The TellTale November 2025

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View this email in your browser Issue 11: November 2025 2025 Volunteer Time Still need to meet your service time for 2025? Looking for additional hours? Help get our boats ready for the winter. Now that all our boats are back in the yard, there's work to be done to safely store them for the winter months. Please join the #colgate-general-maintenance-committee channel on Slack where we’re coordinating this work. Remember, our volunteer season ends on December 31. You'll need to meet your service time requirement by then. End-of-Season Dinner and Annual Meeting This year’s event was a tremendous success and marked the first time the dinner was combined with our Annual Meeting. The result was our largest turnout ever at our annual meeting, with record participation in board elections. Thanks to everyone who voted and engaged—your involvement strengthens our community. Sail Chicago now has a full Board of Directors. Congratulations to all newly elected members, and appreciation to the continuing board for their thoughtful leadership and decision-making. The evening was filled with great conversation, shared insights, and reflections on an incredible season—along with excitement for what’s ahead. Three special awards were presented: 2025 Partner of the Year Award: Columbia Yacht Club, accepted by Commodore Lisa DeSantis and presented by Don Burman on behalf of Sail Chicago. The award is on display at Columbia Trophy Case on the car deck, by the bar. Dedicated Service Recognition: Presented by the Instructors Committee to longtime instructor and great sailor Fiona Ray, honoring her many years of service as she and her husband Gary Nitz, also a Sail Chicago member, relocate from Chicago. The John Lemon Award: A new recognition created by the Mariners Committee to honor the late John Lemon’s legacy and recognize an exceptional Sail Chicago leader. Marilyn Shipley shared stories and memories about John, and the inaugural award was presented by Rachel Park & Chad Skarpiak to Adam Jabs for his outstanding contributions as an instructor, IT director, board member, and a great fellow sailor. It was a wonderful evening celebrating our shared achievements and community spirit. Thank you to everyone who made this season—and this event—so memorable. Maintenance Update All Sail Chicago boats—Colgates, Rhodes, Ideals and Cruisers—are back at Canal Street Marina for winter. Winterization is underway. Currently we are winterizing systems, taking inventory, and ordering parts. Projects will continue through winter with heavier work ramping up in the spring. Leads and volunteers are needed so if you are interested in a maintenance leadership role (apprentice, lead, or 2026 Colgate boat team members), DM Shawn of the Lake on Slack. We also have a need for the following specialized skills: — Electrical (electricians/engineers) — Knowledge of rigging, sail repair or winches/hardware repair — Airtable and UI/UX development experience — Skills in communication, organizational development, social media and finance — Legal, IT, safety & risk mitigation (including occupational safety experience) If that’s you—or you’re just keen to learn—please reach out to Shawn of the Lake on Slack. Tiller Time Update The 2025 sailing season is now history, and thanks to the thirteen stalwart Tiller Time skippers, the Tiller Time program once again was able to fulfill its mission of allowing students enrolled in our Instruction program to practice the skills they’ve learned, thereby helping them move more quickly to full Skipper status. This year we completed 53 Tiller Times. Leading the pack of Tiller Time skippers was Gerry Stacy, with 11 Tiller Times under his belt. We also welcomed 2 new Tiller Time skippers, Tom Hafner and Luke Leisman. 270 seats were available on Tiller Time Colgates, and 215 were used, for a utilization rate of 80%. This year more of the Tiller Times were pushed back to the month of September, probably due to weather conditions (heat advisories and small craft warnings) earlier in the season. We’re looking forward to another great Tiller Time season next year. To discover the many benefits of becoming a Tiller Time skipper, contact Steve VanderVoort at tillertime@sailchicago.org. Build Your Sailing Resume There's a reason every new skipper certified by US Sailing receives a logbook. It's because logging sails is such an important part of being a sailor. Just like your employment resume shows the experience you’ve gained in your career and demonstrates that you're qualified for a job, a sailing resume shows the quantity of sailing you've completed, the number of hours spent on the water, the different types of boats sailed, and the roles that you've served on those boats. If you hope to expand your sailing life beyond Sail Chicago, your sailing resume will be an important credential that can open up new opportunities. So whether you use your paper US Sailing Logbook, or choose to keep an electronic log, building your sailing resume is a valuable part of your sailing journey. Sail Chicago can also help you do this! We maintain a Sailing Resume Report on our data hub that pulls together information from every pre- and post-sail checklist for non-cruising boats completed since 2023 and displays it in format corresponding to the entries in a US Sailing Logbook. You can use the filter to display your sails. Click Filter to reveal the filter popup box and choose +Add condition. On the “Where” line, use the dropdown to change “name” to Members. On the right side of the box, click the Plus Button (+) to search your name. You can also download or print this report to incorporate this into your own resume. Cooperative Sails Committee We’re forming a short-term committee (a couple brief Google meetings) to develop ideas for a new Sail Chicago-sponsored sailing initiative called Cooperative Sails. Similar to racing, the proposed idea is to have the entire Sail Chicago fleet reserved on Sunday afternoons for current members-only sails. Any qualified skipper (newer or seasoned) can skipper a boat, and an invitation is open to all current Sail Chicago members to join—creating a fun, safe, learning, and community-focused sailing afternoon. The goal is to bring members together on the water to learn, sail, and connect as one community armada. If you’d like to join the ad hoc committee and help shape this program, please reach out to Shawn of the Lake on Slack. Merch for Sale Check out our cool line up of Sail Chicago merch. We’ve sourced T-shirts, polos, jackets, fleece, and hats from top quality vendors, all embroidered with our burgee logo. Take pride in Sail Chicago and wear your merch at social events and on the water. Gift cards are available in increments of $25.00. Buy Merch Contact Us Shop for cool Sail Chicago Gear  Follow us on Facebook for updates, reminders, event info and activities! View previous issues of The Telltale Sail Chicago Mission Statement  |  Member Benefits  |  Fleet Locations  |  Member Log In   Member Registration  |  Sail Chicago Rules and Regulations  |  Board Meeting Minutes Instruction  |  Sailing Weather Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.