Rick Graef – Commodore

Hi fellow Eagle Creekers,

I am honored to be serving my second term as Commodore for the 2023 season. Our club has been built by the volunteer activities of our membership over the previous fifty-four years.  I expect this season to be no different. Your committee chairs, officers, and board have planned an exciting season. I encourage you to reach out to our committee chairs and get involved. If you expressed an interest in volunteering in a specific area, you will be contacted soon. In order to incentivize even more volunteer commitment, we have raised our hourly volunteer work credit to $15/hour, so there is no excuse not to join in, get involved, and make new friends.

This season we have instituted a new system where all watercraft on our property pay a “storage fee” whether stored on land or in a slip (you already paid this in your 2023 dues) .  This was adopted in an effort to eliminate the “free” boat storage that led to a derelict boat issue at our club.  Along with this change, our Harbormaster will be implementing assigned dry parking storage. This requires the marking of all of the boat parking spots on our grounds. This process will take some time to implement, so if you are a dry parked boat owner, I would ask for your patience as we fine tune what is best for our space. The Harbor master will be needing volunteers to assist with this work so watch for the opportunities (come out and earn some work credits).  If you are a wet slip boat owner, this means that your boat needs to be in the water and its trailer moved to the upper trailer field by the end of May. 

Several of the future long-term projects on the horizon include dock repair/replacement, re-roofing the upper shelter, ramp repair, seawall repair, automatic gate for club access, and possible additional enclosed space (either partially enclosing upper shelter or building additional enclosed space). 

Hope to see you all at our spring work party (get your work credits here) on April 15th at 8 AM.

Sail Fast

Richard Graef

ECSC Commodore 2023

EJ Williams / Vice Commodore / Ship Store

A big shout out to Michael Denney for taking over Publicity Chair starting this year.  I enjoyed putting together the Telltales and updating the website over the last 3 years, but I know that it is in good hands going forward with Michael (he’s more of a techie than I am!). 

As many of you know already, Rick Graef has tapped me to be Vice Commodore this year which, in turn, means that I get the reins to the ECSC kingdom come 2024.  I’m excited to learn from and work with Rick this year, and I will do my best to help the club thrive over the next two years.  

Top-of-mind items for me right now include:

1) Updating our front entrance gate.  Eagle Creek Parks seems to be onboard with the project. Next step is making a contact at DNR to get them onboard. 

2) Hosting the Alex Rust Regatta (ARR!) presented by Chasing Bubbles Foundation

This is on June 17th. More details to come. It will be a fun day of kayaking, paddle board races, and pursuit-style sailing races (like the Hornback)

3) Improving ECSC’s volunteering.  Looking at new forms of communicating volunteer opportunities.

4) Working with ECSC Officers on a new lease with the Parks Dept. This is going well. 

5) Continue Ki’s phenomenal efforts toward club beautification and grounds improvement. 

I wish I could attend the Spring Work Part on April 15th but I will be helping Purdue run their electric go-kart race that day.  So I hope to convince Bill to do a 2nd work party later that I’ll help run. 

See you guys soon!

EJ Williams

Vice Commodore

Ahoy!

What a great month we just had! The ECSC Regatta and Beach Party were a huge hit! We had a very large gathering for dinner and the band. The food was delicious with a special thanks to the volunteers!

The kids/family fun day had an awesome turn out with the new Pirate Ship playground and petting zoo! Thank you to Jen Curtis and Tammy Ray!

We can’t forget to mention that 46th Street is finally re-paved and looking nice and smooth. I’m excited to see what’s ahead for the second half of the summer! Have fun and be safe!

Ki Hickok
Commodore