TO: Commodores of General and Affiliate Members
GYA Executive Committee
GYA Past Commodores
GYA Standing Committee and Council Chairmen
GYA Coordinator of each GYA General Member Club
GYA Associate Members

The Gulf Yachting Association Annual Board of Directors Meeting, in conjunction with the Opening Regatta will be held May 14-15, 2022 at the Jackson Yacht Club, 700 Yacht Club Road, Ridgeland, MS 39157, (601) 856-8844. GYA Standing Committee Chairs and Council Chairs should submit their written reports prior to the meeting to the GYA Secretary. As some mailing and/or email contact information at each club may have changed since our last meeting, please distribute this information to the appropriate contacts at your club if applicable.

GYA COMMODORES (GENERAL MEMBER CLUB COMMODORES) – As a member of the GYA Board of Directors, your club’s attendance is very important. We request that you please respond to the GYA Secretary no later than Monday, April 25, 2022 as to if your club will have representation at the meeting, either by you personally or by a proxy (secretary@gya.org). This information will help to ensure a quorum is met for business to be conducted.

If you have recently lost a member of your sailing community and would like to have them included in the silent prayer during the Board of Directors meeting, please contact the Commodore or Secretary with that information.

The host club has established a room block for lodging at the following:
Courtyard by Marriott,
601 Baptist Dr.
Madison, MS 39110
(601) 605-8810
use code GYA Opening Regatta.
Rates are $119 +tax
last date for this rate is April 22, 2022.

Hilton Garden Inn,
320 New Mannsdale Rd,
Madison, MS 39110
(601) 420-0442
use code GYA.
Rates are $114 +tax, last
date for this rate is April 29, 2022

Jackson Yacht Club will provide all GYA Clubs the program and Schedule of events for the Opening Regatta competition for the following trophies:
➢ Commodore J. Gilbert Scheib Trophy
➢ Commodore John Dane Trophy (Masters Trophy)

Schedule of Events

FRIDAY, May 13, 2022
1700-2000 Regatta Registration and Check-In – Lobby
1730-1830 GYA Executive Committee Meeting – Board Room

SATURDAY, May 14, 2022
0800-0930 Continental Breakfast & Bloody Mary Bar, Dining Room & Bar
0900-1000 GYA Board of Directors Meeting Registration – Lobby
0900-1100 Regatta Registration and Check-In – Bar
0900-1000 GYA Committee Meetings Board Room, other
Trophy Committee
Capdevielle Committee
1000-1100 GYA Board of Directors Meeting – Dining Room
1130-1400 Lunch Service
1145-1200 Flag Raising Ceremony
1230 Competitors Meeting – Pool Canopy
1400 Warning Signal all Classes (back to back races to follow)
1700-2100 Southern Buffet – Lower Level
1700-2100 Island Music with Hunter Gibson – Lower Level
1800-1900 GYA Commodore’s Cocktail Party – Dining Room
1900-2000 GYA Annual Awards Presentation – Dining Room

SUNDAY, May 15, 2022
0800-0900 Continental Breakfast – Bar
1025 Warning Signal all Classes (back to back races to follow)
1100-1400 Sunday Brunch – Dining Room
1400 No races start after this time
ASAP After Racing – Trophy Presentation – Pool Canopy

Click here for Office Notice of Annual Meeting

Click here for Winter BOD Minutes

The supplemental page, covering the 100^th sailing of the Lipton Challenge and other events of that weekend, are available. Pages will be mailed or delivered to yacht clubs this week. If a club bought, for example, 20 books and 5 individuals bought books separate from the 20 bought by the club, 25 pages will be mailed to the club. This is to, hopefully, prevent individual pages from getting creased in the mail. Pages should be available for pickup from clubs by March 11, depending on USPS.  

A little bit about me:  I grew up in Gulfport where I spent many happy summer days at the Gulfport Yacht Club.  It was there that I learned to sail when the teaching platform was the Fish Class Sloop.  I remember them having wooden spars, coarse twisted jute lines and being constantly in need of bailing.  I really wasn’t much of a racing sailor, but I love to tell people that I had the most important crew position on a Fish boat:  Bailer!  I had a little yellow Sunfish that we kept on the beach there at the club that I loved to sail around on while dreaming of something bigger.  When I hear Jimmy Buffet sing “One Particular Harbor”, the GYC and Gulfport Small Craft Harbor in 1968 is what I picture in my mind.

I didn’t really get into sailboat racing until finishing engineering school and moving to Houston.  While there I met a co-worker who was the main sheet trimmer on a Tartan 10 racing on Galveston Bay.  Every Monday I would ask how they did and he would say:  “Oh, we got first place.”  After about the third time, he studied my skeptical look and offered to prove it by inviting me on to the crew.  He was right!  We had an outstanding skipper named Roy Newberry, a fast boat and a good crew; and, truthfully, we never finished worse than second in a race.  I was hooked!  A job opportunity got me back to Mississippi in Jackson and I continued sailing at JYC on Catalinas.  Eventually I joined the club and now I sail in the J/22 fleet there, on the Viper at GYA events and long distance races on big boats whenever I get an invite (yes, that’s a hint).

Enough about me.  The Board of Directors meeting Sunday, January 16 was our first ever effort to do it virtually.  Although I missed the face to face interaction, as I’m sure many of you did, I must say it went off well.  All credit for that is due to the technical prowess of Robbie and Jennifer Schmidt.  Thank you Robbie and Jennifer!  The fall out from the meeting going virtual was that we didn’t get to have the Awards Banquet and distribute the awards that were earned in 2021.  As Commodore Ruthven noted, we have already started on Plan B.  In addition to having the privilege of hosting the Annual Meeting and Opening Regatta, it will be my honor to host the 2021 GYA Awards Ceremony at Jackson Yacht Club!  So, it will be a full and busy May 14-15 weekend at JYC this spring but I have no doubt that the members and staff of Jackson Yacht Club will make it fun and memorable.  So, I look forward to seeing all of you then for an “Opening Regatta of the highest latitude”.  Until then, I wish you fair winds and following seas.

Gary Rogers, Commodore
Gulf Yachting Association

The 2022 GYA Winter Board of Director’s Meeting will be moved from an in-person meeting on Sunday, January 16th to a virtual event via Microsoft Teams (link below with login instructions).  All committee meetings scheduled for Saturday, January 15, 2022 will be rescheduled, each committee chair will schedule with date and time to be announced.  The annual awards banquet scheduled for Saturday evening is being rescheduled as well, details to be released at a later date.

2022 GYA Winter Meeting BOD Meeting Instructions

The 2022 GYA Winter Board of Director’s Meeting will be a virtual event via Microsoft Teams (There will be NO physical meetings at the Gulfport Yacht Club).    The Commodore of each club, GYA Committee Chairs and GYA Past Commodore’s will receive an invite to the Teams Meeting soon.  You can either download the Microsoft Teams or continue on a Microsoft Teams supported browser (A dial in only number will also be available).  When you Join the Meeting, you will be asked to enter your name, for this meeting we are requesting that you enter your name followed by a comma, then the GYA club you are representing, followed by a comma, followed by your title (C for GYA Club Commodore, DR for Designated GYA Club Representative, PC for Past GYA Commodore, CC for GYA Committee Chair or A for Attendee)

e.g. Jimmy Ruthven, STABYC, DR (See above)

If you are attending as a Designated Representative, you must follow the instructions in the meeting notice:

GYA COMMODORES· GENERAL MEMBER CLUBS – Your club’s attendance is very important. If you cannot attend the Board meeting, please send a WRITTEN NOTICE naming your club’s representative to the GYA Secretary-Treasurer via mail: 1245 Kensington Drive, Biloxi, MS 39530, email secretary@gya.org. or hand deliver prior the start of meeting.

January 14-16, 2022
Gulfport Yacht Club
800 East Pier Road Gulfport, MS 39501

TO: Commodores of General and Affiliate Members GYA Executive Committee
GYA Past Commodores
GYA Standing Committee and Council Chairmen GYA Coordinator of each GYA General Member Club GYA
Associate Members

The Winter Meeting of the Gulf Yachting Association will be held on January 14 – 16, 2022 at Gulfport Yacht Club, 800 East Pier Road, Gulfport, MS (228) 863-6796. Since some mailing/email addresses may have changed since the last meeting, please distribute this information to the appropriate contacts at your club.

Please find attached proposed changes from the Racing Regulations Committee, Capdevielle Committee and the By-laws Committee, these proposals will be presented at the board of Directors meeting on Sunday. A detailed schedule is attached.

Friday. January 14. 2022
1800 Executive Committee Meeting & Dinner

Saturday. January 15.2022
0830 Registration
0900 Committee Meetings start according to schedule
1800 Cocktail hour and GYA Foundation Silent Auction
1900 GYA Annual Awards Dinner Banquet,
RSVP to Gulfport YC gyc.frontdesk@gmail.com (228) 863-6796
ext. 306

Sunday, January 16. 2022
0900 Committee Meetings continue Club Commodore Meeting
1030 Board of Directors Meeting

GYA COMMODORES· GENERAL MEMBER CLUBS – Your club’s attendance is very important. If you cannot attend the Board meeting, please send a WRITTEN NOTICE naming your club’s representative to the GYA Secretary-Treasurer via mail: 1245 Kensington Drive, Biloxi, MS 39530, email secretary@gya.org. or hand deliver prior the start of meeting.

All Club Commodores and their members are invited to attend the Annual Awards Banquet. The banquet will be held on Saturday evening at the Gulfport Yacht Club. The banquet cost will be $24.99 per person, plus tax and gratuity (cash bar). Please make your dinner reservations to
Gulfport Yacht Club by January 3, 2020 via email gyc.frontdesk@gmail.com or by calling (228) 863-6796 ext. 306. Gulfport Yacht Club does not cross club charging, a guest registration form has been attached to this notice to pre-register.

The GYA has been offered a special room rate of $114 (king) and $127 (double) at Centennial Plaza located at 200 E Beach Blvd, Gulfport, MS, about 7 minutes from club. If you would like to make a reservation, please call (228) 206-7880, use group code YACHT2022 or go online to
https://centennialplazams.com.

Your GYA Flag Officers look forward to seeing you at the Winter meeting hosted at Gulfport Yacht Club. Please wear your appropriate blazer, club badge and dress slacks for the meeting.

Sincerely, Jennifer Schmidt
GYA Secretary/Treasurer