Wednesday Night Sail and Social became part of the fabric of Mooredale Sailing Club about twenty years ago. The evening was the brainchild of one of our Past Commodores, Bruce Withrow. His idea was for club members to come down go for a sail enjoy the use of the club and not worry about either having to go home and cook a meal or go out to a restaurant and spend more money than you should for a good meal. So the plan was to come down for a sail and after enjoy the evening with a meal that didn't go over $10.
The way the evening works. Cooking teams are formed: They might be a white sail class, a bronze class or just a group who want to have fun and volunteer for the evening. There are only a few rules for the evening and the menu. First no meal should go over $10.00. So the object is to have a full course meal with appetizers and desert for under that amount. For the people cooking there are some good things about the evening. First you get 15 minutes of fame (well at Mooredale at least). The second is that you will not be out of pocket. At the end of the evening you will collect back the money you have spent for the meal. Last but not least you do not have to clean up at the end of the evening. Did I mention you get a good meal and meet lots of nice people?
The price of the meal is worked out by taking the number of diners (including the cooks) and dividing that by the cost of the food for the evening. IE. If there are 50 people for the evening dinner and you have spent $ 400. The cost of the meal would be- $8.00 but the club needs to add $1.00 to cover the cost of plates etc. so the end cost would be $9.00.
The calculation is worked out by posting on the black board the number of meals the cooks will be preparing for the evening. (IE. 1-50) Then as the members arrive they put their name on the board next to one of the numbers. This is for two reasons. One, to let the cooks know how many they are actually cooking for and two, the draw at the end of the evening for the cleanup crew.
Note; If less people sign up for dinner then the cost is re calculated. In the above example if 45 people signed up then the cost would be $10.00 ($9.00 + 1.00)
There have been many memorable meals served at the club. Some members have from time to time done theme evenings, Chinese, Indian, Cajun or some other exotic meals. The good thing is there is no pressure to follow in these footsteps as many evenings are just great BBQs. There are a few things to think about. There are a few vegetarians in the club or people that don't eat beef or pork. (Usually about 3-4 people on any given evening). For those people you should plan a little something extra or different. Keep away from foods that look inexpensive but aren't. Ribs are great but unless you get them on sale will cost more than they are worth.
Theme nights go over in a big way. Some have even come in costume and brought their own music. If you choose to add some kind of exotic drink to your menu, you should plan on adding that on as an extra cost as some sailors don't drink them.
Here is a copy of a quick budget. Think of this as a guide. You can play with the numbers by changing the appetizers or any other number as you need to work within the $10 frame.
Suggested budget (per person):
House: $1
Appetizers: $1.50
Main Meats/Fish: $3.00
Sides: $2
Dessert: $1
Special Note. Don't let some member tell you that you must have ice cream with dessert.
I hope that this guide helps and I hope to see many of you out to our evening of sail and social.
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