Category Archives: News

Commodores Cup, Free Food and Board Mtg Highlights

Hey Sailor,


Here’s the plan for the Commodore Cup, our post race gathering and a few highlights from last evening’s board meeting.

Commodore’s Cup

  • Saturday Oct 17th 11 AM Start for 1st Boat
  • This is a pursuit race where your handicap is reflected in your start time.  Slowest boat crosses the starting point at 11 AM. Fastest boat starts last.  First boat to cross the finish line is the winner.
  • Your start time will calculated once the wind conditions are known and the course length is set.  The calculation uses your Time/Distance PHRF rating.
  • We will post the start times and course on Friday Oct 16th.  They will be email blasted out to the membership and posted on the News Page of the SPSA Web Site.
  • There will not be a committee boat for this event.  All boats will record and report their finish time.  Use your cell phone clock time.  Please also report who finished ahead of you and behind you.  Your honesty is on trial in this event and will be freely discussed at the post free food event.
  • There is no fee to enter this race.  You can wake up on Saturday and if it’s a great day call the crew and go.  
  • However, we would like to know if you and your crew will be attending the post race gathering under the tree.  We do not want to run out of food.


Post Race Gathering Under the Tree

  • Saturday Oct 17th after the Commodore’s Cup.
  • This is a grilled brat’s event.  Since we did not have our Oktoberfest last Saturday we are doing it for the Commodore’s Cup.
  • It would be nice if a few sides just happened to show up.  We will have potato salad and red cabbage.
  • All SPSA members are invited.  This is a BYO event – lawn chairs and drinks.  Please be discrete with your drinks.
  • What time?  That’s easy, after the race.  Put your boat away and get over to the Tree.
  • What if you are not racing?  3 O’Clock might be good.  
  • Where is the Tree?  It’s in the center of the circular parking lot at the east end of Demen’s Landing.  There is free parking all around the tree and more free parking on the northside of Demen’s Landing adjacent to the marina and and a little farther north by the boat ramp.
  • The cost?  For you, nothing.  Treasurer Richard Boler reports we have plenty of money to handle this.  If you plan to attend, let us know you are coming so we have enough food.  TreinenRich@aol.com
  • By the way, we have asked the city to kill the fire ants.


Board Meeting Highlights – Last Evening Wednesday Oct 7th.

  • Our membership sits at 98.  That’s is very good considering all stuff going on this year.  Just a few years ago we were a little short of 50.
  • Our financial position is strong.
  • We have new members without boats and new members with boats.  That’s a good mix if you don’t have a boat or if you need crew.
  • The first two races days went well.  We still have a few bugs to work out. People are getting out on the bay and that is good.  
  • You should have received your 2020-21 Membership packet.  It was either handed to you at the annul meeting or just arrived by US Mail, or maybe it will come next week.  This is important because the new racing placard is included and our racing marks have new names.  Don’t panic if all you have is last year’s placard.  The new “Government mark” names and old “Alpha” mark names are on that placard.
  • We talked a lot about our handicapping system.  If you’ve ever been involved in these talks you know they can get a cantankerous. Surprisingly that did not happen last night.  We even had a few good laughs.  We use the WSIEH system where a boat’s handicap is adjusted after every race based on it’s relative performance. It’s not perfect, no handicap system is.  In our current implementation of WSIEH we have found a “new to the fleet” boat’s rating jumps uncomfortably up and down over the first few races.   With more race results it settles down.  We are looking more closely at the adjustment calculations.  Maybe we can make it a little better.  At some point we will seek the the input from our skippers before we do anything.  In the end the objective of our sailing club is for everybody to get out on the water and have lots of good laughs with new friends.  With all the crap going on around us, that is a good day.  Let’s have lots of them.

    Oct Board Meeting and News

    Hey Sailor,

    Here’s the newest bits of information about your St Petersburg Sailing Association.

    • Three Races in the bag.  Fall Series Race Day #1 saw approaching foul weather leading to abandoning the second race.  Race Day #2, in great wind, completed both races.  Thanks to Charles Archer on Surge and Richard Boler on Desiderata (2X) and their crews for handling Race Committee.

    • Oct 7th at 6 PM Board Meeting.  This is a recurring meeting planned for the 1st Wednesday of every month.  Sometimes it moves to another day.  We are continuing this meeting as a Zoom event until all officers are comfortable resuming our in person meeting.  If you would like to sit in please let me know and I will send the Zoom meeting information.  This is a good chance to meet your officers and volunteer help run our events.  Planning for the Commodore’s Cup and after party is this month’s big agenda item.

    • Oct 17th Commodores Cup  11 AM first boat start.  This will be a pursuit race over a measured distance.  Your handicap is used to calculate your start time.  1st boat to cross the finish line wins.  This event does not have a Race Committee, everybody gets to race.  Your honesty will be on display for all to watch and discuss at the post race gathering.  These races are alway a lot of fun.  Watch for a posting of your start time.  Please register so we can be certain to have both a handicap and start time for your boat.  If you have trouble registering for the race, send me or any officer an email and we will get it fixed.

    • Oct 17th Post Race Gathering.  We are planning another under the tree event on Demen’s Landing for race awards and social distancing.  Put your boat up and come over to the east end of Demen’s landing.  Watch for details, we will post once we figure out what we are going to do.

    • Need Crew or a Boat to Crew on?  This is your chance to find crew or a skipper.  We are pleased with the number of boats getting out on the bay under the current craziness   Every day out on the bay is a great day.  As the pandemic goes away, skippers will be looking to add crew.  Let Brian Conlin know what you need.    Membership.Chair@spsa.us

    Let’s Go Sailing!

    Sept 26 Race and Post Race – not at Courigan’s

    Hello Sailors,

    See below for information on tomorrow’s regatta and post race meet up:
    FYI, the Sailing Instructions are attached, monitor VHF channel 72 for updates.  
    The race committee boat will be a blue Scarab powerboat.  Look for the boat and flags to find the start line.
    The Post Race meet up plan for tomorrow Sept 26.: Not a Courigan’s Meet up:

    Let’s play it safe again.   And head back to the tree at the east end of DemensLanding, around 3:30pm.  It will be another BYO lawn chair event. If all of the links are in place and working we will have race results shortly after the race, and awards for the day.  Put your boat away and bring your crew over to the tree.  If nothing else we can relive race days past and talk about boats. 

    Remember to be discreet if you are partaking in drinking adult beverages, as this is a public park.
    If you are not familiar with the location, “the tree” is located in the circle at the end of Demens landing :


    Rich Treinen

    News 19 September 2020

    Hey Sailors,

    Here’s a bit of news and information about our upcoming races.
    • Last Evening.  The rain didn’t get us at the Annual Meeting last night.  We had a good turn out, all things considered.  It was great to have a real meeting once again and a rain free day.  The vote was unanimous, as they usually are for club positions.  There were no choices.  Thank you to my fellow officers for stepping up to keep our sailing club prospering.  If you missed the meeting, here’s a ten second recap:  we have plenty of members, boats and sailors; our finances are looking good, everyone is itching to go sailing, your membership packet will be mailed out soon.
    • September 26th SPSA Series Race Day #1.  11 AM start.  Robert Hopkins has race committee duty.  Please Register, this helps the  Race Committee.   Sailing Instructions can be found on the SPSA Web Site and in your Membership Directory. They will be also added to the Series Docs tab soon.  To register http://spsa.us/ look under the Racing drop down tab, click on Regattas.  You want Id 19 2020-21 SPSA Fall Series.  New this year is a split Series, Fall & Spring, 4 race days each, 2 races targeted for each day.  There will be trophies for Fall, Spring and Combined Fall & Spring.  There is no fee to enter.  Don’t worry about not being able to make all four race days, there are throw outs.  Even if it’s just one day, it’s always great to get out on the bay.  We expect skeleton crews at the beginning and as covid-19 goes away boats will load up with crew.  See this as an opportunity to get out on the bay in your boat or somebody else’s boat. You might even sign out a Sailing Center Sonar or, if you are a Yacht Club member, one of the J-70s.  Any way you do it, it’s always great to get out on the bay.
    • October 3rd SPSA Series Race Day #2.  Same as above except a different race committee

    SPSA Annual Meeting this Friday evening

    Hey Sailor,


    Our SPSA Annual Meeting and Banquet starts at 6:30 this Friday evening, 18 September.   This event is usually held in the Ball Room at the Yacht Club.  We’d have a happy 1/2 hour, you would then hear speeches by all of the current officers and then the election of the 2020-21 officers.  When all the business is over, we celebrate with more drinks and a fancy buffet dinner.  Noreen steps up and does her trivia contest.  Awards are handed out for the SPSA Series winners.  This is not the case this year. Here’s our contrived plan to circumvent the current pandemic issues.  We’re going outside.  We are going to social distance and be safe.  Hopefully we will never have to do this ever again.

    • 6:30 at the east end of Demen’s Landing.  There’s free parking adjacent to the grassy areas and also to the north by the municipal gas dock.
    • Bring a lawn chair and or blanket, maybe a ground cloth too since the ground might be wet.  Bring an umbrella and your fowl weather gear if that looks like a good idea.  Stake out your safe area.  Masks are encouraged.
    • You are on your own for food and drinks.  That’s why there’s no charge for this years awards banquet and dinner.   Please be discrete with your beverage choices.  I have heard the city uses this as a stick to quell bad behavior   Here’s the official link so you will be informed.  https://library.municode.com/fl/st._petersburg/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIISTPECO_CH21PARE
    • Here’s the agenda:
    • 6:30 Commodres welcome
    • SPSA Officer Reports
    • Election of 2020-21 SPSA Officers
    • Trivia Contest – study up on your racing rules and all other things nautical
    • SPSA Series Winner Awards
    • We all hang around or go home
    • In the event of bad weather we will pare the meeting to the essentials


    Let’s Go Sailing!