Now hear this! NOW HEAR THIS! A message from your Choptank Fleet Captains

Choptank ESSA Fleet,

I hope that this message finds you all well.

Look, nobody really likes the situation that we are finding ourselves in. Governor Hogan’s next move on recreational boating remains as murky as the Choptank River. The overwhelming majority of our fleet is on the hard with no real progress towards being ready for launch – and not by choice. Some yards are operating, some are not. This coupled with the ban on boating makes it really difficult at this point to pin down a ‘go’ date for our races. I have been fielding a lot of phone calls asking about the first race.

That being said, I think that it’s prudent to at least pass a message along to you all obtaining a finite date that you can plan on regardless of Hogan’s next move on recreational boating. I hereby suspend all Choptank ESSA racing through and including May 20^th. If the ban lifts early and your boat is ready, great - go sail. If things continue to roll on the path, and no lift happens, then we will push the suspension date out to say June 17^th (the start of series 2).

Whatever the go date ends up being, Bob and I will have an updated Choptank NORSI out to the fleet at least a week prior. We all need to stay as flexible as possible. There is no rule book on this stuff. If we need to get creative down the road and do some back to back races in the middle of summer to salvage series one, then we will do our best to accomplish that.

A reminder that all race competitors will be taking turns as Committee boat this year. Dates will be chosen randomly. You will not be required to use your sailboat as the craft to put on the race, and you will not be allowed to substitute another person to perform the duty so that you can still race. George “our scorekeeper” will use a standard formula to award points to the designated committee boat that week. 

Committee Boat Scoring:

The boat designated as the Committee Boat will be scored OOD (Officer of the day.) The average points of all scored races less any DNC's for that series. 

Example: a boat that finished 1,2,3, OOD, 4, DNC.  The DNC would be discarded. Scoring: 1+2+3+4=10.  10/4 = 2.5 = OOD.  

For the race that the boat was the RC, the boat would be scored 2.5.

Case of using a borrowed boat for RC duty: The skipper of the designated committee boat must be on board to officiate the Race Committee. If the skipper of the designated RC boat decides to permit his crew to race his/her boat, that boat will not be scored on its finish time. It will be scored OOD.  The 2020 Choptank NORSI will provide more detail. 

All the best,

Trevor