Fleet 12 Newsletter
February 2004

Hello Fleet 12!

We've got lots of new year announcements and a little fun stuff, so here goes...


*The schedule and commentary
*From the Captain - Fleet Meeting Recap
*The new improved Website
*And a Classic Meet the Fleet (definitely worth the read)

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The 2004 Fleet 12 Schedule + a few notes

You'll find the schedule for the year attached. If you can't open it, the schedule is also on the website at www.sfetchells.org The first fleet run regatta is Saturday April 3rd! I look forward to seeing everyone out on the water.

Pacific Sail Expo: You'll hear lots more about this, but plan now to BYOB (that's B for boat, and beer if you'd like) to the Pacific Sail Expo for Saturday 4/18 and Sunday 4/19 mini-races in the Estuary. Last year this was a delightful event, where interested sailors (like our 667 crew) hopped on board for a first test ride in an Etchells. It's a great chance to get new folks interested in the Fleet. Last year saw some fabulous sailors out on the Etchells. The Oakland YC will let us dock our boats there on Saturday night and then we can sail or tow home on Sunday after the Expo.

Worlds Qualifiers: There will be three World Qualifiers in the early season. They are noted on the schedule as WQ.

Big Daddy Regatta: On 3/13 Kers and Bob Brandstad are working the regatta and would love to see lots of Etchells Fleet folks volunteer to help. It would be a great showing for our class. If you're interested in helping out, contact Kers at kcyc@aol.com. On Sunday, Jim Gregory just might take those volunteers out on his gorgeous new boat for the pursuit race.

Stuff: Not sure which category this falls into...during a recent shopping spree, Kers bought more booms, masts, plugs and other boat parts than he needed so he's got them available for sale (this will be very handy for NA's). If you're wondering what else is for sale, like boats, you can take a look at http://www.etchells.org/usa/buy.php

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From the Captain: What exactly happened at the Fleet Meeting?

1. Sails were measured by Dale Hoffman. Future sail measurements will cost
$10, payable to Dale.

2. The board of directors for 2004 was introduced. The board is:
Captain Scott Gordon
Scorekeeper Jim Gregory
Measurer Dale Hoffman
Scribe Paige Brooks
Treasurer Jeff Holder
Collections Alson Silva
Webmaster Ashley Perrin
Port Captain Jeff Moseley
Chief of Protocol Mike Laport
Worlds/ NA Committee Chair Kers Clausen
Merchandise Committee Ed Kriese

3. The Fleet 12 schedule for 2004 was discussed, amended and approved. The
new schedule is posted at www.sfetchells.org. The fleet will again do the
Pacific Sail Expo to gain visibility and add members to our fleet. Last
year netted two new boats.

4. Registration was discussed, including the deadline of 2/15/04 and the
LATE FEE applicable as of 3/15/04. Registration forms can be found at
www.sfetchells.org.

5. Treasurer's report: 2004 Budget was presented

6. Scoring update was discussed. 2004 Season scoring will be done in
accordance with Appendix A9, as clarified by Dick Rose in an email exchange
with Scott Gordon. A boat which enters the starting area for a race, but
does not finish that race, will be scored for that race (the number of
entrants for the event +1). In previous years, that boat would have
received (the number of entrants for the season+1). This does not apply to
boats which do not enter the starting area for a given race.

7. Protest Procedure for Fleet Run Regattas. A more formal protest
procedure for fleet run regattas has been instituted. Consult the SIs for
Fleet Run Regattas for more details. The SIs (new for 2004), and the
Protest Procedure can be found at www.sfetchells.org. The fleet is still
looking for an SFYC committee chair. Jim Gregory/ Vickie Gilmour are the
RYC chairs.

8. 2004 North Americans update was given by Kers Clausen. Specific mention
of International Etchells Appendix F - Loaner Boats was noted. Appendix F
can be found here http://etchells.org/AppendixF.pdf For NAs/ Worlds, Jim
Carrick is working on boat shipment to/from Mooloolaba and San Francisco.

9. 2004 Midwinter West in San Diego entry form was distributed. It can also
be found here: http://www.sdyc.org/etchells/

10. Etchells merchandise was available for purchase and $325 worth was sold.

11. The Fleet 12 bylaws were distributed. No amendments were necessary. The
bylaws have been in place since 1992, and no changes since 1998.

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Speaking of websites, check out www.sfetchells.com. From there you can link to both the Fleet 12 site and the North Americans Site. Ashley Perrin has worked tremendously hard on putting together a fabu user-friendly site. You'll find there's two sites in one: the site for Fleet 12 and a site for the North Americans which you can link to from the home page. If you've got topics to discuss, just go to the forum and post away! If you have suggestions about the site, send them on to Ashley, whose email link is on the site.

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And finally, Meet the Fleet: Bill Barton, 666, "Mr. Natural"
I'd do a more formal introduction for this august fleet member, but think his answers to the interview questions speak for themselves. It's a great read. Thanks Bill!

1. How long have you been sailing? How/where did you learn?

I grew up in Rye, NY on the water (Western Long Island Sound) and about
half a mile from the American Yacht Club. My father owned International
One Design, # 8 and I would sleep in the bow for the first few years of my
life.
The IOD was "the" class back then with Warner Wilcox, Buss Mosbacher, Bill
Cox, Corny Shields, Arthur Knapp, my Dad, Sam Barton, to name a few!

I sailed 7 days a week starting at 9 years old and did the Blue Jays, then
Lightnings. I taught sailing at Norwalk YC, Rocky Point YC (where I taught
Annie and Tim Etchells), and two years as head dude at the Larchmont YC. I
had two Etchells built Lightnings that were fast. Skip Etchells built his son, Tim,
an Etchells Blue Jay that was a rocket ship #4242.. I would often visit
Skip's yard in Old Greenwich and remember as a young boy being amazed how
beautiful the Star boats were that he built. I did collegiate sailing at
Hamilton College and had C. Stanley Ogilvy (Etchells measurer for decades)
as my faculty advisor to the team/club.

2. When did you first hear about Etchells?
Skip towed the first boat down to Larchmont Race Week the summer of 1967, I think, to give people a ride.
He towed Shillelagh behind his black lobster boat, "Cheyenne". It was the
coolest sailboat that I had ever seen! She was the talk of the Sound. I got
a ride on #1 with Skip. It had wooden spars, a pop in splashboard, no
cutty, flush deck, Murphy and Nye sails, and a post on which the main cam
was mounted. This was a wood boat painted white.

2a. First sail an Etchells?
It was the summer of 1968 that my mother woke me up saying that
the phone was for me and that it was Skip Etchells. My heart began to race,
and he asked me if I would be interested in racing Shileleigh (Etchells #
2)! He said that he would tow it down for me to American for racing the
next day. I will never forget the site of him towing two boats around the
tip of Scotch Caps as I waited with tremendous excitement near the flagpole
at American. I went out on a launch and helped Skip put each one on a
mooring. The next day I had my mother crew for me along with Geof Withers,
my regular Lightening crew. Skip told me to "drag your foot to give the
others a chance. There were 8 or 12 Etchells on the line for the (what I
imagined in my head!) the first Etchells Worlds Championship (sic). We won
and that cup is now the "Shillelagh Trophy" or the Fleet # 12's Rookie of
the Year Award for Excellence in the first or second season in the Fleet.

3. How long have you sailed this boat?
After 15 years or so of ocean racing, I borrowed "Sunshine" at SFYC and sailed to a 3rd in the 1979 PCC's
out of SFYC. The winter of 1980, I met my good friend, Kent Massey, in a
bar in Coconut Grove while each of us was doing the SORC. We became fast
friends and decided in Nassau to order an Etchells and we did. That boat
Kent bought and was Fineline, #523. Well named! We added John Bertrand to
our team and won the opening race of the SF Bay Worlds in 1981. Our effort
was down hill from there with two major breakdowns including the jib tack
blowing up right at the start of race 2. Noteworthy in the pre-Worlds
regatta was on a power reach our kite broke and I went overboard still
clinging to the spin sheet and managed to also kick Kent over! He hung on
to me, and me to the sheet, as JB slowed down by going head to wind. We
managed to get back on board, refill the kite and blow over the top of the
guy from Newport Beach who had passed us in the mishap. A big thrill for us
in 1982 was doing the Hall of Fame Regatta sailed in Etchells in Newport,
RI, . Bertrand was one of the first 12 or so inducted. We had a great
time!
3a. What is the meaning (besides the obvious) of "(Your Boat Name)"
Kent bought a second boat .we had ordered #600 from Dirk but it arrived
with a blue waterline and we had asked for all white.. Kent sold that boat
to Hank Easom before we ever sailed it and we ordered the next "best" (not
beast) number that was available. .. 666. That boat arrived in 1984 and we
had just had a very successful Worlds in Sydney sailing a borrowed boat
called "Obsession" . we toyed with either "SEX, SEX, SEX" or "Possession"
but I don't think we actually named the boat until I bought it from Kent.
"Mr. Natural" was picked partly to offset the Karma with the number but
also, this cosmic, R. Crumb (Zap Comic Book fame) character had an
interesting attitude on life. I did ask Mr. Crumb several times for
permission and went ahead after never responding to my letters or my phone
messages. Not to bore readers here, but in the early 90ies, I got a call at
home from the Coast Guard. "Is this Bill Barton? Do you own a boat named
'Mr. Natural'? Yes ... your boat called in a 'May Day" yesterday and was
reported sinking off of Monterey!" I raced down to the club to see if
someone had borrowed my Etchells! There she was, safe and sound, so I
called the Coast Guard back. It was either a sick prank from an angry
patient (real possibility at the time .. I was being sued by this weird
woman) or a freak coincidence.

4. Do you do any other sailing besides Etchells?

Currently, I have a couple of Lasers at Inverness YC, I race
Atlantics in Blue Hill, Maine, a couple of weeks in the summer and that's
about it unless I am lucky enough to hook up with my buddy, Hank Easom, on
"Yucca".

5. Tell us about your family situation. What do they do while
you're sailing?
Thanks for asking. Pat has always supported my racing and
put up with much more than I could have possibly dreamed. She and my two
sons want me to race and have plenty to keep themselves busy.

6. Tell us about your crew. How long have you sailed with them? Since I may be bowing
out of the class soon, let me further pontificate, as I have been very
lucky to sail with great crew. Currently it is Tim Wells and Ethan Doyle
(Robbie's second son). I had hoped that Tim would get turned on and buy the
boat .. We'll see. He is 34, I think, and loves to race. He owned an
11-Meter for sometime called RED BULL. By the way, he introduced me to that
drink at a Pier 39 event and I ended up using it with my Little League Team
.. we went 13 - 2 and won the Ross Valley Championship that year. Dangerous
stuff but please note that I would limit these 11 and 12 year olds to no
more than ½ a can! Here is a partial list of people that I have raced with
on my Etchells: Kent Massey, John Bertrand, Leon Daniels, Trevor Bayliss,
Will Bayliss, Eric Baumhoff, Dave Gruver, Gary Grande, Steve Fentress, Tim
Parsons, Kevin Burrell, Russ Silvestri Mike Erlin, Scott Inveen, Doug
Morss, Henry Fisher, Eric Tjensvold, Jeff Wayne, Bobby Fodor, Jim
Cunningham and most recently, Tim Wells and Ethan Doyle.

7. Tell us about your best race. Where was it/ what happened?
Ooooh, now I could really get
carried away. In both the 1984 Worlds in Sydney and the 1998 Worlds in
Marblehead, we had a chance to win the event going into the final race. In
'84, I drove and in '98 I crewed. Neither of those final races were my best
memories! That's a whole story there. In 1998, however, race # 3 was likely
the best race ever in some sense. There were 102 entries, or something
ridiculous like that. It took 10 full minutes to get from one end of the
line to the other. The talent pool was the best ever, with at least some 30
boats capable of winning a race. I was doing the middle for Peter Duncan of
American YC. We hung around the middle of the line till the 6-minute point
and checked the wind .. pin end favored by 5 degrees and blowing 8 knots.
We head for pin end sail past it and come back on port with about 1 minute
20 seconds to go. Dennis Conner is right on our ass and wants pin too,
along with 7 or 8 others. With about a minute there is a big crash to
leeward and I look under the boom and see Russell Coutts (on Port) t
-boning two-time World Champion Bruce Burton. Great!! This creates a bit
more space and we tack at 45 secs for the pin and Dennis lays in hard under
us. There is current and a long anchor line out off the pin end committ! ee
boat. 8, 7 , 6, 5 .. Dennis goes for it in order to clear the boat . 3, 2,
1 ..boom. Dennis is gassing us but over early and peels off. We start to
put our boat in full foot mode and need a knock to cross the armada. About
1 minute into the race, I look up and see GBR something tacks onto Port! He
hits three starboard tackers on our hip and we are suddenly launched. Three
more degrees of header with pressure! We tack and cross the fleet with well
over a minute lead in less than 6 minutes of the start of the race!! We
lead wire to wire with a massive lead and dying breeze at the finish.

8. Tell us about your worst crash. Who did you hit/ get hit by?
My worst crash was in a Soling. another story. My worst Etchells crash was a long, long
time ago near the Golden Gate Bridge. I had a new middleman who did not
know the boat and (notice I blame him!) we tried to duck John Sutak in his
old boat. John had been going really well all season up to that point. The
main did not go out and we boarded his boat amidships doing all the damage
that you can possibly do including rig and boom! John never regained his
speed that summer. I still am sorry for it . I had given my middleman the
"heads up" and he failed to understand and never dumped the main.

9. What is your favorite curse word? "Don't Tack!"

10. Finish this sentence "The other boats in this fleet need to learn to communicate ..e.g.> "Tack or
cross?" in a close crossing situation communicate what you would like your
competitor to do while he is approaching on port tack .

11. Anything else you want to tell the other crews?
Most of you have no idea what sailing the
Etchells is like in 20 plus knots on power reaching legs, with kite up,
main flogging etc...... as that is a thing of the past.


(My commentary on that last - Stay tuned for the Simpson Regatta. Pretty amazing story, huh?)

Have a great week, have fun in San Diego and we'll see you, if not sooner, on April 4th.
If you have items you'd like me to include in the future, just send me a note - humorous Etchells stories, announcements, etc. are all welcome.

That's all she wrote!

Paige

epbrooks@yahoo.com