The Membership Committee is pleased to announce the acceptance of another new family into the Back Creek Yacht Club.  Please check out the details here. Members Only Page

Be sure to welcome the new members approved this month when you seen them at the next event.  Check out the details on the membership only page. Members Only Page

It’s February and its warming up (NOT), except for BCYC.  Many thanks to our BCYC hosts for our January and early February events!!!

BCYC South:  Pam & John Loving, Geraldine & Bill Falk, Chris & Colin Soucy, Madi & John Yates/Mary & Richard Ross, Eileen & E.Don Smith, Jo Rys & John Oberright – with special thanks to Madi Yates for orchestrating our schedule for South Events and John Yates for keeping the Superbowl live!

BCYC North:  Vice Commodore Jamie Ritter, Commodorable Gail & yours truly, and special thanks to Cindy & Westbrook Murphy for a fabulous dinner and musical event on Valentine’s Day

While our BCYC South continues to keep things hot - it’s not hot enough to melt the snow here in the North.  BWI airport registered a temperature of 1 degree at 7 AM, shattering the old record low for the state for February 20. That was set in 1979 when the temperature was 4 degrees.  Yesterday’s Winter Weather advisory caused us to postpone Rosie Cavin’s & Patti Bartlett’s Chinese New Year’s event until this evening.  It’s already a balmy 44 degrees here, so it should be a fabulous event – think I’ll still wear socks though.

I am sure we all agree our hosts are what make BCYC what it is.  Thank them next time you see them and I encourage all to host or co-host an upcoming event.

Our Board of Governor’s (BOG) held their first meeting of the year on January 31st.  We conferenced in our away BOG members with a newly acquired speakerphone – still a few kinks to work out, but all in all we had seven in person and nine dial in.   The key agenda topic was presentation and subsequent approval of our 2015 Budget.  Our Treasurer Mary Bowie and her Finance Committee’s detailed planning and due diligence have us on track for another successful year!!!

Hat’s Off to Otto Hetzel and Pamela Budesheim for keeping us in the news!!!  Check out page 52 of February’s SpinSheet for Otto and Bonnie Hetzel’s Burgee Exchange with the Hawaii Yacht Club (www.spinsheet.com), and page 41 of February’s PropTalk for a summary of our recent events (www.proptalk.com).

Our Membership Chair Laurie Crosley and her committee are seeing a lot of activity in the new member/perspective new member department which is great news!!!

Coming up…
28 February – BCYC South Partys in the Pocket

7 March - Rear Commodore Terry Bidnick has set up an Educational Event to be hosted at the Annapolis Maryland Capital Yacht Club.  This is also a first for BCYC, because we are inviting the resident boaters at Chesapeake Harbour Marina to join us…the first fruit of a new relationship between Back Creek Yacht Club and Chesapeake Harbour.  All BakYakkers that can,  come on out and join in.

Time to go shake the snow off the shrink wrap… See you soon Up the Creek!
Bob Higginbotham
Commodore
Back Creek Yacht Club

Please take a minute and look at the New Member Announcement in the members section.  Be sure to welcome them at a future event.

The New Year and the first snow are upon us.  Some shrink wrapped, some went south, and some are doing a bit of both.   The new officers and governors voted on at the Annual Membership Meeting have assumed their offices.  Your new officers, governors and chairs are:                                                

Commodore:  Bob Higginbotham
Vice Commodore:  Jamie Ritter
Rear Commodore:  Terry Bidnick
Fleet Captain:  Colin Soucy
Secretary:  Mary Ross
Treasurer:   Mary Bowie
Governors:  Patti Bartlett, Steve Cavin, Westbrook Murphy, Gary Budesheim, E Don Smith, Chuck Kahle
Social Director:  Rosie Cavin
Cruise Director:  Madi Yates
Mid-Week Chair:  Pat Bernhart
Membership Chair: Laurie Crosley
Webmaster:  Tom Bernhart
Spin Sheet/Prop Talk:  Otto Hetzel and John Oberright

A special note of “thanks” to Bill Kranzer (now Past Commodore), past Secretary Bonnie Hetzel, past Governor Mark Cline, past Cruise Director Juliana Nedd, and past Membership Chair JJ Sullivan.  Thank you all for your dedication, your time, ideas, guidance, and most of all your BCYC Spirit! 

Your Board of Governors and chairs have come up with a lot of great new ideas for 2015.  Of note are:

Kicking off the Year:  For the first time, we have a slate of activities planned for our BCYC contingent wintering over on the Chesapeake Bay, as well as BCYC South Events for those venturing to warmer climes in Florida.  Check out our simultaneous North and South Happy Hours kicking things off this Friday, January 9th, and register soon to let your hosts know you are coming!

Calendar Updates:  Take note, we have made a few change to our calendar at the start of the year.  Wondering where to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day with your spouse/significant other/boat partner?  Here’s your answer: Join hosts Cindy and Westbrook Murphy for a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” 8 PM, Saturday, February 14 at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis.  Optionally preceded by dinner at nearby Carpaccio Tuscan Kitchen.  Fiddler tickets will be $32 each (a 25% discount), and a 15% discount on food (but not drink) at Carpaccio’s.  Details of this event will be posted soon and there will be a deadline of February 5, to make sure we get tickets.

Mid-weeks:  Pat Bernhart has come up with some exciting new extended mid-week excursions to the Mariners Museum in Newport News (February) and Cove Point Light (March).  Keep an eye out for early registration notices for these.

Commodore’s Ball:  This year will mark our shift from the Commodore’s Ball traditionally held in January to a Change of Watch Ball on May 2nd.  Hopefully all of our snowbirds will be back in town and able to join in.  Our social committee has done an outstanding job planning what will be a memorable event.  They have selected Oyster Cove as our venue, bringing the possibility of access by sea to this event.  We will have Mike Lang and the Tiki Barbarians returning for us to dance the night away.

BCYC on the Water:  Colin Soucy and Madi Yates have been busy planning our cruising activities.  In addition to our Annual Club Cruise in May, Tom Bernhart and Richard Sanger are planning the third installment of the Vagabond Cruise for August, which will meet up with our Labor Day Cruise participants at Cambridge.   Be on the lookout for early slip sign up for Labor Day since we expect to see many BakYakkers there.

Gail and I will be kicking off the year by sampling a bit of both the North and South activities.  We are reusing last year’s shrink wrap – won’t do that again – but that’s a story for another time.

See you soon Up the Creek!
Bob Higginbotham
Commodore
Back Creek Yacht Club