Hey everyone,
I'd like to give a recap of our season and fleet party from last week, and
a preview of 2014. We need still need volunteers several positions that
need people to step in; please see those at the bottom of this note.
Overall 2013 was a solid year for our fleet thanks to your efforts. We had
strong growth and turn out at a number of events. In addition to Thursday
night sailing, our Tuesday team races and weekend events continued to
expand in both number of events and partipation. We had 40 teams
participate in at least one Thursday night race, making us yet again one of
the biggest fleets in the bay. Most important, I believe lots of great
memories were made and friendships solidified.
I'd like to thank everyone that made this possible, in particular our
Thursday night co-chairs *Claire* and *Adam*, Tuesday night co-chairs *Dan*and
*Steve*, Treasurer *Alex*, Tomales Chairs *Rolf and Steve*, TISC Liaisons
Rolf and Claire, Social Coordinators *Lyzz* and *Neha*, race committee
extraordinaire *Rommel*, and TISC director *Chris*. As well as everyone who
fed their fellow sailors during their turns as social chairs, and those who
took the time to slog through traffic to get out to Clipper Cove.
During the party we recognized some award winners, based on a fleet survey
Adam circulated:
- Best crew: *Claire Hulse*Most improved: *Pete Trachy*
- Best sportsperson: *Dan Altreuter*
- Most shipshape: Boat 740, maintained by *Maddy Eustis*
- Best of helping boats in distress: *Rolf Kaiser** and Jordan Paxhia*
- Best social chair: *Steve and Amanda Kleha* (amazing chili)
- Best Volunteer: *Sam Wheeler*
- Winner, Triplehanded Division: *Tom, Sally and Adam*
Winners of events
- Thursday night races: *Maddy Eustis *and yours truly
- Thursday night Crew Series: *Avery Patton Whitmarsh*
--
Goals for 2014:
While our fleet has a number of strengths, I believe we need to continue to
improve in three key areas:
1) *Fleet growth*. We need to bring in new sailors into our fleet,
especially recent college graduates.
2) *Sailing education*. People tend to enjoy a sport and stick with it when
they get better at it. We need to find ways for our more experienced
sailors to help newer sailors improve.
3) *Weekend events*. From our fleet survey, it's clear that people want
more of these.
So, how to address these?
*Fleet growth:*
Thanks to Chris' efforts, it looks likely that we'll be able to charter
TISC's boat(s) to qualified racers on races on Clipper Cove, in exchange
for a modest fee that will feed into a boat maintenance fund. This is not a
long term charter, but probably a one-night-only program to give as many
people as possible a taste of V15 racing, with some getting hooked.
Additional fleet growth will come from outreach. We will email college
sailing lists in the spring to encourage those coming to the Bay Area after
graduation or for the summer will sail at TISC.
For those looking for boats, the TISC impound-lot auction will occur in
January. There are a number of lasers and V15s available. Email
Chris.Childers at tisailing.org for details.
Leading fleet outreach in 2014 will be *Dan, Pete, *and* Al* (me)*.* We’ll
email you more about this program in the Spring and let us know if you want
to help.
*Sailing education*:
I am proposing that our first Tuesday and Thursday nights next year be used
as "Tune Up Nights", where experienced sailors help others setup their
boats. Svendsens has committed to be on hand as well. I'd be happy to do a
rigging and tuning seminar on Thursday; perhaps someone can do something
similar on Tuesday. I propose that *Tuesday April 1 and Thursday April 3
are tune up nights*, with Tuesday April 8 and Thursday April 10 the first
race nights.
Please let me know if you would like to help with this.
*Increasing weekend events*:
I have a goal to increase the number of weekend events next year. There are
a number of proposed events in place in addition to our typical schedule:
- Round-the-island race -- sailing around TI
- Sail / Cycle -- V15s in Clipper Cove, bikes on Angel Island
- Full Moon Regatta – night racing, possibly during Indian Summer
- Bradford Island Regatta -- racing in the Delta
If we could combine these with Ski Sail, Tomales Bay and High Sierra,
that'd be a solid seven weekend regattas, which we could turn into a
championship series.
*What we need:* Each of these needs a Regatta Chair that is responsible for
making it a success. So far, I believe we have the following chairs:
- *Ski Sail:* Avery
- *High Sierra:* Sam and Lyzz
- *Inverness: *Steve and Rolf
- *Bradford Island:* Pete
We are looking for regatta chairs for:
- Round-the-island race
- Sail / Cycle
- Full Moon Regatta
Please let me know if you are able to help organize any of these.
Finally: our 2014 fleet officers are:
- Fleet captain: Al
- Thursday night co-chairs: Claire and Adam once again
- Social chair: Kara and Avery
- TISC liaison / volunteer coordinator: Maddy
- Tuesday night co-chairs: Dan and Steve
- Webmaster: Rolf
- Fleet outreach: Dan, Pete, Al
- Treasurer: Ben Pedrick
If anyone's open to helping out in any of these roles, please let the above
folks know. We'd love the help.
Have a great winter break! Looking forward to seeing you in late March for
dock-in.
Best regards,
Al
asargent at stanfordalumni.org | +1 415 742 1430
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