Our annual meeting and dinner will be, as usual, be at Stuart and Sondra White’s home—winners of the Gilbert Fleet Helper perpetual trophy for 2000. We appreciate their amazing hospitality and are saddened by rumors that they will sell their Lightning in the spring. But forget that for now. On February 9, we will celebrate the excitement of close racing and good fellowship during the 2001 season. Let me summarize by saying the state of our fleet has never been stronger, in the last 15 years anyway. Turnouts at racing events improved in 2001 and the fleet continued to strengthen, partly as a result of momentum that has been created by our numbers but also as a result of a variety of promotional, training and social activities we have organized. In fact, our success came to the attention of Sailing World magazine. After interviewing Jeff, Joe, and Frank, an article appeared in the “Fleet Building” column in the May issue. This delightful and unexpected honor was sparked by an email from Carl Schaefer to the One Design Class Council.

PRSA RACING EVENTS

The core of our racing activities consists of the Potomac River Sailing Association’s Sunday races. The Spring and Fall series each comprised 19 races sailed over 6 Sundays.  Combine those series with our Fleet’s Potomac Cup regatta the first weekend in May, the PRSA Spring regatta on Memorial Day weekend, and the Leukemia/Presidents Cup regatta the weekend after Labor Day and you have a season of 54 races.

As the fleet has grown over the last two years we have experienced some very close racing, increasing interest all through the standings. In the Spring series, 15 skippers (boats) sailed at least one day of two races. At the end, only 2.4 points separated newcomer Drew Hudson, who was fifth, from Jeff Storck who was sixth. Team Gallagher, Hirsh, and Hart won, with team Alsalam, Roberts, and Bradford second, and team Dillard, Pemberton, and Wilson third. In the Fall Series, only 12 points separated 4^th from 8^th place, really amazing. Jeff finished 1 point above Drew. Although team Alsalam won, the team of Ben Forman, Thacher Tiffany, and Ann Cody were first on the last day. Unfortunately, they couldn’t sail that day and slipped to third. Pat McGee sailing with Jill Williamson and  stole second. Paul Maher and Ben Kuykendall and various thirds combined to take fourth.

Our first Fall Sunday was cancelled due to the closure of the river after the September 11 attacks. When we resumed racing next to Reagan National Airport on the 23^rd it was in eerie silence. However, one day we did have spectators in black Suburbans on the shoreline, in a helicopter overhead, and a police boat on the water. Even small sailboats made people jumpy then. The airport remained shut down almost three weeks.

The turnout of boats for our Sunday races was up in 2001. We averaged 10 boats in the spring and 9 in the fall compared with 6 and 8 for 2000. This is impressive since the number of active racers was about the same and two racing days in the fall saw winds of 15-25 knots compared to the uniformly gentle breezes during the fall of 2000.

Eight boats participated in the Spring Regatta on May 26-27 even though our fleet staffed the race committee. Thanks to Jim and Robin Krest, David and Barbara Thompson, Murray Jones and Susan Kaufman. The race chair was very impressed with their organization and commitment to doing a professional job. The view from the race committee boat provided those neophyte racers with a close up view of strategy and tactics. Although Saturday was dreary, Sunday was beautiful. Frank won the regatta; Drew tied Nabeel in points in the last race and won the tiebreaker by virtue of having a second. Pat McGee was only 2 points behind.

The Leukemia/President’s Cup on Sept. 8-9 was the best attended in memory--21 boats, 14 from our fleet. This is an increase of 5 with 2 more from our fleet over 2000. Temperatures were in the low 80’s both days, and we enjoyed a southerly wind of 8-10 knots on Sat and 5-7 knots on Sunday. The Annapolis fleet sent four; the Solomons fleet sent two; Justin Morris, a fleet 50 member, made a return trip from Virginia Beach, and Mark Marussich brought his boat from New Jersey to sail in this event. Mark was in the area for the summer and had crewed during the Wednesday night series. The Annapolis folks have come to love the challenges of the river with its current, wind shifts and favored side near the airport. But if you get too greedy going after the thermals off the runway you may get caught in the hydrilla that lurks in the shallows off shore. That is all part of the challenging racing environment on the river. Nonetheless, Jon Guth from fleet 329 won after several years of trying. Jamie Brickell was second and Frank Gallagher was third. Thanks Jon for your nice report.

POTOMAC CUP

Perhaps the word has gotten around about our famous filet mignon dinner, or the great effort fleet 50 makes in organizing, and providing race committee, trophies and food for a big event. Whatever the reasons, we enjoyed the second highest turnout in the 17-year history of Potomac Cup with 32 boats on May 5-6. Half the boats were from our fleet—every active skipper raced. Chandler Owen came from Tennessee to sail Doc Gilbert’s boat with Gloria Gilbert Black and husband Mike as crew. Other contestants came from northern New York State, and, for the first time, one from Ohio. We thank all who came. Only one race was completed on Saturday in the light winds. But, a front arrived in late afternoon Saturday bringing winds of 12-18 knots on Sunday. The committee had no trouble getting in three races. But, Sunday offered more than the race committee expected. In the second race one boat snagged the offset mark anchor line dragging it abut 40 feet. Other skippers followed the moving mark trying to guess where it would stop! In the last race, with a downwind finish, several boats had different numbers on their spinnakers--and mainsail numbers couldn’t be seen. It got sorted out with no complaints. At the end, Richard Hallagan took home the Potomac Cup—he is a regular at our regatta despite coming from near Rochester, NY. How many times has he won?  He wrote a very nice article for the June flashes. Second and third places went to Jamie Brickell and Jon Guth of Annapolis fleet 329. Frank Gallagher was the highest fleet 50 finisher and won the Doc Gilbert Memorial award; Stuart White was second, and John Butler third. Jeff Storck took some great pictures, several of which were printed in the June Flashes. Thanks to Cathy Bleakly who organized the wonderful dinner. And thanks to all fleet skippers who had a role in putting on this event. It couldn’t be done without you.

All of these regattas and races make up the Fleet Championship series—a total of 54 as noted earlier. Frank Gallagher with Skip Hirch, Lolita Hart, and C.J. Fisher repeated as the fleet champions.  Nabeel Alsalam, with regular crew Russ Roberts and Scott Bradford repeated in the fleet runner-up spot. Pat McGee with Jill Williamson  took third.Jeff Storck with Craig Huzway and Emilie Pavilon took fourth.   Drew Hudson with Sousan Arafeh, David Barret, and Eric Ostenfeld took fifth. Drew and team are new this year and are always a threat despite their old boat.

OTHER RACING EVENTS

PRSA’s Helms event on June 10th was fun for all. The idea is to see which skipper is best across types of boats. Twelve of the best PRSA skippers selected from each of the fleets sailed in six races using Lightnings, Albacores, and Lasers. After each race the skippers would switch to another boat. Our guy, Drew Hudson, got 5 first place finishes, and was nipped by less than 2 feet in the sixth. Drew came to fleet 50 with a lot of experience in racing Flying Scots and Lasers; it shows.

Fleet 50 skippers traveled to other regattas. The Dixie Districts arrived on June 16-17; Fleet 329 hosted this event. The weather wasn’t encouraging with on-and-off rain on Saturday and 15-25 knot winds on Sunday. Despite this, 19 boats participated with five from our fleet—Stuart White, Ben Forman, Rick Welch, John Butler and Jeff Storck. The elusive Dan Dressel, with his lightweight female crew, won with four first place finishes in five races. It must be like riding a bicycle to him. Three boats (Nabeel, Drew Hudson and Ben Forman) attended SSA’s July 1 Summer Series, and four (Nabeel, Ben, Joe Warren and Pat McGee) went to part 2 of this series on July 21-22. While there was no wind on the 21^st,  a delightful 8-10 knot southerly sprang up on Sunday. Racing in the chop in light winds is a real learning experience for us flat water river sailors. Joe, learning fast, nearly beat Jamie Brickell one race. In the overall scoring, Nabeel got 3^rd.

Some of our skippers went to the June 4-5 Sweet Corn regatta held by Susquehanna fleet 253. This fleet has shown much growth over the last two years, and this event is now well attended. Teams Alsalam, McGee, Forman, and Storck attended the regatta.

In September, Fleet 508 hosted an invitational event on Sept. 22-23.Team White, with skipper Stuart, wife Sondra and daughter Kelsey, nipped team Brickell (skipper Jamie, wife Susan and daughter Kimberly) by one point. TheFrigit Digit/Lightning Fall Championship (Oct. 20-21) and the Borderline (Oct 27-28) are the highlights of off-river racing in the fall. The Borderline is one of 7 intersectional series, and both events attract some of the most skilled sailors in the class. Thirty-eight boats attended the Digit with 5 from our fleet—Frank Gallagher, Nabeel, Ben, Rick Welch and Red Fehrle. The very high level of competition was evident; our guys got trounced; Frank was the highest fleet finisher at 21^st. The weather was the best in many years, which contributed to the very close final standings.  We also sent 5 boats to the Borderline.  They did the fleet proud. Of the 32 total registered—Pat finished 12th, John Butler 13^th, Drew 15^th and Jeff Storck was 17^th. Unfortunately, Stuart didn’t sail Sunday since he ran over a spike bar while trying to do a good deed and spent the day looking for new tires. 

SOCIAL EVENTS

Frank, Nabeel, Joe, Pat, and Rick participated in the Special Olympics during June and July. We take handicapped people out and give them a taste of racing. Some are fearless. “Joe “ who sails with Frank always wants to go fast. 

Our main social activity was a 4.5 mile cruise to Fort Foote, and picnic/volleyball game there. On Sunday, June 24, eight fleet 50 boats and 30 skippers, crew and friends participated in this event--three more boats than the cruise to Ft Washington. Nabeel came with Russ Roberts and Hilary Frier; Frank brought Colleen and Maryann; Joe brought four including C.J. Fisher.This was her first time on a Lightning. She was so taken with our friendliness that she started crewing every chance she could get. Jeff brought three. Emily  got revenge and forced him to jibe the spinnaker endlessly. Jim Krest brought Robin and two friends; Rick Welch brought his sister and nephew, Andrew; Joe Anderson brought his son and son’s wife and regular crew. Drew Hudson brought Paul Maher and regular crew Ben Kuykendall.

Ft. Foote turned out to be a wonderful place. A short walk up a path led to the grounds. The fort, first constructed in 1863, was the main Union defense of Washington from river attack. The big hit was volleyball. We discovered hidden skills. Jeff unleashed a powerful sidearm serve that occasionally was in; Robin turned out to be a terror on the court with unerring returns; Russ had a unique backwards return at the net; and, Frank did his best impression of a one legged player as he reached for a return. We had to almost tear down the net to stop play when it was time to leave. Favorable winds of 6-11 knots from the north-to-northwest, held up all day. The strong ebb tide provided some challenging tacking on the return trip, especially between the Wilson bridge pillars. It is especially gratifying to long time fleet members to have a cruise/picnic event. We fondly remember the cruises to Mike Arnold’s house (1/2 mile south of Ft. Foote) from 1979 to 1987.  Ft. Foote is a superb place and this will be regular event in the future.

A bunch of Fleet 50 racers capped off the season with a bareboat charter cruise of the British Virgin Islands.  Nabeel Alsalam, Scott Bradford, Russell Roberts, Cathy Bleakly, Doug Taphouse,  Charles Masten, and few more chartered two boats 40 foot boats.  The “Barebut” Charter handily beat the “Pregnant Sow” in the between-anchoring spot races.  This was such a blast that we plan to do it again next November and bring even more Fleet 50 racers along.

TRAINING AND PROMOTION

Fleet officers make a serious effort to bring in new boat owners and crew.  A display boat was set up as part of the Alexandria Waterfront Festival in June.  Many skippers staffed this event over two days, and we signed up some new crew as a result. Thanks to Jeff Storck for organizing this. Later in June, we designated one of our Wednesday series as an Open House for new crew to meet skippers and to get them in a boat. We followed this up with several other training sessions in July and August. We brought in six new crew—Susan Buckley, John Galland, Paul Christman, John Burrows, John Uecke, and John Herron. Frank Gallagher ran a capsize practice training session in August. This proved very valuable as one boat with new crew capsized during the Fall series.  In late August, Paul Maher held a one-day seminar and on-water drills about starting techniques such as slow sailing, judging starting time and accelerating after the start; six boats participated.

As a large fleet we had PRSA race committee duty six times plus both days of the Spring Regatta.  We’ve had a perennial problem of a few skippers getting called all the time, which is very unfair.  The core problem was lack of a system. For the first time we designated a Fleet Lieutenant (Pat McGee) for racing and set up a race duty schedule whereby all skippers are given their choice of day, but then were assigned to serve once.  Training was provided to operate the committee boats.  Thanks Pat for your effort in making this new system a success.

We are sorry that Ben Forman will leave the area to go back to graduate school and that Murray Jones decided to take up J-24 sailing.  Nonetheless, the state of our fleet is healthy and vibrant.  This is shown by the turnouts at the PRSA events and Potomac Cup.  A good measure of a healthy fleet is to compare the average turnout to the maximum number of boats sailing.  If a fleet gets 50-60 percent turnout, that is good.  In the Spring series, we had a 67 percent turnout rate, and a remarkable 75percent in the Fall.

Thanks to our fleet captain Nabeel Alsalam (thanks, Joe), for his efforts, especially as Potomac Cup chairman and efforts to make our web page something to be envied.  And, thanks to him for doing the exacting job of fleet scorer; and, to Joe Warren (thanks, Nabeel) for organizing the downriver cruise, keeping the crew roster and providing written reports to ILCA and the fleet.

COME TO THE PARTY

In closing let me urge you to come to the party on Saturday.  We will have some additional crew awards from the skippers, skipper awards from the crew, and a few others.  Last year the awards were:

Crew Awards

Three crew received a belt with a Lightning flash:

Tony Vernon—for contributions on the Downriver cruise and assisting at the Albacore North Americans.

Ben Kuykendall—for assistance at the Albacore N.A’s and generosity in assisting others

Ben Good—regularly co-skippered; brought in several new crew, and has been very supportive of the fleet.

Skipper Awards

Five received long sleeve jerseys with a monogram of Lightning flash and “Fleet 50.”

Joe Warren—for “Fleet Development” in finding boats for sale, assistance to potential owners, and writing the article for Spinsheet magazine.

Jeff Storck—for “Best All Around Contributions” in helping to organize Lightning Labs; special efforts to keep Black Adder in the fleet after buying another boat, and bringing the newest member, Murray Jones, into the fleet.

Paul Maher—the “Ironman” for sailing in 44 of 50 races (also serving twice on race committee), and being the most improved from 9th in 1999 to 6th in 2000.

Ben Forman—“Best new Skipper” who finished 5th in the Fall series.

Stuart and Sondra White-- “Doc Gilbert Fleet Helper” for serving as fleet captain from 1995-1997, hosting the annual party for three years, buying the streaks for the Potomac Cup, and serving as PC welcoming committee.

 Nabeel Alsalam, Fleet Captain