A Message from The Incoming Choptank Fleet Captain

Dear fellow sailors,

It is this time of year that we spend the most time reflecting. The holidays seem to motivate us to think about our accomplishments and procrastinations but also to think about how things may be different in the coming year. As the new fleet captain for the Choptank ESSA fleet, I will be spending my time thinking about our Cambridge fleet and how we can take care of it. It's important that we strive for expansion while keeping the experience fun for all levels of competitors. With a growing fleet, our thinking needs to change.

Here are a few ideas that I feel will promote expansion while keeping it fun for everyone. Some of these ideas involve ‘hot potato’ topics which often get talked about but never acted on.  These concepts/topics are meant to spark new ideas with our membership and promote conversation. It is my objective to act on these ideas for the 2019 season.  

First, I feel that we do not take full advantage of the close proximity to the Tred Avon Yacht club. I can tell you that, personally, I am trying to figure out a way to participate in more races in Oxford. Oxford is not lightyears away… it’s just a few miles. We should collectively show support for their programs and get into the spirit of competition. It’s my hope that doing so will garner support from them and initiate some reciprocity.

Secondly, we need to re-affirm our relationship with the Cambridge Yacht Club. I’m not certain as to why there is a lingering rub between the two organizations. As a newly elected board member of CYC, I will be promoting sailing. Period. Sailing will become an agenda on every single board meeting they hold. ESSA brought me new friends, and ESSA brought me to the yacht club. There is no reason that the two cannot have a symbiotic relationship.

Additionally, I want to simplify race course identification either by means of a group text message or by pre-determined courses that would be depicted by one letter, “A,” “B,” etc. With predetermined courses, it would be much easier for a less experienced race committee than the Red Sky clan to run the races efficiently. This may also make the task less daunting, which may attract more volunteers to the thankless job. Listen up - nothing good stays the same, and Red Sky is not permanent. It's important to make the task approachable for other boats. Annapolis has adopted the single letter method, and they seem to like it.

Finally, we should continue the conversation about splitting the non-spinnaker and/or spinnaker fleets. It’s my vision that, after the first series, a baseline could be determined. We would split both fleets into A and B classes. The top competitor from the B fleet moves up to A, and the low competitor from A moves down to B after each series thereafter. This would eliminate the possibility of adjusting PHRF’s, which may be difficult mathematically and would penalize the sailors who do dedicate more time, effort, and, in some cases, money to being the best they can be. 

As a closing thought, I implore our members to help me recruit at least four additional boats for the 2019 racing season. Perhaps ESSA can develop a reward for the recruitment of new members into the fleet such as waiving the membership fee for that year. The sailing season is closer than we think. Let’s keep this fun and let’s keep the competitiveness alive. It can be done.

Merry Christmas,

Trevor Carouge

essasailing38@gmail.com