November 2025

Celebrations

Birthdays

11/02 Craig Collins	11/05 Jill Harpst	11/11 Mark Hall
11/15 Julia Fraser	11/19 Dolly Rozycki	11/22 Jamie Paglia
11/27 Menno Jager

Anniversaries

11/07 Dale and Jessie Lewis

11/08 Tom and Pam Ambrass

NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT

by Bill Gray

Another season is in the books. The club has been put to sleep for the winter and I ate as much soup as possible at the Fall Work Party. The membership meeting went smoothly. Jerre got this Champagne for winning the Causeway Challenge (again!). Our club is in solid fiscal shape and we have a few potential new members looking at joining for next season. We had our Officers and Board elections and I'm happy to report that after a few hard fought races all incumbent candidates were re-elected. Finally those candidate yard signs can come down! Thanks to Dave Hales for his candidate wrangling. As a reminder 2 Board positions and all Officers are elected every fall. If you are interested in contributing to the club as an Officer or Board Member, please let us know, we are always looking for different members to fill these shoes.

Your 2026 Officers and Board Members are as follows:

President: Bill Gray (term exp 10/26)

VP/Social: Pam Ambrass (term exp 10/26)

Sec/Treas: Pat Donnelly (term exp 10/26)

Bldg/Grounds: Dale Lewis (term exp 10/27)

Harbor Master: Ron Gallagher (term exp 10/27)

Racing Liason: Gene Soriano (term exp 10/26)

Membership: Menno Jager (term exp 10/26)

This year in order to boost attendance at the work parties and get some other projects done along the way we implemented a club work tracking sheet. If you attended either spring or fall work party, you got credit. If you were caught doing good deeds around the club, you got credit. If you paid the work party buy out fee, you got credit. We found that this process worked quite well with only a small handful of members that didn't get credit through one of the above mentioned methods. Those members can expect to receive a note from the club with some options to get credit. We'll discuss this further at our winter Board Meeting but expect this process to continue next season in one form or another. I feel like we were able to get more done around the club with everyone contributing. We also utilized the buy out contributions to the club with almost enough money to cover the full cost of the pressure washing we had done in the spring, which provided a much needed clean up at the club.

Keep an eye out for any future fun winter happenings at the club, attend the hors d'oeuvre parties throughout the winter, and we'll all make it to spring together.

FALL WORK PARTY &
MEMBERSHIP MEETING RECAP

by Dale Lewis

As another sailing season comes to a close, it was topped off by the Fall Work Party, which took place on Sunday, October 26, 2025. After a chilly start, Mother Nature participated in the event by providing a beautiful day. Pymatuning Century Club members did not disappoint. The turnout was great and tasks were completed quickly. The fall membership meeting followed the work, and that was followed by a delicious lunch including a large variety of amazing homemade soups. A huge thank you to all who participated and contributed to the success of this important event. The clubhouse and grounds are prepared to take on whatever winter brings.

Even more than the appreciation of the lunch and work completed around the club, it was a real pleasure to see so much comradery and activity around the club. These events give everyone the opportunity to socialize with the friends you see often and the friendships that are just forming. Whether you were doing backbreaking work or providing moral support, your attendance was very much appreciated.

Many club and ground updates have been completed this past summer. Many of them have been mentioned as “caught doing good deeds” in the Breeze. Apologies if you completed something that wasn’t mentioned in the newsletter, but ALL contributions are greatly appreciated and enjoyed by all members. While many projects are completed, a list of wishful projects remain. Work activities are expected to be quiet for most of the winter. We will pick up again as spring 2026 approaches. Keep an eye out in the Breeze for a call for volunteers to help with projects. Anyone identifying something that could use attention, please let Building and Grounds know what you’re thinking. Thank you, Dale.

PCC Sailing School

Informational Meeting

Saturday, December 6, 2025 4PM

I will be hosting an informational meeting about the PCC Sailing School on Saturday, December 6 at 4pm. If you're interested in any of the following topics, this meeting is for you:

how to get involved and help with the school
how to become a certified instructor: options (at PCC vs. external, cost, commitment, etc.)
our teaching philosophy, scheduling, teaching commitment, etc.

I'll be happy to answer any questions about the school and what has worked well (and what did not) since we opened our doors (or docks :) ) in 2019. Current instructors, please attend if you can to help share your experiences.

Any questions, please do not hesitate to call or text Lidia: 724-967-1910

If you're interested but can't attend on that day, please let me know and we'll either reschedule if there are multiple conflicts, or I will tie off with you separately.

Thank you for all that you have done to support our school for the past 6 years!

PCC... Pymatuning Coconut Cup

by Ron Gallagher

I was driving home from a work trip to West Virginia one day trying to think of ways to get folks to the club and out on the water. What about some sort of race I thought? For me, some of the most fun I've had on the water is racing on Wednesday's nights. Ok, and some of the most frustrating times I've had on the water is racing on Wednesday nights, but that's another story. Since our club does not participate in any racing on the weekends, I thought holding our own race that's geared more towards the fun aspect of racing might work. And that's how the idea of the "Coconut Cup" came about.

I pitched the idea to a few club members, and it grew from there. In order to get as many folks out there as possible, the plan was to hold a race for boats over 16' and a separate race for Sunfish, Laser's, etc.

We picked a date for the race, spread the word and the race was on!

Six boats signed up to race and included various designs and lengths. PHRF ratings were used to keep things equal across the fleet. (Nobody signed up for the small boat race). Some boats started at the gun; others had to wait a few minutes, and one had to wait 6 minutes and 24 seconds to cross the start line. The course was a 4.25 mile backwards P. Sue and Ron Valitsky performed the functions of the committee boat, and three safety boats were on the water in case anyone needed help. (Dave and Sue Porter, Jim and Beth Chatham, and Sue Donnelly). The wind and weather cooperated and allowed all boats to get around the course and finish. Prizes were awarded to the top three finishers (A bottle of coconut rum for 1st place, a coconut themed yard flag for 2nd, and a coconut pie for 3rd).

I think the race ended up being a huge success and fun was had by all involved. There's already plans to make this an annual event and potentially open it up to non-club members!

Here are the participating boats and finish place:

1 - Ron Gallagher and Gene Soriano - Lightning

2 - Dan Elliot and his friend Jeff - Newport Surprise

3 - Paul and Tracy Southerland - Catalina 22

4 - Dave Hales and his friend Paul - Freedom 21

5 - Bill Boros and Bob Weber - Hunter 26.5

6 - Tom Ambrass and Pat Donnelly - Precision 23

Thanks to all that helped make this a great day and to the racers that participated! I'm looking forward to doing this again next year!

RON

COCONUT CUP RECAP

by Paul Southerland

I just wanted to thank all the organizers of the 1^st annual Coconut Cup Buffet Party. We thought it was a huge success! We had so much fun. The race was well planned out. It was so great to see sailboats other than the typical Wednesday night racers participate. Thanks to Ron and Sue and others who manned the committee boat. The weather was perfect for the sail and following party, the food was great (cheeseburgers in paradise and shrimp) and the band was exceptional. They had a great sound and played lots of danceable music. I look forward to this being an annual event and will plan my Summer around it. Next year I hope to encourage more of the non-racer sailboats to participate in this fun event. Paul

REMINDER: CARETAKER'S QUARTERS ARE PRIVATE

As a reminder, the upstairs of our clubhouse is home to Michelle Bish, our on-site caretaker. While this is part of the clubhouse with an entrance at the top of the outside steps and an internal entrance in the dart board room, this is her private residence. If you need to speak with her you can contact her directly or knock on her door but please do not enter without her inviting you in, whether she is home or not.

FOR SALE: several club school boats

The following school assets are for sale to good home. Keep in mind all of these will take some TLC to get them shipshape. Price as listed OBO:

Lightning: $2000
Flying Scot #53: $500
Topper: $500 (not pictured)
Small boat trailer: $100
2 Optis: $300 each

All of these are currently located at the club. Pictures below. All proceeds from the sales will directly benefit our sailing school and allow for further fleet upgrades. Contact Lidia 724-967-1910

Caught doing good deeds

If you see these folks, please say thanks for the good deeds:

Tom Ristvey: covered the cost of repairs in the men's room
Ross and Beth Cummings: ant remediation and cleaning

Thank you all for your contributions to the upkeep of the club!

White Chicken Chili

by Sue Porter

Since this is now a staple at pretty much every work party, we thought you may like to give it a try at home:

2 cans Bush's white chili beans

2 chicken breasts cubed

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can diced green chile peppers

chopped onion

chopped carrots

chopped celery

chopped green pepper

crushed garlic

1 bag of frozen corn (optional)

chicken broth

2 bricks cream cheese

salt to taste

Cook chicken with onion and garlic first. Mix all remaining ingredients in crock pot and cook on Low for 6-8 hours. Add frozen corn and cream cheese in the last hour or so of cooking. Let us know if you tried it and how it turned out!

Monthly Hors d'Oeuvre Parties!

Our monthly Hors d 'Oeuvre parties are some of our favorite events! No RSVP's required and no cost - just show up and bring a dish to share. BYOB or donate to the club fridge! During the winter months (Nov. - Apr.), parties start at 5pm on the first Saturday of every month. During May - October, plan on eating around 6pm to allow more time on the water! This is a great opportunity to invite friends or family and show them what we are all about or meet some of our new members. See you all then!

Next event: Saturday, December 6th, @5PM.

Input to our monthly newsletter is encouraged and greatly appreciated! Please email articles and photos to Lidia at szarak2000@yahoo.com or text photos to 724-967-1910 by the 25th of each month.

Board of Directors

Bill Gray

President

weg108@hotmail.com

724.967.2066

Pam Ambrass

VP/Social Chair

pambras@gmail.com

412-760-0864

Pat Donnelly

Secretary/Treasurer

centuryclubsecretary@gmail.com