Ahoy!

We’ve had a busy couple of months!   There’s been the St Petersburg Classic Regatta, a couple SPSA series races, the Full Moon pursuit and a host of races sponsored by other clubs that many SPSA boats have attended such as the NOODS and Habana race.  Our next club race is next Sat 4/15!  Let’s meetup at Courigan’s after the race again!!

First a shout out to SPSA members Tony Barrett for a first place finish to Habana in Spin B, followed by Robert Freeland in second and David Arata with a 2^nd place Cruising A finish.  Great job guys!  After our series race last Saturday, we met up at Courigans’s and were regaled with the tales from the Habana crews.   Also a shout out to SPSA members Mike Kayusa with a first place finish in the NOODs for PHRF1, followed by Grant Dumas in second and Ron Kinney with a first place in the NOOD Cruising Rally. 

Second, we congratulate our club secretary Liz on her new job.  Unfortunately, it’s not local so she’ll be leaving us.  Thanks to Liz for all of her efforts, they were appreciated.  We wish you luck and will miss you.   We could use a volunteer to fill in for secretary.  If anybody is interested in getting more involved with the club, please let me know.   We’ll be looking to fill the slate of officers for next season here very shortly.

The board is hard at work on many things.   We’re looking at what we can do to increase the fun and participation for next season.  We’ve got membership renewals coming up in at the end of June, and we’ll be working on publishing the membership program/directory very soon.  As always, we’d appreciate volunteers to help.   But more to come on all of that later.

Finally, we have just closed the books on this year’s St Petersburg Classic Regatta to benefit Meals on Wheels.   Many, many thanks to the small navy of volunteers that helped pull this off.   The pictures have been posted on the website.  The turnout for this regatta was the lowest we’ve ever had but somehow we managed to match last year’s fund raising efforts!  We raised $17,615 vs $17,771 for 2016.  So I’ll call that a win in my book.  I’d like to share this excerpt from the latest treasurer’s report:

“Although the SPCR had fewer sponsors and fewer boats than last year, we actually raised about the same amount of money for Meals on Wheels. What made this possible?

Last year we lost $3,200 on the regatta itself, which had to come out of the sponsor donations. This year we only lost a couple hundred dollars which we made up from the treasury so 100% of the sponsor donations went to Meals on Wheels. Having the regatta at least break even is a major improvement.

Although there were fewer boats than last year, and only 16 boats donated in 2017, boat donations actually increased from $6,348 in 2016 to $7,345 this year. Remember that last year only 40% of the boats entered donated anything to MOW. Fewer boats meant less in entry fees, but not less in donations.

We did not have the cost of Tee-Shirts this year, and the cost of printing was donated. That is a $1,265 swing in the right direction.

Fewer entries meant a lower charge to process the entry fees.

We had $4,900 less in sponsor donations to work with this year, but last year we ate up all of that with the loss on the regatta, the cost of shirts, and printing. This year, for the first time of which I am aware, we will remit 100% of the sponsor donations to the charity. The target in the past was 80%.”

Steve Shortt

SPSA Commodore