ALERION 28 2020 Season:
1. Season objective: Encourage and promote AE28 sailing in SF Bay with new and seasoned owners; get as many boats out sailing/racing on a regular basis; make the class as “fun” as possible with RYC being the epicenter of activity.
2. RYC Wednesday Evenings: (APR-SEP) To make #1 possible, we agreed to try to get the boats out sailing throughout the season with the hope of getting our own one-design start for RYC Beer Can (one-design; no kites) or we can start with the other boats (Fred can discuss with Eric).
3. Season events: The following 8 one-design events (no kites) were proposed as the AE28 SF Bay Series (Fred, please set Intra-club dates):
07MAR – Big Daddy (Sat only; cumulative score for day)
16 MAY – RYC Intra-club #1
13 or 20 JUN – RYC Intra-club #2
18JUL – YRA #4 Knox
*29AUG – RYC Intra-club #3
*29AUG – YRA #5 Southampton
26SEP – RYC Intra-club #4
24OCT – Great Pumpkin (Sat only; cumulative score for day)
* – Based on last year’s Intra-club schedule 29AUG is the logical placeholder, but YRA#5 is already scheduled for that Saturday (Fred, please consider moving RYC#3 to 08 or 15AUG). We need to resolve the schedule for August as well as setting the other RYC Intra-club dates.
Note 1: In recognition of other obligations outside of sailing, our 8 one-design season will permit 2 throw-outs (entire day) so only your best six events will count towards the season results. This generous scoring accommodation is designed to help support our season objective of building participation and having fun plus it doesn’t discriminate against Fred/Jennifer who graciously run the Big Daddy and Great Pumpkin events and, in all likelihood, couldn’t race those days.
4. Measurement: I will leave that task to Ron to coordinate. I suggest including Will Paxton in the process since Quantum built the two newest suits of ODR sails (FRANCES & SWEET DE).
5. AE28 Clinic: I’m all for sharing information and wisdom amongst the class. There are lots of ways to do that formally and informally. Rather than schedule another day for a separate clinic, I suggest the following three approaches:
a. After-race beer and discussion
b. More experienced AE28 sailors jump onboard less experienced AE28 sailor’s boats for a Wednesday evening beer can race to coach
c. “Winner of Day” of our seasonal events writes a brief summary of what went right and what went wrong for them on the course that day – Sam can post on our website
6. AE28 Website:https://sfbayalerion.com/ Sam is already doing a great job of adding content (write-ups and photos), but we should all contribute to this effort. I believe that the two biggest factors in improving the Alerion 28 brand (and maintaining the value of our boats…) is having other sailors see 4-6+ AE28’s out racing throughout the season and having a relevant web presence for those thinking about buying a boat and joining the fun.
7. Other racing: Let’s focus on Wednesday nights and our planned Season Events and get out as many boats as possible. But, some of us may also want to do other PHRF events on the Bay like CYC mid-winters, 3BF, SSS, etc. I’m going to try a bunch of these PHRF events and plan to use my kite. We’ll try to keep everyone informed of who’s doing what throughout the season.
8. My contact info: Chris and Denise Kramer [SWEET DE / 254].
editor’s note: we will get a Fleet Captain email soon and put the link here…