Here's The Latest News from SEAS Monmouth
as of November 21, 2021
Message from the Commodore
One More Rhodes Work Session
Monthly Membership Meeting Tuesday November 30
Injured, Immobilized, Adrift: The Unrelenting Spirit of Abhilash Tomy

Scroll down for details
Message from the Commodore
Sadly, the sailing season has come to an end. The boats are at their winter storage locations, and there still are some opportunities to volunteer to finish the winterizing. If you haven’t completed your 4 hours of volunteer time for the year, now is a great chance.

I hope you got some time to get out on the water and take advantage of the many club offerings, whether it was attending basic sailing classes, Sunday sail and dine, activity sails on all 3 boats and some special targeted events like circumnavigating Staten Island, or sailing to lunch in Liberty Park. We started in person monthly membership meetings at Keyport Yacht Club in July, and we plan to continue to meet there. Keyport YC has provided their policy for in person attendance as the following:

  • Attendees must wear masks if not vaccinated
  • If you are vaccinated, masks are optional (though many are wearing them)
  • If you choose not to wear a mask, you must present your vaccination record to Vince Rogers (or designee) to be added to a list of eligible people.
  • This is KYC’s policy which SEAS must abide by to meet in person in their building

A big thank you to so many volunteers over the year from preparing the boats for the water, purchasing the Catalina, cleaning up Jerry’s property, repairing boats and equipment, staffing activity sails, inviting new members to activities, serving on one of our committees, and serving on the SEAS Monmouth board. 

Looking forward to next year:
  • Work will continue on the Catalina to complete the work list created and funded when we purchased it
  • Skipper Requirement Committee’s proposal for skipper qualification and yearly maintenance
  • New board members
  • Attendance in person at SEAS National Meeting in March
  • Preparing the boats for the season
  • Providing sailing opportunities
  • Providing sailing education
  • Committee formed to provide a search and proposal for land to house our mobile sailboat fleet
  • Hosting Sailfest in September for all the chapters

SEAS Monmouth can’t complete all of this without its members and we are thankful to each and everyone of you. I hope to meet more of you next year and hear of all the great volunteers helping to meet all of our goals and events. 

Sincerely,
Karen Ruckdeschel
Commodore
One More Rhodes Work Session
Because the new tarps had to be ordered and weren't available last weekend, there will be another session scheduled this coming weekend.

If you're available Friday or Saturday, please contact Mike Kunkel at makunkel@gmail.com or 862-432-0391.

The boat is at Monmouth Sailing Center, 46 West Street, Monmouth Beach.
Monthly Membership Meeting
Tuesday November 30, 7:30pm
Join us at Keyport Yacht Club for our November meeting.

In addition to a brief wrap up of 2021 and word on what we can look forward to in 2022, there will be a presentation on the recent trip that some club members took to Croatia, with a week of sailing, and for some of the travelers, a land trip also. Come look at the pictures and hear the story - it is an amazingly beautiful place!

Don't miss this opportunity to socialize with other members at the final meeting of the year - we don't have a December meeting. 7:30pm, Tuesday November 30, Keyport Yacht Club.
Injured, Immobilized, Adrift: The Unrelenting Spirit of Abhilash Tomy
On September 21st, during the 2018 Golden Globe Race, a strenuous 48,000-km solo circumnavigation tournament, Commander Abhilash Tomy, a decorated Indian naval officer, was caught in a gruesome, fast-moving storm. It destroyed his yacht’s mast and rendered him injured, immobile, and adrift deep in the Southern Ocean for three days.

A rational person would be hesitant to step foot on a sailboat again after an accident like his, but Abhilash refuses to call his experience a bad one. At least now he has a literal back of steel to accompany his unrelenting spirit. Abhilash explains why he's doing the race again in 2022 when in his own words, he admits, "This is a race for madmen." Click the link below to get the full story!
We need speakers and/or topics
for our monthly meetings
If you know someone who can present a topic of interest to SEAS members, or if you attended a meeting somewhere else that had a presentation that you think would be relevant at a SEAS meeting, please let Joan Venezia know. If you are able to speak with the person about coming to a SEAS meeting that would be great, but if all you have is their name and contact information, with some background information about their topic and where you saw them, email it to Joan at joan.venezia@hotmail.com and she'll take it from there!