This year the EAST/WEST Challenge returns to the West Coast. The 2012 event will be hosted by NHYC the weekend of October 6-7. The event has expanded over previous years with the addition of new fleets to the H20 Class. This year the EAST team will be composed of 8 boats, with four boats handled by sailors from Fleet 3, Hilton Head, SC and four boats handled by sailors from Fleet 5, Annapolis MD. The WEST team will be composed of 8 boats, with four boats handled by sailors from Fleet 1, Newport Beach, CA and four boats handled by sailors from Fleet 4, Santa Barbara, CA.

Selection of the sailors who will represent Fleet 1 will be determined by the High Point standings as of Sunday, July 15. There are nine High Point races days between now and July 14, so if you want to participate in the EAST/WEST Challenge, you need to actively participate in the Fleet 1 High Point series. The top four skippers in A Fleet as July 15 will have the priviledge of representing Fleet 1 as skippers, and the top four skippers in the B Fleet will  have the priviledge of representing Fleet 1 as crews.

The 2012 EAST/WEST Challenge is shaping up to be a premier event bringing H20 sailors together from around the country for a weekend of racing and social activities. If you do not end up on the Fleet 1 sailing team, there will be lots of other ways to participate, so stay tuned for details. We hope to see you there!

Race education for the 2012 season started off with a bang with the “Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing” seminar on Sunday, January 29, at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. Thirty five people attended, from as far away as Los Angeles, Redlands, and Santa Barbara. A number of C-Fleet folks were in attendance as well as several new Harbor 20 owners. And, about a third of the attendees were from other fleets, primarily PHRF, now that folks are starting to look to the Harbor 20 Fleet as the place to learn about sailboat racing. As this experience can be a bit like “drinking from a fire hose”, there were also many repeat attendees, some who have been up to six times.

“As a B sailor rules have always been hard for me. The visual approach really helped” -Kathy Sangster

“The best rules seminar I have ever been involved with”. -Sandy Mills

“A must for anyone racing sailboats. Peter makes a complex and arcane set of codified rules understandable and interesting. This fast paced one-day class is supported with excellent reference materials”. -Bob King

“The animations bring the rules to life. This course provides a chance to experience the rules with examples that allow the student to connect the actual rules to the practical application of getting through the race. Should be required course work for all participating in large fleet racing”. – Mike Psomas

“Having never had andy formal sailing training, I am very happy to have attended this seminar which helped me begin to understand how important the rules are to making the race fun, safe, and fair”. -Donna Vordale 

“I can clearly see why the crew needs to come too”. -Ted Reed

If you missed this event, the Rules seminar will be repeated on September 9, three weeks before the Championship.

The next seminar will be “Boat Handling & Sail Trim” on March 11. We hope to see you there!

January 31 has passed, and we’re closing out the 2012 Harbor 20 Roster.

If you are a racing member, I urge you to take care of this in the next two days, PLEASE! You’re going to have to pay anyway, why not now. Any racing after January and you will not be “legal” without paying dues! I want to include you in the 2012 Roster, it will be a sellout blockbuster!

I’d rather include everyone, especially those procrastinators who put things off, the eventually pay, and then say, “I wish I had…”

IF YOU PLAN ON BEING INCLUDED:

 

1. SEND ME AN EMAIL AND TELL ME “I’M IN,” OR “I’M OUT.” THE “I’M INs” will be in the Roster, and we’ll trust you to send a check. The “I’M OUTs,” well, thanks for your participation in the past and “Good Sailing.”

 

2. FOR THE “I’M INs,” WRITE A CHECK, CHECK OVER YOUR ROSTER DATA, AND MAIL YOUR DUES TODAY. YOUR ROSTER DATA WILL BE THE SAME AS LAST YEAR UNLESS YOU SEND IN CHANGES BY MAIL OR EMAIL IN THE NEXT TWO DAYS.*

Pretty simple. Please make my/our life easy and take care of this so WE don’t make a mistake regarding your intent at participation in 2012.

Many thanks,

Jim Kerrigan

Roster Maven

 

* If you’ve “lost it,” go to harbor20.org, second tab from the left, “About the Class,” and below, click on “Join.” The information and the link to the roster form are linked to this. At least markup and highlight data that’s new, the mailing address is there, and then you’re done.

—

 

The South Atlantic Yacht Racing Association, the regional organization for yacht clubs and sailors in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, held its annual convention in Hilton Head, South Carolina on January 28 and 29.  To wrap up the annual meeting, Harbor 20 Fleet 3 and South Carolina Yacht Club invited nine member clubs of SAYRA to compete in an Inter-Club Challenge regatta in Harbor 20s on Sunday, January 29.  Members of South Carolina Yacht Club loaned their boats for the event and an owner representative sailed on each boat with a skipper and crew from the entering club.

The SCYC Race Committee, with Kevin Keogh as principal race officer, ran three races, each about 45 minutes long, in a northerly breeze with oscillating shifts that kept the competitors and the race committee on their toes and produced three different race winners.  Despite the shifty breeze, it was a beautiful January day for racing on Calibogue Sound.  In the end, consistency won the day.  The winning team’s record was a third and two seconds in a fleet of nine boats.

Handsome wood carving boards were the prizes presented after racing to Atlanta Yacht Club skipper Brice Dryden in first place, South Carolina Yacht Club Gary Gleason in second place and Charleston Ocean Racing Association skipper Rob Bowden in third place.  The other competitors in order of final placing were Columbia Sailing Club, Beaufort Yacht & Sailing Club, Savannah Yacht Club, Keowee Sailing Club, Carolina Yacht Club of North Carolina and Charleston Yacht Club.

The deadline to postmark registrations for the “Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing” seminar at BCYC on January 29 at the lower price of $75.00  is Saturday, January 21. Thereafter the cost is $85.00. The reason for a deadline is to encourage folks to help us with logistics, because the club requires a head-count ahead of time for purposes of facility planning and food/beverage preparation.

START THE NEW YEAR OUT RIGHT!

LEARN OR RE-LEARN THE RACING RULES!

A unique teaching method makes this seminar a learning experience, as differentiated from “question and answer” rules clinics, which are generally unstructured, and pre-suppose some rules knowledge. This seminar is structured in such a way that each concept leads to the next making comprehension easy and natural. Animated PowerPoint makes the rules come to life. Here are some comments from folks who have already attended:

“I’ve been attending rules seminars all my life – I’ve seen them all – and this is the best I’ve ever seen!” –Tom Schock

“I was impressed with how you presented the sailing rules in an interesting and entertaining way. The class drew all levels of sailors from beginning sailors like myself to sailors have been racing competitively for 50 years and more. The visual teaching coupled with your workbook were a great way to learn. I was surprised with how quickly the day slipped by and how much we covered.” –Trish Ramser

“At $75 this seminar is a real bargain and offers much more than seminars at double this price, the 120 plus page handout is easily worth the seminar price itself. Along with boat handling and racing strategies and tactics, the rules of racing are critical knowledge for the casual and experienced sailor.” -Tom Madden

“I learned in one day what would ordinarily take 10 racing seasons to learn. Invaluable!” –Guy Doran

“Comprehensive, informative and well presented. I’ll be back because repetition is essential.” –Mary Bacon

“An absolute winner! From novice to knowledgeable in one day.” –Nina Manning

“I could attend this course over and over and would learn something new every time.” –Neal Crowley

While this seminar was originally prepared to the Harbor 20 Fleet, there is nothing H20 specific in the materials.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

Click here to Register.

We hope to see you there!

Two of the C Fleeters (Nina Manning and Michael Volk ) are going to meet at 1300 in the Turning Basin for a fun, very low key, scrimmage. Alexander from WD Schock will sail with Michael Volk and mentor the group.

They will do some starts as well as upwind speed tuning.  Intent is to be informal and low key.

Invite extends to any and all who are interested in joining.

 

This Sunday, 6pm at the LIYC, is the Fleet 1 Annual Holiday & Awards Dinner.

• Pre-Dinner Appetizers
• Hosted Wine, Beer & Spirits
• Prime Rib & Turkey Dinner with all the fixings
• Slideshow of the “Year of Fleet 1”
• Annual Awards, Recognition and Spoofs
• New Board Vote
• Live Entertainment
• Desert
• Dancing

 

“I want the cost of this year’s event to be brought down to $35/person so that we get as many people attending as possible – BUT, I want to make sure we have good food & good wine!”

– John Whitney, Fleet 1 Capitan

 

We think the Event Committee delivered! The event starts promptly at 6pm at the Lido Isle Yacht Club. We lowered ticket prices this year but kept the same quality food, and improved on the wine and added spirits to the hosted bar. Bring an appetizer to share if your last name is A-L. Bring a desert to share if your last name begins with M-Z.

Three ways to RSVP:

• Buy Tickets Online Now by Clicking Here.
• Email your RSVP to reservations@harbor20.org (provide names of all that are attending). Pay at the door when you arrive.
• Call Alice at 949.497.2008. Pay at the door when you arrive.

 

“…Everyone in Seattle knows about the popular Duck Dodge series that runs on the city’s Lake Union in the summer.  Almost 100 boats turn out each Tuesday for a different themed race each week.  From Hawaiian Night to Toga Night, this popular series focuses on having fun. There is no cost to enter, and there is only one rule: Don’t hit each other.

Less well known, but still well attended, is the Goosebumps series every Sunday in January and February, also on Lake Union.  Of course, it is hard to have a Hawaiian Night or a Toga night in the winter in the Pacific Northwest.  If there were a theme for the Goosebumps, it might be fleece and foulies.

With more than 20 Harbor 20s scattered around Puget Sound and various lakes, Signature Yachts, located on Lake Union is working to get boats out sailing together this winter. Five boats have already committed to at least one or two of the Sunday events, with Signature Yachts hosting the boats at its dock after the races.  2 of the 5 Boats are skippered by Women.

Plans call for tuning sessions, sail trim clinics and Harbor 20 gatherings in the spring. Signature is trying to build the Harbor 20 fleet and get the existing boats out in a fun and casual setting….”

The window to order new sails for Fleet 1 is closing in 14 days. You must purchase your new sails no later than November 30th. Your next opportunity to purchase sails will be October 1st, 2012.

Information about ordering sails can be found here.

Purchasing for tickets to the Harbor 20 Awards and Holiday Dinner is available now online. If you haven’t already received your invitation in the mail, you should in the next day or two.  This year, we’ll be accepting your reservations and ticket purchases online. Click here to purchase now. We are using PayPal, a safe and secure online payment system. This allows us to get head counts early and makes it very quick and easy for you to buy your tickets.

The committee has worked hard to reduce the ticket prices this year to encourage more to come to this annual, fun event. This year, we brought the price down to $35 per person, which includes:

• Prime Rib or Roast Turkey Dinner
• Hosted bar (wine, beer, spirits)
• Entertainment (live entertainers)
• Venue (at Lido Isle Yacht Club)

The reception starts at 6pm. Dinner starts at 7pm. Awards begin at about 8pm. If you have never attended, don’t think is is another long-winded boring awards dinner. This is the Harbor 20 group doing what they do best: drinking, eating, socializing and boasting about their tactical sailing skills.  Some even get into dancing on the dance floor after the Awards.

Who will get awarded the coveted Rain or Shine this year?  Who gets the un-coveted Broken Rudder Award?

If you planning on attending, get your tickets online today.