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Dave and Bill here wishing everyone a Happy New Year! What a year for the J/30 class in 2011! We noted 75 official active class members, 51 US Sailing members and have captured fleet information for 518 J/30 hulls. Our fleets continue to be recognized across the world. The word ca•ma•ra•de•rie means: Mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together. We are very proud of our class as we have developed a sailing leadership image over the years. We have overcome our differences of opinions through various levels of diverse thinking. Across the nation, we have developed a lot of lifelong friends in our class. We are thankful to have the best people with a focus of family. When we disagree, let’s refrain from using Sailing Anarchy and pick up the phone to talk to one another – like in the old days before social media. With a goal to keep the costs of our sport low, let’s work together to produce a class built on the basic foundations of sportsmanship and camaraderie. We are like a softball league on water. As the economic times improve and the new sailing season begins, give yourself a pat on the back for creating a world in which we compete, laugh, collaborate and succeed on and off of the water. In 2012, goals include more forum, blog and video coverage of regattas, renovation projects, racing tips and tricks. Examples: cross sheeting, launching the spinnaker from the front hatch, main sheet systems, vang systems, deck layouts. After reading Nicholas Hayes book Saving Sailing, it is clear that we need more families sailing together. Let’s host more junior regattas and act as mentors to younger sailors. The J/30 is a perfect boat to help Save Sailing. Here are a few topic of focus: RECOGNITION J/30 President’s Recognition Awards North Americans – David McConaughly with Hampton based crew aboard White Boat Newest Member to Finish Top 5 at NAs – Whitney Kent with Team Raiki Media – Molly Winans for coverage of multiple J/30 events in Spinsheet Magazine. Funniest Video – Bob Rutsch http://j30.us/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12454/2011_J_30_NA_s_Race_4_video_of.html Sailor Recruitment – Vic Farmer who created a youth sailing program in Naples Training Videos – Vic Farmer – check many of them out on the J/30 forum Innovative Story – Dell Todd – check out his story on the J/30 website http://j30.us/blog/?p=1148 If you would like to recognize a J/30 class member for accomplishment visit this forum thread. http://j30.us/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12778.html#Post12778 NORTH AMERICANS Congratulations to White Boat skippered by David McConaughy who made the trip from Hampton, VA to win the North American Championship hosted by Annapolis Yacht Club. Steve Buzbee and the Blue Meanie crew finished second. Bob Rutsch and Mike Costello’s team sailing BeBop finished 3rd. The 2012 North American Championship will be hosted by New Orleans Yacht Club in October 18-21. NOYC posted the NOR one year in advanced of the event. Please register early if you are planning to race. Stay tuned for exciting sponsorship and event announcements in the near future. The J/30 North American Championship continues to be the largest venue of J/30 sailors sharing ideas and stories. COMMUNICATIONS The level of discussion on the J/30 forum has continued to increase with sailors from all over the world exchanging sea stories, getting maintenance tips, coordinating cruises and scheduling races. Don’t forget to check out the discussions on the district forums that are local to your area. Since our boats are one year older, there are many who have taken extra steps to preserve the legacy and material condition of their boats. There is a wealth of information on the J/30 forum made possible by people who have share information on core replacement, engine rebuilding, running rigging upgrades, deck repair, and the list goes on. If you have not registered on the J/30 forum, you’re missing a great resource available at no cost for your use. Don’t forget to engage and speak to your district governors and ask “what do you want” so the J/30 class can serve you better. Create opportunity to meet and connect with other J/30 owners in your area. MERCHANDISE The J/30 Class continues to partner with V-Sport, the J/Boat licensed apparel supplier to offer member discounts on J/30 logo merchandise that can be personalized for your boat. The class has also partnered with North Sails to offer J/30 flags available for purchase online. We are now selling large battle and smaller back stay flags. We are also offering a 20% US Sailing membership discount through the Membership Partner Program – those who pay J/30 class dues online and enter their US Sailing number get a custom link to get this discount with their data already entered. Finally, we will be sending out an email with a request for 2012 class dues by the end of January. Class dues will remain at $50 for each owner/co-owner and $25 for associate membership (crew members). If you have not received an email message by 1 February, please contact us to be sent a custom registration link for your boat. We ask that everyone please support the class and pay dues, so we can continue to build the momentum with resources such as the web site, forum and National Championship. Happy Sailing!  Photo by Dan Phelps / SpinSheet Molly Winans, Editor of the SpinSheet included the following article in the October 2011 edition.
Last month, I witnessed a kindhearted, wild-haired sort of idea sprout, magically open doors, and manifest itself into one exceptional sailing weekend. This may be my first and last Milwaukee-New-Orleans-Chicago-Annapolis sailing story with an Oahu twist, so bear with me as I untangle the details. As co-president of the J/30 association, Dave Erwin (New Orleans, LA) was the first to read a newsletter article about the competitive, all-girl teenage crew who sail the J/30 Rafiki out of Milwaukee, WI. The father of two of the teens and the newsletter article’s author also happens to be Nicholas Hayes, the author of Saving Sailing, a book about how families and communities can carve out time to make healthier choices, namely sailing more together (find his latest article on page 56). Erwin and his sailing buddy, Louisianan Scott Tonguis, pondered how they could get the all-girl Team Rafiki to sail with them in Annapolis for the J/30 National Championship Regatta September 16-18. Following a Facebook inquiry, parental conference calls, requests for school days off, a borrowed boat, and a second borrowed boat for lodging, and more e-mails than any of the dozen players can count, the idea started to materialize—within three weeks—much to the surprise and delight of all involved. Hayes forked out frequent flyer miles. Annapolis J/30 sailor Bonnie Schloss offered her boat Bear Away and her local knowledge as a crewmember. A friend of SpinSheet, Michael Jewell, who was leaving for a surfing vacation in Oahu, HI, offered his Eastport-based, 40-foot O’Day Moon Bounce as lodging for the young sailors. Chicagoan J/30 sailor and 160-pounder Dennis Bartley agreed to round out the crew to make weight. A dizzying number of puzzle pieces came together as if magnetically. I met Whitney and Alison Kent and Kate and Elizabeth Hayes (all between the ages of 14-18) in the marina parking lot next door on a chilly, drizzly September 15 evening, after they had woken up at 4:30 a.m., flown to Baltimore, met Erwin for the first time at the airport (with their PFDs in hand), gotten weighed in, and practiced spinnaker drills on the Bay for a couple of hours. Team Rafiki looked undaunted, yet a little travel-weary. Their eyes lit up when they saw their weekend floating home, complete with heat, a shower, and a stereo with an iPod plug-in. There were smiles all around as I gave them a mini-tour of the boat’s systems and left them alone. The next day, with 18-year-old Whitney driving, Kate and Elizabeth trimming jib, and Alison working the foredeck, Team Rafiki won the first race and became the talk of the town. Forget that they had a few races they would rather delete the next day. These young sailors captured a first, a second, and a third in a seven-race national regatta and earned a fifth-place overall finish of 19 competing boats (see page 125). They had the time of their lives. Here’s why this story matters: Team Rafiki’s skipper, Whitney, a college freshman, will turn 38 years old in 20 years. I can promise you she won’t stop sailing in between now and then. She’s going to pull out a can of whoop-ass and win in J/30s and beyond. She will buy boats, organize events, and invite newcomers into sailing. I promise you that Alison, who had “the best sailing weekend of [her] life” will do so, too. Genetically, Kate and Elizabeth have no choice but to sail for life and spread the gospel of sailing. Kate’s note to me says, “I’ve never had a sailing weekend like that before. Everyone we met was so incredibly supportive and genuinely excited to see us there. Whenever we ate (which we did a lot of), we pulled up extra tables and extra chairs for the sailors who would come visit with us. We were surrounded by a whole bundle of new friends. When I got home, the next day at school, I felt lonely. I was surrounded by hundreds of kids my own age, but it just felt empty without that constant flow of sailors.” Don’t invite young people on your boat to “save sailing.” Don’t invite them because you want to earn brownie points into heaven as a mentor. Do it for the same reason Erwin did—he thought these young sailors seemed like a breath of fresh air. He felt inspired by them. He thought the girls would be cool to hang out with on a race boat. His hunches were on the mark. Whitney, Alison, Kate, and Elizabeth call themselves Team Rafiki. Rafiki was the monkey from “The Lion King,” whose name means “friend” in Swahili. Why not give a young person a chance to steer your boat because he or she seems like a neat person you would like to befriend? It worked for Erwin and Tonguis. I had dinner with the motley Milwaukee-New-Orleans-Chicago-Annapolis crew. I know this much to be true: after one unbelievable weekend sailing together on a borrowed J/30, they will always be friends. by Molly Winans from the October 2011 edition of SpinSheet |
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