Take your sailing up to the next level. This two-class series will teach you the racing rules and strategy you’ll need to know to join any racing series held in the waters of the United States or sanctioned under the auspices of World Sailing. The rules of sailing, like the ones for golf, are self-regulated and self-enforced. It’s vital that all participants know and follow the rules at all times.
Don’t want to race your boat? Don’t have a boat? Come learn how to crew a racing boat. The Waukegan | Joseph Conrad Yacht Club is looking for crew members for our Wednesday night club racing season. Meet new friends, get some excitement in your life. This class will teach you what you need to know join a racing crew this year. Don’t sit at home. Get off the couch. Come join the fun at the club!
The club will be open every Sunday from 11am to 3pm for frostbite sailors when the harbor is free of ice. If you are interested in sailing at the club this winter come up to the club at 11am.
Let us know you are interested and we will contact you by email or phone if Frostbiting has to be cancelled for some reason.
Please RSVP below to send us your contact info and date of interest.
The Waukegan | Joseph Conrad Yacht Club is offering a celestial navigation classMost boaters and travelers have been spoiled in recent years by handheld GPS devices, smartphones and Google maps. But, what happens when you are beyond the reach of the cell towers? What happens when the power goes out or the batteries go dead? What’s your backup method for navigation? When you are a thousand miles offshore it’s too late to look for alternative options.
The Celestial Navigation course provided by the Waukegan | Joseph Conrad Yacht Club is designed to teach you everything you need to know to navigate around the world using observations of the sun, stars and planets, along with a dead-reckoning track. The class is taught in 4 sessions:
Sesson 1: Dead Reckoning (prerequisite for all other sessions)
Date: March 11 (11am-3pm)
In this session you will learn:
How to obtain, read and use nautical charts
How to identify latitude and longitude
Measurement scales and other notations
Navigation terms and terminology.
How to plan a navigational track
How to create and maintain a navigation logbook
How to obtain fixes from visual observations
How to compute ETAs
How to identify set and drift and how to compensate for it
How to identify magnetic variation and apply compensation
How to create and maintain a dead reckoning track
Session 2: Navigating by the Sun
Date: March 18 (11am-3pm)
In this session you will learn:
How the sun can used for obtaining navigational fixes
How to use a sextant (hands on)
How to calibrate a sextant (hands on)
How to obtain visual observations of the sun (hands on)
How to use the Nautical Almanac and site reduction tables
How to calculate Line of Position
How to advance sight lines to create a fix
Session 3: Obtaining Latitude and Longitude
Date: March 25 (11am-3pm)
In this session you will learn:
How to test and calibrate chronometers and digital watches to ensure accurate observations and computation
How to compute Local Hour Angle (LHA) for obtaining assumed LAN
How to use a chronometer or digital watch to identify your longitude
How to shoot Local Apparent Noon (LAN) with sextant (hands on)
Session 4: Navigating by the stars and planets
Date: April 8 (TBD)
In this session you will learn:
How to use stars and planets for navigation
How to compute sunrise, sunset and dusk
How to compute Sidereal Hour Angle (SHA)
How to identify stars and planet for observation
How to obtain visual observations of planets and stars with sextant (hands on)
How to compute a Line of Position (LOP) from stars and planets
How to create a fix from multiple stars and planets
Please join us in thanking the wonderful volunteers who helped to decorate the club on Sunday! We had great group of decorators.
The trees were trimmed with care.
We’d like to thank Howard Larson, Andy, Anna and Robert Kepinki, Dave and Kim Perrone, Denise Lapins, Jim, Lynne and Erik Hellquist, Jim and Susan Maivald for making the club look so festive.
Lynne Hellquist brought holiday cheer to the club.
The club is available to rent for private parties and corporate events. You can’t have a better venue for your holiday party! Call Jim Hellquist at 847-623-4188 for more information. There are still some gnomes available for adoption. For a minimum donation of $50 you can take one home this year! All proceeds help to support the club.
The Waukegan Yacht Club provides a full-service yacht club to boaters and watercraft enthusiasts on the north shore. During the sailing season we have weekly club races and a special schedule of fall races. When the harbor is open the club offers dinner service for members and guests on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Off-season the club is also open and available for special events and parties. Members can access the clubhouse 24/7 to use the showers and bathrooms and for safe harbor.
Have a cocktail at the bar or order a tasty treat from the kitchen.
Not interested in racing? We boat along one of the best cruising grounds in North America. Whether you want to go for a weekend or for a month, there are places to go. Cruising with a group gives you the added camaraderie of boating with friends and the added security of numbers. Power boaters will get there faster and sailors will get there cheaper but, on the dock, the drinks and food and love of our lake are the same.
The club has an active power squadron
Cruising with the Waukegan Yacht Club is a no–host event. We try, when possible, to have slips close together. On the day of the cruise, we meet for a brief “captains’ meeting” to work out final details. First boat to the destination helps the later arrivals. Generally, we have a get-together on the dock where each boat brings an hors d’oeuvres and their favorite beverage. There is then the opportunity to go out for dinner as a group or eat aboard. On the return departure, guess who helps with the dock lines!
Another beautiful day in Waukegan Harbor
Don’t own a boat? No problem, the club owns an impressive fleet of dinghies and small sail craft that are free to use by all members. In 2017, the club received the donation of a 27-foot sloop. In 2018, this boat will be available to members for both racing, cruising or just daysailing.
Sailing on the lake is a fun group activity.
Don’t know how to sail? The Waukegan Yacht Club offers and hosts classes for adults, youth and children in sailing, crewing, basic seamanship, sailboat racing and even navigation. Classes are free or discounted for members.
The club’s fleet of sailing dinghies and small sail craft are all available to members
You can see that there are many reasons to join the Waukegan Yacht Club. So, what are you waiting for?
