Nationals are Coming To Marblehead The class voted at last year’s annual meeting to approve Fleet 5?s bid to hold the 2010 nationals, which will be hosted by the Corinthian Yacht Club. The regatta will be held the week of August 16th, starting with measurement and launching on Monday, more measurement and a practice race on Tuesday and racing on Wednesday through Friday. Co-chairing the event are Steve Uhl (steve@macwayuhl.com) and Mike Lane (mlane@katandmike.com), who are bound and determined to make this the best nationals ever. Their goal is 50 boats. Big regattas have a lot of moving parts, but both of these guys are veterans of organizing previous nationals, so they know what they’re doing. But they’re going to need a lot of help, so if you’re able to pitch in, please let one of them know.
Rules Proposals Two changes to the class association rules were introduced at the last annual meeting and are currently under consideration. The first is a proposal to change the bylaws to provide for measurement certificates, and is intended to ease the burden of measuring each boat at the national regatta. The second is a proposal by Doug Trees and Chris Small to allow a fabricated composite keel along with the original cast iron keel currently provided for in the rules. Copies of the proposals and related materials can be found at www.rhodes19.org.
Jerry Is Here For You We’re fortunate Jerry Blouin chose to make Fleet 5 his home, for a lot of reasons. But one of the biggest is that he’s our class measurer, and he’s ready, willing and able to help us sort out any technical issues we might have. We’re all obligated to sail boats that conform to class technical specifications, whether its nationals or Thursday night. But as this is a nationals year, how lucky are we that he makes house calls. You can reach Jerry at 781-990-3548.
Three Races on MRA Days? We’ve sailed two MRA races per day for at least 15 seasons. However in recent years, there has been growing interest in sailing a third race, as several of the other classes do. This issue is again on the front burner, and we suspect that the scales have now tipped to favor three races over two. So expect the question to be raised for a vote at the spring registration meeting in April.
Lock In Your Team Early Have you ever noticed that the guys in front always seem to have their act together – to be a step ahead? When it comes to winning, you can never start planning early enough. And as this is a nationals year, you can be sure the competition is already working to put together the perfect team, which is why the good crew always seem to be taken. Get off to a good start this year and lock in your team early. If you need help finding crew, just let us know.