Dear Fleet V Members:

 

The sailing season has pretty much come to an end.  Seal Beach Yacht Club is holding their year end Sunday Sailors series and I know that some of you are planning to compete.  It is a great series however it is not one of our High Point races.  I encourage you to attend.  I know that Mike Newey is planning to be there and I’m certain he’d like another Cal 25 to go head to head with. 

 

 “One Time” was the winner of the High Point Series. They also were victorious in the Fleet Championship. The results were as follows:

High Point Series:                                     Fleet Championship

  1. One Time                                           1. One Time
  2. Jane’s Addiction                                2. Jane’s Addiction
  3. Discovery                                           3. Discovery

 

Fleet Championship: 

This year’s Fleet Championship Regatta was attached to the Fall Invitational Regatta as put on by Long Beach Yacht Club.  Don Warner was the PRO and he did a terrific job of giving us three competitive races without having to deal with any interference from the remainder of the Regatta’s competitors.  Essentially we had the ocean to ourselves. 

All of the races were two lappers and there was a lot of competition going on between the competitors.  One Time prevailed with three bullets.  There was some chaos at the starting lines only to be followed by some chaos at the weather marks.  All to be expected in class racing.

While I love aggressive racing it still needs to be conducted within the parameter of the rules.  There were times out there when it seemed as if that wasn’t necessarily occurring.  I bring your attention to the “Sportsmanship and the Rules” paragraph listed in the beginning of RRS 2005-2008 which states, “Competitors in the sport of sailing are governed by a body of rules that they are expected to follow and enforce.  A fundamental principle of sportsmanship is that when competitors break a rule they will promptly take a penalty, which may be to retire.”  Good counsel.   

 

Other Fleet Business.

1. We will have our yearly meeting on January 24th, 2007 at 1830 hours at LBYC.  This meeting will be for the purpose of electing Fleet Officers for 2008.  From a personal standpoint I plan to be a candidate for the Captain’s position and I know that Brad is planning to do likewise for the office of Secretary/Treasurer. Though candidates have declared for these offices, certainly any member can declare his candidacy and go through the elective process.  The office of Fleet Lieutenant (Measurer) is wide open with no persons having stepped forth yet to declare their candidacy.

 

A special guest at the meeting will be none other than Dave Ullman who has graciously consented to attend and give a presentation on wind direction and spotting the shifts within Long Beach Harbor.  If you have not heard Dave speak on this subject before than you have missed an insightful event.  I encourage all of you to attend as you will walk away with an abundance of knowledge that you previously did not have.

 

2. The Fleet Awards dinner may be changed from the original date of February 3rd. 2007.   It seems as though one of our primary members absolutely cannot make it on that date.  I will try to accommodate him as best I can as I would any member.  The backup date will perhaps be February 10th.  Whenever it does occur the cocktail hour will be at 1800 hours with dinner following at 1900.  The menu will consist of barbecued tri-tip, chicken, two salads, vegetables, dessert, etc.  The bar will be “No Host.”  I’ll give you plenty of notice.

 

3. The Fleet has made great advances this year in terms of attendance, organization, standings in LBYC and SCYA.  I want to thank you for your support.  However, we suffered a devastating loss with the passing of Dennis Riggs.  Hopefully we can overcome this loss and move on.  We all miss him, some more than others.

 

Make no mistake, in spite of our 2006 successes the Fleet is in a bit of trouble.  Sometimes I think it’s always in trouble.  If you like class racing and you like doing it in the economical venue afforded by the Cal 25 then it’s incumbent that you support Fleet Races.  ALL Fleet races not just the Wet Wednesday ones.  Certainly no one can be there all the time but we can do better than we have in the past.   I leave it to your conscience and loyalty. 

 

4. If still Captain after the meeting you can anticipate another Fleet meeting just prior to the beginning of Wet Wednesdays 2007.  At that meeting we will have a presentation on the Racing Rules most commonly impacting our racing.  It will be a presentation-not a discussion.  That is to say the Rules will be presented, explained and examples given.  It’s been my experience that when we throw a Rules presentation open for discussion then we too often get bogged down in the minutiae of details and exceptions.  The end result is that the people who would benefit most walk away even more confused.  We don’t want that to happen. 

 

Enough for now.  See you at the meeting and dinner.