Last night I attended the Commodores Ball. A Commodores Ball is a traditional event for our sailing club where the board of directors welcomes the new Commodore to their position and congratulates the past commodore on their seven year service to the club. To be a commodore for our club you must go through every position on the board, totaling 7 seven years of service.
The event was held Eugene Hilton in one of their large areas that over looked the city. EYC, (Eugene Yacht Club) despite it's pretentious name, is rather informal and has sort of a down-home feel, so this is really one of only two events that the membership gets dressed up nicely.
Being surrounded by past commodores the whole thing is a little inspiring to say the last. In the last few few years I have wanted to get more involved with the club as it has given so much to me. Figures at this point that I would open my big mouth about what I could help with;
I was talking to the new commodore Geannie Weiler, one of few lady commodores. Brief history lesson here; in the old days sailors thought it to be bad luck to have a women on a ship. This being said it is amazing that there are any female commodores out there at all. Geannie told me that she wanted to being back the Women's Cup, again it is predominately a man sport so encouraging women to sail is important. I told her that I though it was a great idea and I had an idea to really bring it back with a bang. Here's my idea let me know what you all think :)
I think we should make the women's Cup into a benefit event for Breast Cancer. Participants will pay to get onto a boat, then they will race in a regatta, maybe 2 or 3 short races total. Hopefully we will have lots of women skippers, but we will need men as well. We can have people dress in Pink and all sorts of craziness like tutus and pink dresses, tights, who knows it's all open. The other reason I think event will be great is because it will being community awareness and involvement. We will have to pull ladies from the city who (hopefully) will want to participate, boats from other clubs, and maybe if we are really lucky it will be on the news, in papers, and honestly who doesn't love an organization who donates? There are lots of other side ideas such as a possible dinner with a speaker and booths about the club, Breast Cancer of course, and maybe the different boats and how to buy one. We could also have it either be only women racing or open to men as well, or have the men do different things that still relate to racing such as safety boat, race committee, or just being out on the water watching.
Seattle Sailing Club has already done such an event so luckily for me there is a great example to follow;
The event was held Eugene Hilton in one of their large areas that over looked the city. EYC, (Eugene Yacht Club) despite it's pretentious name, is rather informal and has sort of a down-home feel, so this is really one of only two events that the membership gets dressed up nicely.
Being surrounded by past commodores the whole thing is a little inspiring to say the last. In the last few few years I have wanted to get more involved with the club as it has given so much to me. Figures at this point that I would open my big mouth about what I could help with;
I was talking to the new commodore Geannie Weiler, one of few lady commodores. Brief history lesson here; in the old days sailors thought it to be bad luck to have a women on a ship. This being said it is amazing that there are any female commodores out there at all. Geannie told me that she wanted to being back the Women's Cup, again it is predominately a man sport so encouraging women to sail is important. I told her that I though it was a great idea and I had an idea to really bring it back with a bang. Here's my idea let me know what you all think :)
I think we should make the women's Cup into a benefit event for Breast Cancer. Participants will pay to get onto a boat, then they will race in a regatta, maybe 2 or 3 short races total. Hopefully we will have lots of women skippers, but we will need men as well. We can have people dress in Pink and all sorts of craziness like tutus and pink dresses, tights, who knows it's all open. The other reason I think event will be great is because it will being community awareness and involvement. We will have to pull ladies from the city who (hopefully) will want to participate, boats from other clubs, and maybe if we are really lucky it will be on the news, in papers, and honestly who doesn't love an organization who donates? There are lots of other side ideas such as a possible dinner with a speaker and booths about the club, Breast Cancer of course, and maybe the different boats and how to buy one. We could also have it either be only women racing or open to men as well, or have the men do different things that still relate to racing such as safety boat, race committee, or just being out on the water watching.
Seattle Sailing Club has already done such an event so luckily for me there is a great example to follow;