Colleen on Fighting

So, Colleen's not feeling well, so we're laying low, watching a John Wayne movie.  A fistfight breaks out between two characters in the movie (neither of them The Duke).  The fight is temporarily broken up to establish some ground rules, such as "no biting or kicking."  Colleen's response was that "It's not really a fight if there's no biting."

What kind of scuffles go on at her school!?!?

New RC boat

A quick note to follow up on the RC committee decision.  I was down at the club today to check out a few things, among them to FINALLY see the new boat that we bought.  It looks great and I'm VERY excited that it will get it's first service for us this Saturday.  But, the big thing here is I wanted to show a pic I took of it.  I took a few and, hopefully, I will jump on again later and upload them and provide commentary, but for now, here she is!

Decision Part II

Okay, so it's not "tomorrow" as mentioned in the last entry.  I was detained from my blogging.  But, here is the continuation of the saga of the new RC (race committee) boat for PMYC (Port Madison Yacht Club).

The morning following the search committee's meeting I perused craigslist to see what I could find that met, or at least approached, the criteria to which we'd all agreed.  In fact, what I found was a 17' Arima, much like the boat we'd discussed heavily the previous eve (though a slightly different model).  Not only that, but it was for less than half of our budget! (Look at Thrifty Geoff!)  

I passed along the link to the committee, as a "jumping off place" with my actual hope being that it would fit the bill accomplishing a few things:

• Saving thousands of dollars for the club to use for other matters (including any improvements we wish for the boat)
• Getting the boat found in time for the next big race, the Jim DePue, on February 28th.
• The sense of satisfaction from having contributed further to the cause, having found the boat. (It should also be noted that I am a very big fan of PMYC, having grown up in the club and elated to be able to contribute to its betterment.)

Well, as it turned out, the overwhelming response was to check out this boat, because it MAY BE THE ONE!  I was thrilled at that response and it was decided (and arranged with the seller) to view it the coming Saturday (yesterday, as I write this).

Colleen (my daughter) had a practice competition for her Destination Imagination team (another time, perhaps I'll explain), so I decided to skip the boat viewing, as a bunch of other members of the committee were also going out there (and, as proud as I am of my club, Colleen's got it beat by a MILE).  

That evening, I sent an email out, asking how it went.  Well, the owner agreed to a reduced price (saving even MORE money) and now Andy will present it to the club's Board on Tuesday...given that it got raves from all in attendance AND is considerably less money than budgeted, it seems highly likely that it will sail through approval and by midweek, it will be the club's new RC boat!

In case you hadn't gathered, especially given all the exclamation points and all caps words, I'm VERY excited about this. 

Decision Making in action

My yacht club, the Port Madison Yacht Club (PMYC), needs a new boat to serve as Race Committee for our big boat (keelboat) races. As the chairman of the big boat racing program, I'm involved in the search for a new boat. There are other members of the club who also are involved for various reasons, essentially, they're knowledgeable and active in the club. These are people who know of what they speak and also will benefit (or be hurt) by this decision.

Our committee consists of seven people. Of those seven, I'm certainly the youngest. That may matter to some, but it's something that I'm frequently aware of in these settings. I'm not nervous or cowed by that fact. I also don't get any pride out of it. I'm there because I should be. I joined PMYC in 1985 as a junior (I was 12) and have raced a ton in the subsequent years. I've worked on many projects at the club. I've served as work party chair for a few years before being asked to take on the big boat racing program. I know I've even been considered for a commodoreship. I do wonder at times if others who attend these meetings pass any judgment on me because of my age. Some of these people remember when I was a junior in the club and they were making decisions then. Many of them are friends/contemporaries of my father, who was commodore in 1999. As such, they may think of me as "Gary's kid." In truth, I'm proud to be his kid, but when it comes to these situations, I need to be Geoff, a bright, capable guy who's here because he has something of value to offer.

Well, last night we met at the house of Ken, one of the committee, and a former commodore. Also in attendance were Jim (another former commodore), Randy (frequent race committee, especially on the club's longest race), Ros (dinghy racing chair), Lubo (former commodore, top notch racer), Andy (current Vice Commodore, preceded me as big boat chair, excellent racer) and myself.

For about a half hour we went around the table and talked about what we felt the boat needed, coming to no consensus and frequently using very subjective terms. Finally, Lubo, to his infinite credit, asked, "Can we find one criteria that we can all agree on?" His question was indicative of any disagreement or fractiousness, simply that while we were all talking, we were circling the objective, but not closing in on it. Well, we started talking about a minimum size, came to consensus and a few more criteria rolled on in after to unanimity. Wow! How great was that! We had a framework! A rough sketch of what we wanted!

A few specific boats had been discussed, notably a 17' Arima that Andy had brought up. Additionally, I'd printed out a few listings from craigslist that showed a broad cross-section of what was currently out there on the market and some were overlooked and others received closer scrutiny, as one might expect of "a broad cross-section." The point is, we walked away from last night with something approaching a unanimous consensus on a fairly specific set of criteria for a boat.

Then, something happened today. But, that story is to be written tomorrow.

Shoving off

Okay, my first post here on Blogger.  I actually just posted for the first time on LiveJournal a bit earlier today, and I wanted to get a feel for both and see if one would win over my blogging affections. 

First impressions, Blogger's a lot less involved during initial set-up.  So, I'm blogging faster (for better or worse).  On the other hand, does that mean it's more of a blogging with training wheels thing?  Is it a more pure deal?  Is it content poor vs. LJ?  Does it not waste time with extra bells/whistles?  The answer to all these questions is, I don't know...yet.  Oh, I'll have an opinion, I'm sure....but we'll just have to wait and see what it (or maybe they?) are when I start hatching them...they'll be posted here....or maybe Here (http://boathack.livejournal.com/profile)...it kinda depends where I am when I have a thought or if one of these knocks the other out of my interest.

Stay tuned...if you're really bored and have the time and inclination to wait for that...or to see if I become as interesting online as I am at times in the flesh.