Dear ESSA sailors,
A number of months ago, I addressed our membership base with a few key objectives that I wanted to tackle for the 2019 season. The highly condensed version being: A) Cooperation and competition with the Tred Avon Yacht club, B) Re-ignition of the relationship with CYC, C) Exploration of options for simplifying racecourse identification while recruiting additional committee boat crew, D) A decision on if and how fleets should be split, and E) Invitation of new boats.
I challenged the membership base to help recruit four new boats for the 2019 season. There have been no new boats identified that I didn’t already know about. This is a bit discouraging. Either ESSA currently enjoys every single competitively natured sailor on the Choptank as a member (which I highly doubt), or no one has made an effort to find new boats/members. Please help me reach out to other sailors and try to invite/encourage them to race this coming season. If you have tried, I appreciate it greatly and thank you.
That being said, some progress has been made with regards to the above goals. Bernie Schroeder, the Rev. at Christ Episcopal Church in Cambridge, has agreed to try to help us with committee boat duties during May (Ron Freund will not be home from the Bahamas then). If you know Bernie or run into him, please thank him for his willingness to help. He is a CYC member, and he enjoyed putting races together a long time ago for his home town club. By the way, he loves martinis!
Additionally, Team Jambo made a New Year's resolution to compete at least every other week in Oxford on Friday nights. This is the Tred Avon Yacht Club’s version of our Wednesday night races. The crew of Gabrielle has also expressed interest in doing so. Please contact me if you’d like more information on these informal and casual races. I see this as an opportunity for other competitive ESSA boats to maybe hand over the tiller to younger skippers for a go at racing!
Furthermore, I have asked that ESSA be an agenda topic for the upcoming CYC Board meeting. As a board member, I will encourage the yacht club to cooperate more with ESSA. Perhaps CYC can design a ‘sailor special’ menu for ESSA members once a month that can be included in the weekly dinner rotation for after races. Believe it or not, dedicated sailors are beginning to permeate the club at a leadership level. Branden and I are both on the board as well as Nancy Johnson (who helps run races with Ron). Linda Kranz, a CYC board member’s wife also helps Ron on the Committee boat. Let’s dust off our shoulders and work together with this great asset in our community and have some fun. I envision races being finished between the yacht club flag pole and an ESSA marker. A true partnership. We should support CYC as they are truly supporting us.
As a reminder, we have a Choptank Fleet meeting rapidly approaching. It is to be held on April 3rd at 6pm at the Cambridge Yacht Club. I hope that each of you makes time to attend because we will be holding a vote on the following items that will affect your upcoming season:
1) Utilizing predetermined race courses in an effort to simplify race committee duties and eliminate potential course confusion for racers (picture one letter on display which references a pre-determined course)
2) Division of the spinnaker and/or non-spinnaker fleets instead of messing with PHRF ratings
Finally, please mark your calendars for this year’s Admiral Byrd Regatta sponsored by CYC! This regatta begins on 7/19 and ends 7/21. PHRF races are held on Saturday and Sunday. Please make an effort to race in this fun, local and competitive regatta. Get your boats out of the slip and race!!!
Best,
Trevor Carouge
Choptank Fleet Captain, ESSA
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