It's time to get boats off the beach as people are looking for places to park their boats for the Winter.  There's plenty of room in the grassy area as soon as Ki moves the sprinkler out of the way. If you plan to take your boat home (or to a storage place), now is the time to do it.  Please attempt to keep all members in mind as to our limited storage space.  Please try to park trailers close together so others may have a space to park.  Also plan to check on your boat after heavy rains or snow. Rick Graef is now going to be doing shrink-wrap for our members as Cam Borkowski is not available.  Rick should give you a great deal for expert work.

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Good sailing days to all Eagle Creekers! Please remember to put your stickers on your boat and trailers. We still have some boats on the property that are not current on membership stickers. Stickers are supposed to be changed out early in the season and if they are not done by the end of June, you can be fined $100...added to your membership fees. All fees must be paid in order to renew your membership next year. Dennis Robertson is still waiting on the time deadline requirements for some derelict boats...they should be removed in a month or so. Dennis will be taking the lead in the Harbormaster department next year. The lower grassy area is not going to be converted into a gravel parking lot and is going to remain a grassy area. It will be used during Winter storage for parking dinghies and catamarans. This will possibly alleviate some of our overcrowded parking during the Winter off-season. All boats on club property during the winter will be charged for storage. Kenny Chapman Harbormaster

Hello Eagle Creekers, hope everyone is enjoying the season so far. Many may have noticed that we have removed the playground equipment to make way for the new sailboat parking lot. The new playground equipment will be placed up by the upper shelter. At this time in the season, I need every boat with a wet slip in the water and trailers up top to make this project possible. The boats along Hobie Row (North side of Beach road) will be moved to the incoming road or other spots to clear the area for dump trucks and large equipment doing this work . Our long-time friend and contractor Bill Williams will be doing this work…please be respectful. At certain times, I will be moving certain boats from alongside this work area to make this work safe to all boats. Please put your current stickers onto your boat and trailer or you will be fined $100 until the stickers are on your boat and trailer. This means all of your boats, canoes, and kayaks. This fine will be added to your membership fee and if not paid, you will could your membership. Dennis Robertson, the other half of the Harbormaster department, and I are trying to make this club like a real marina. We are not a boat storage facility for unused boats. Many of you may know we have never had this many members ever - yet we still get 20 plus members every year. We still have about 15 members waiting for slips. Please do not overuse the 48hr docks. Members with multiple boats will soon be paying an extra storage fee for multiple boats as we are basically out of room on the water and on land. If anyone is willing to sublease their slip this year, please contact Dennis, Perry Cameron (membership chair), or me. If you do not use your slip for a whole year, you stand the chance of losing that slip. More to come, Kenny Chapman  

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Letter-to-the-Editor

Derelict Boats & Trailers.

From the Club Secretary:

I want to draw your attention, please, to the new Derelict Boat & Trailer policy that was approved by the Board last Tuesday and is now included in the Club's General Rules. If you keep your boat and trailer in good condition, then you have no worries. If you are one of the few members who pretty much treats their boat like junk and is non-responsive to the Harbormaster Committee to clean up your mess, then the Club is going to take action and it could cost you $100 per month. Why? For many years the Harbormaster Committee has put an excessive amount of time into cleaning up the mess (abandoned boats) left by others, and this is going to stop! We value those members who take care of their property at ECSC. For those who do not respect our club, you need to get your act together, or consider taking your neglected boat and trailer elsewhere. Remember, the club is not your mother and the days of tolerating junked-up boats and trailers at ECSC is coming to an end.

You have been notified.

As more boats go onto the water, we have more parking available. Please park your cars inside the car corral. Please do not park in front of someone's boat because you don't understand that people need to get their boat in. So, with that said, get your boats out of the car corral and into your wet slip. If you don't plan on using your slip this year, please contact Dennis Robertson or me so we can help some new members get onto the water. As of May 1st, you will get $77 less for your reimbursement for your unused slip. It goes down $77 per month, so don't wait too long to help others out. Please respect other members of this club...your membership number means nothing to me no matter how low it is (unless you want a slip change). Please understand, we are a group of people who love sailing...so don't make it hard on others in our group. I am going to make some motions at the board meeting. One is: If you don't use your slip all year (unless sublet) you lose it. The second is: If you keep more than one SAILBOAT out here, you will have to pay more dues for that second boat. I would like the board to come up with a number for a second boat stored all year on club property. Now, if you have a third or fourth boat, it should be an extra $400 dollars per boat...or more depending on the size and number of boats. This is up to the board of directors as far as how much members should pay for a number of boats on the property we rent from the city. This may not take effect until next year's dues. Please do not forget to pay your dues on time (before the end of February each year) or you may lose your slip and membership number. Please respect all members. Kenny Chapman Harbormaster

Hello fellow Eagle Creekers, I hope this year is great for everyone. I will be doing some jobs onshore...so if you can get your boat into the water sooner than normal, we will be able to get things started. Please be advised that if you don't have a slip yet, you will be able to use the 48 hr. docks.  This means 48 hrs. and another 24 hrs to get in and get out...no more than 72 hrs. total. If this rule is broken you may be fined and your boat may be locked to the dock. This system was overly misused last year and it will not be happening again this year.  We currently have 10 people waiting for slips...not to mention another 10-20 members who prefer to dry sail.  We only have about eight 48-Hour slips along with a few other "spare" slips.  We also have members who sometimes need to work on their trailers.  If that is the case, please contact the Harbormaster Department...that would be me (Kenny Chapman) or the other half (Dennis Robertson).  Either one of us can give you extended permission. If you are parked along the sides of the grassy area South of the lower shelter, expect your boat to be moved around to accommodate heavy equipment that will be used to expand parking for sail boats.  If you can get into the water soon, it will help as I will only have to move your trailer. The water is almost at full pool, so getting your boat out into your slip will be good for all.  The Trailer Park shouldn't be used until May 1st, but if there are plenty of leaves on the trees blocking vision from 46th street or the neighborhoods, we may be able to park up there a bit sooner.  The last thing we want to do is upset the HOA in the nearby neighborhood. Also, I have pulled out all junk trailers from the upper Trailer Park.  They are on display in the grass area on the incoming road.  We are not a storage facility.  If you see your junk on display, please take it elsewhere. Lastly, please put your stickers onto your boat and trailer.  If this a problem due to lost stickers, please contact Perry Cameron for more stickers.  If you don't put stickers onto your boat and trailer, then you will have to deal with the Harbormaster Department! Kenny Chapman Harbormaster

Greetings ECSC Sailors, I have a few large and small-ish projects this year that I hope we can get done. They are: 1) Repairing/replacing the cable along the beach for boat tie down. This will be the first project. 2) Finishing the upper structure of the new Gin pole. 3) Building a new Kayak rack that will hold all the Kayaks and provide a secure place to lock up a kayak or canoe. 4) Adding to our sail boat parking area and relocating the playground area (with new equipment), along with more official camping sites. 5) The launch ramp rebuild. The most challenging task is building the coffer dam which holds the water back so concrete can be poured. I was in contact with Dam-it Dams Inc. They were going to give me an updated bid on renting us a 300' (4-75' sections) with a circular dimension of 12- 14'. The previous bid was around $25,000 just for rental and a guy from Michigan to direct our team installing their water-filled tube(s). Not sure why they can't provide their own team to install it themselves. Several issues are coming up that will increase the cost of this installation. First we will have to rent a barge to connect the three connection points and put some sort of connection sleeve around each connection point. Each 75' section is about 5600 lbs. The sections are unrolled and laid out. The unrolling is done by filling it with water. This will be an extra cost along with a barge to rent some sort of water pump. I guess we will have to rent a skin diving crew to make the connections. We'll need a barge that would hold 5,600 lbs (that is about 30 people). The other cost is to rent a water pump to pump out the water within the coffer damn, it is going to have to be huge with a 6" intake, maybe two of them. Then there is the partial removal of about twenty feet of the seawall and a grading of that area to allow this dam to come out of the water gradually also where it goes in to the West of our ramp the rip rap should be removed to allow a smooth surface to prevent leakage through the rip rap. The biggest concern is that after it is installed it leaks like a sieve and the water keeps coming in. Please understand I will keep you up to date on this list of concerns and extra costs. My plan is to attempt this in the last three weeks of June.  If any of you are interested in scuba diving or have any ideas please contact me @ 317 550 8955 Kenny Chapman. UPDATE:  Dam-it Dams Inc. has decided to pass on this project.  They say the water is too deep. Kenny Chapman Harbormaster