowed down our sailors, but it hasn’t killed their enthusiasm. We have more youth signed up for our teams than ever before. They have prac-ticed all fall, hoping to compete in spring and summer regattas. Let’s hope so. Here’s wishing you and your family a happy, healthy New Year. Stay safe.

Mary Fitzgerald

Sailing Education Program Committee member

Sailing Education Program

Curtis Dahlgren, Chair

After many meetings and a lot of effort, I am proud to announce that all the hard work and perseverance has paid off. We now have Board approval. We will start accepting applications of new junior members on January 15, 2021. We hope to have the application packets available in four ways:

1. On our website

2. Just inside the clubhouse door

3. Through an email request to the Chair

4. By phone request to the Chair

More details will be coming, after the New Year, as we finalize the last few details of the plan. I want to personally thank all of the committee members and the Board for the time they gave to making this a reality for so many kids. I appreci-ate you more than you know.

All My Best,

Lenora Tanaka

Junior Membership Chair

Junior Membership Lenora Tanaka, Chair

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Our current outstation, Island Home, is actually our second one. The first was called Flamingo Cove and was almost directly across from Island Home, on Hartstine Island, near the narrow passage be-tween Hartstine and Squaxin Island. The club members at the time built simple facilities on the mainland and constructed a long dock for mooring their boats. The major issue was that the dock was extremely exposed to the elements and, in fact, had to be taken in every winter, to survive the season.

But, the club enjoyed Flamingo Cove for many years before interest in a more protected outstation started growing. And after a bit one of our members found what we’d been looking for all along: Is-land Home. The club discussed this at great length and came very close to passing on the pur-chase. But, the decision was finally made and the club paid $10,000 plus the old property for the is-land in 1971.

Since then we’ve made many improvements, including members building a new clubhouse to re-place the Winchester Mystery House wanabe that was on the island originally. We removed the old salt water pool that was found to be under utilized; we added docks and then rebuilt and expanded those docks to accommodate even more boats; members also built trails, a covered barbeque pit

and play areas. We even planted oysters in our own little farm, which have now spread out to the east side of the island and expanded greatly. And the late PC Bill Hartman constructed a trail on our upland property across Pickering Road:

Several members have stepped forward to continue maintaining the Hartman trail since PC Bill’s passing.

I’ll be working through our historical data in the next several months, having found with our caretak-er Robert’s help, that there is much more available for review than I’d dare hope. My first effort will be to bin up all of the loose materials and then arrange in chronological order as they’re found.

OYC Historian’s Report

PC Mike Contris

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Women’s Interclub Council Kim Shann, Representative

WIC news:

Many of the women's interclub reps, alternates, and officers, gathered on the afternoon of December 17th on Zoom, wearing Christmas sweaters; some beautiful, some ugly, a few with hats. Not as a con-test but to make happiness and cheer for the sea-son.

Some of us were eating our own snacks or having a glass of wine ....

We all chatted about our own personal Christmas plans, different ways we are decorating and cele-brating with our loved ones.

It was our different way to celebrate our annual Christmas luncheon.

Cheers to everyone, stay safe

Quartermaster Corner

Happy Holidays to our OYC members and their fami-lies! With nothing new to report from the Quartermas-ter Judy and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, good health and much happiness in the New Year!

Margaret and Judy

Quartermaster Margaret Snyder & Judy Ball, Co-Chairs

Please be sure to text or call me regarding any

member or members who should receive a card from

the club.

I can be reached at 360-561-1947, a call or text

would be great.

Sunshine Committee Deb Waldherr, Chair

1st call articles for the Beachcomber is the 14th of the month, 2nd call is the 20th with the goal of publishing on the 22th. Anyone can submit an article about boating. If you have some boating anecdotes that you’d like to share, please send them to Rick.

Beachcomber Team

J Grady - editor

Matt Herinckx - quality control

Rick Taylor - roving reporter

Gretchen Robinson - assistant editor

Please drop me a note if you are interested in joining to oycbeachcomber@gmail.com.

J Grady

Beachcomber Editor

Beachcomber J Grady, Editor

mailto:oycbeachcomber.com

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ADS………. FOR SALE, OR This is a free service for OYC members, To place an ad, email b y t h e 1 6 t h o f t h e m o n t h Your "no charge" ad will for 6 months, but you can update indefinitely. ou want to

1985 Marshall Sanderling Sailboat

Well maintained and fully restored. First produced in 1962 and still in production today!

Easily sailed single-handed or with four or five friends in her large cockpit.

Ready to sail, galvanized trailer, Honda 8 HP out-board and all lines, anchor, cushions, bumpers, win-ter cover etc. included.

Contact Mark @ 360-561-3349 for questions or info $15,500

Boat house 409 - $8900 obo

Hard to find boathouse in Olympia for sale. Well 9'6"x 29’ at waterline. Boats with length of up to 32' and beam up to 10'4" fit well.

• Our boat is sold! Boathouse ready now and must go!

• Drastically reduces maintenance needed to keep your vessel in tip top condition.

• Store supplies and provisions right with the boat, ready to go.

• Upgraded flotation and other items recently

• Passed yacht club inspection in 2019.

Mark Leingang 360-701-0158

FREE……FREE……FREE

Two brand new inflatable kayak floors made for Advanced Elements Sport Kayaks. They should work in other inflatable kayaks as well. The floors have never been used. They are 66” long by 20” wide. Each floor has an integrated pressure relief valve.

Contact Gary: (206) 484-2818,

gvball47@hotmail.com

Want to Buy ---

Boathouse to hold boat 52 ft long x 16 ft wide

Richard Wills

roqanne@gmail.com , 360 515 5202

mailto:gvball47@hotmail.commailto:roqanne@gmail.com