Happy New Year all J/30 sailors,
I hope this finds you all well and coping with this brutal cold and snow we've been experiencing. I'd swear I saw Nemesis shivering in the back yard the other day. So of course that must mean it's time for our annual
J/30 Class, Southern New England District meeting so we can start planning for this summer's sailing events. While I know you all love to get out in the cold to come to these to eat pizza and review the various reports and schedules first hand, we do also try to add an interesting aspect to the meetings to make sure nobody gets bored (As if that's possible). So this year, the meeting will be at the
Bristol Yacht Club on Thursday, March 5th, and we will be bringing in Brad Read, President of
US Sailing, who will give us a presentation on the Volvo Ocean Race. As you may know,
Bristol Yacht Club member, Charlie Enright, is the skipper of the US / Turkey flagged boat Alvimedica, so the race is very special here. Brad is very close to Charlie so he should have a lot of insight available nowhere else.
The club and the bar will be open by 5:30, and our meeting will be held upstairs in the club house at 6:00. Brad starts his presentation at 7:00, and we will be joined by members of the yacht club for the Volvo Race presentation who will be there for the BYC bi-weekly "Thirsty Thursday" dinner that evening. We will be providing pizza at the meeting, but if you want more, you are welcome to partake in quite a good catered dinner that will be served for $15.00 each. That dinner will be served from 6:30 to 7:00, so there should be no problem getting there between our meeting and Brad's presentation.
Feel free to bring your crew too and PLEASE RSVP with the number of people who will be attending so we can make sure we have enough food. And if you want to participate in the dinner, you must give me a head count for that no later than the Tuesday before. That is catered, after all. Payment for the dinner will be cash at the table.
The meeting will cover the usual class business, reports, election of District Officers (Still looking for volunteers) as well as the 2015 race schedule and cruising opportunities for our district.
Regional Open Regatta and NA's
In 2012 we introduced the SNE Regional Regatta in Newport which was an incredible success with 14 boats participating. At that time we wanted to hold this regatta on all years when the North Americans are NOT being hosted by our district. This is technically another one of those years. The regatta will be held at and run by the
Barrington YC on July 25 and 26. You can register for that regatta now by going into the J/30 website - J30.org, and clicking on and following the J/30 SNE open Regatta link on the right. I say that this is technically an off year for the NA's because the Northern New England District is hosting the NA's this year, but the venue is actually at a Southern New England District site - The Beverly Yacht Club in Marion Ma. That is being held on September 24-27. Yes, Buzzards Bay in late September. Should be a blast!
I'm also looking into another opportunity for a slightly different type of regatta for us on June 28.
Bristol YC is running the Sea-Sprite North Americans, and since there will be a Race Committee available, my friends in the club's J/22's class and I looked at this as another opportunity for a race. But what I am thinking of is a "Sprint Race" for us. Being that it is on a Sunday right after another local regatta - the Twenty-Hundred Club's around Aquidneck Island Race on Saturday, there might be a crew issue. So this would be a regatta made up of a lot of very short, non-spinnaker races. This way you can race with 4 or 5 people and get 6 to 9 starts in one day, followed by burgers and dogs at the yacht club. Again, this is a totally notional format at this time and I would want to discuss this further with all of you at the meeting. We have the date and the RC, so let's take advantage of it.
Let us know
Give some thought about racing in the Regional Regatta and get back to me with what you think your level of participation will be with it. Hopefully by recalling the great experiences of past regattas at this location you would be inclined to participate. OR you can provide your boat as a loaner for others who would otherwise not race. In this way, you usually can race with them and learn an enormous amount about racing J/30's if you are new to the boat or to racing in general.
I'm looking forward to seeing you at the annual meeting and starting the ball rolling into another successful racing season in 2015.
Wishing you a safe and successful new year,
Mark Rotsky
J/30 Class Southern New England District Governor
