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Frequently Asked Questions about Rainbow Spinnakers
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Lots of new people appear to have discovered us this
season and I've received several Emails requesting
some background information about Rainbow Spinnakers.
In this Email I hope to explain to everyone what the
club is now, and what it could be in the future.
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What is Rainbow Spinnakers Sailing Club? ("RSSC")
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RSSC is a diverse group of mostly gay and lesbian
sailing enthusiasts who stay in touch predominately
via our Google Group Email list. We have an Email
list of close to 400, not sure how many paid up
members there are. Annual Dues are $20 for individuals
and $30 per couple and should be paid online through
pay-pal which is linked to our web site:
www.rainbowspinnakers.org The group is about 50% men,
50% women, and a substantial minority of non-gay members,
all of whom are gay friendly. (At least those are my best
guesses). The dues are used to subsidize sails and parties,
and to a lesser extent to keep our web site up and running.
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How do I go sailing with this group:
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If you have signed up for our Google group and are
receiving this Email you should also be receiving regular
invitations to go sailing. The invitations will specify
whether or not you need any sailing experience to participate.
If they don't mention any requirements, that almost always
means that you don't need to know how to sail to join us.
About half the club members just want to be out on the
water, and aren't especially interested in learning how to
sail.
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Do you offer sailing lessons?
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We do not offer formal sailing lessons, but many people
have learned to sail by going out sailing with RSSC.
If you let the skipper know that you definitely want
to learn how to sail we can provide extensive,
but informal, instruction. Formal instruction is offered
by Belle Haven Marina (See below) and at the Downtown
Sailing Center in Baltimore (see below). If we have
any certified instructors (on our Email list) who
want to teach people how to sail they should get in
touch with Mark or Eric.
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FROM www.saildc.com & The
Mariner Sailing School
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The 2009 weekend courses begin in early April and are offered
every weekend through late October. Weekday courses begin every
Monday through October as well. Weekend courses sail twice
each day (10am-4pm) with an hour break for lunch, allowing
you to complete the course in one weekend. Weekday courses
sail 2 1/2 hours Monday - Thursday in the mornings (10am-12:30pm),
afternoons (1:30pm-4:00pm), or after work (5:30pm-
Bulk discounts are offered by Belle Haven. If you can get
three people to join you, it will cost you $275 instead
of $325. Combining a formal class with practice through
Rainbow Spinnakers is a nearly foolproof method for learning
how to sail. If you are interested in teaming up with
two others for a lesson at Belle Haven --
pick a weekend that works for you, post your proposal
to our mailing list to see if anyone else is interested in a
lesson on the same weekend.
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Downtown Sailing Center in Baltimore
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The DSC is a great place for sailing lessons for
those of you who live in Baltimore. Check the
link below for costs and schedule.
http://www.downtownsailing.org/camp/adultcamp.aspx
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Is there any formal structure? Who runs this club?
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Right now the club is basically on auto-pilot. The most
important activity for the club is sailing, and if sailing
invitations are going out, well, that's the most important
thing right? In past years we've tried (and usually succeeded)
in sailing from Belle Haven Marina almost every weekend.
Right now we are a little short-handed. We need to find
some more Flying Scott skippers for Belle Haven and/or
for Baltimore sailing. Experience from past years tells us
that if we get on a regular sailing schedule, other things
will fall into place.
The last few years we've held a party in March
for the purpose of selecting board members, who would then
vote for a Commodore, Vice-Commodore, Secretary and Treasurer.
Although we've had good attendance at these parties, we've
had less success in creating the minor bureaucracy that's
typically associated with a club. This is partly a result
of our own success in automating everything. However, if we
had some volunteers we would like to try and put together
some big sails, or at least some more parties or happy hours.
My scuba club, for example, has frequent happy hours at
Nellie's Sports Bar.
Eric, Bill and I are nominally in charge, but if we get more
sailing scheduled, it might make sense to put the formal
structure back in place, provided there are some volunteers.
Eric is be willing to serve as Commodore, if we get enough
people to constitute a board. Until and unless we have
more volunteers it doesn't make much sense to be very
formal about things.
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Can I Volunteer to skipper?
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Please volunteer to help us out. If you can skipper a
Flying Scott from Belle Haven or a Sonar from Getaway
Sailing and are willing to go out with an eclectic but
interesting mix of new people we could definitely use
your help. All we'd want is a brief resume of your sailing
experience, maybe a chance to meet you, and then we'd simply
ask you to schedule and advertise sales at either location
whenever you want to. If we already know you, and we know
that you know how to sail, just let us know and we'll make
sure that you have posting privileges to our Email list.
In the past, we've had a policy that skippers sails for
free from Belle Haven when they take out a group.
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Can I Volunteer to schedule a Happy Hour or Party?
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Just let Eric and I know how much it will cost us, if anything,
and we'll likely provide the funds. Most people already
have posting privileges to our Email list, so if its not
going to cost the club anything, just send out an invite.
(Note: Brand new members may need to have their posing
privileges updated before posting. Its a long story, but suffice
to say we temporarily moderate posts from newbies to prevent
a spam attack.
We wish to thank Ken G. for hosting our last party this spring.
Anyone want to host a summer barbeque?
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Can I invite people to go sailing on my boat?
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Sure. You don't need formal approval from anyone to invite
people to go sailing with you. (As I said earlier, the club
is basically on automatic pilot). In the recent past you
should have received numerous posts from Cecile to go sailing
with her from Belle Haven. Alan R. in Solomon's Island used
to take us out for the day in Southern MD (see the pictures
on our web site). If you feel that you need some help or feedback
before inviting people on your boat contact Eric or I and we'll
see how we can help. Also please keep in mind the club is
intended to be inclusive, rather than exclusive. We don't
discriminate by age, sex, sexual orientation, and other factors
which aren't relevant to the enjoyment of sailing.
At the same time its important to recognize that we don't
have enough manpower to oversea or police this type of
activity. Ultimately its up to the skippers of their respective
boats to decide which people to take sailing and for the guests
to decide if they want to go. Unless we receive a chorus of
consistent complaints we aren't going to intervene. Sometimes
personalities clash and we can't expect boat owners to
invite people who they don't get along with.
The sails scheduled by Eric and I in the recent past have
been "official" RSSC sails. However, when someone is inviting
people to sail on their own boat, we try to distinguish
that from the "official" sails as result of not wanting
to tell people who they have to take sailing. Its their boat
after all.
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Does RSSC need a Web Master
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Yes we do. I've been running the web site for many
years, but my skills are getting rusty and I really
don't have enough time to keep the web site current.
Even if you don't have web development skills it
would be great if someone could volunteer to just keep
the homepage updated. We also get frequent requests
from people to be removed from our Email list, usually
because they've moved away, and not because they've
given up sailing. If you do want to redesign our site
even better.
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What's Next ?
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If we can find some volunteers or teach some
people how to sail then hopefully we can get
a regular schedule of sailing going from both
Belle Haven and Baltimore. I was excited a
couple of weekends ago to have boat with four
eager students. Those days when few people
show up are the actually the best opportunities
to learn/practice sailing.