October

Fleet 12 New Letter
– October 21, 2002
In This Issue:

1. San Francisco Yacht Club
Fall One Design - Last Weekend
2. Fleet Banquet - RSVP time
is over- Pay NOW with Paypal
3. Perpetual Trophies - Where
are they now?
4. Great Pumpkin Regatta -
RC fun, party and a Pursuit Race
5. Season Standings - Final
Report
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1. San Francisco Yacht Club
Fall One Design Regatta

It was Peter Vessella all the
way, in the SFYC's last Etchells Regatta of
the year. Vessella, on 1168,
after narrowly missing being killed by an
Olson 25 port tacker, and then
a J24 fast asleep in the same bad port tack
way, but these seemed to be
his only problems as he won the first four
races, and he headed back to
the hoist after withdrawing with the Race
Committee before race 5. Vessella
posted a 1-1-1-1-[DNC] in the mostly
light conditions, and was only
in second place at two marks. With 14 boats,
our Fleet had the most boats
on the line of any fleet, and the most we have
had since May.

Postponements were the rule
both days, as the expected October light air
materialized right on schedule.
Once the sea breeze filled in, both days
featured unbelievably flat
water, at least until the ebb started to build
later in the day, when a chop
began to set up shop, especially near the top
mark.

The race committee did some
great work with a finish line a short distance
upwind from the starting line
and leeward mark. Each fleet would finish and
then run down quickly to the
start line, where PRO Bartz Schneider would
quickly start the next sequence.
Even with at least 5 different fleets out
there, the starting line remained
uncrowded, except at the first start of
each day. The only drawback
was on Saturday where that last short beat was
really more of a fetch, without
much of a passing lane. This problem was
rectified on Sunday, and the
short beat was a little more exciting.

The weather out there was beautiful
and many Crew sailed shirtless for at
least the first race each day.
Both days the wind built from maybe 6-8
knots on up to about 15, and
Saturdays racing ended at the higher end of
that range as the fleet sailed
3 races including one race with 3 beats. It
was a regatta to play the shifts,
as neither side really won consistently.
Keeping clear air and good
boat speed was really important early in the
day, and boat handling became
more important as the day went on. The bottom
marks seemed to come very quickly,
and our boat featured more dramatic
recoveries than the Narcotics
Anonymous annual convention. At a few mark
roundings other fleets played
a small role... the Olson 25 at the leeward
mark sporting the ketch rig
with her kite wrapped round the backstay was my
favorite... but for the most
part it was just great sailing.

Results for this regatta, plus
current fleet standings are attached, and
will be posted soon on our
website at www.sfetchells.org
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2. Fleet Banquet - It's this
Saturday Night

It's too late to RSVP for the
banquet, except via evite and paypal. Entrees
will be reserved Tuesday at
noon FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PAID. If you have paid,
you should receive a confirmation,
and you should bring this to the
banquet. The link to the evite
for this event is here:

http://www.evite.com/scottst@well.com/banquet2002

It will be held in Richmond,
at Ker's new office building at 7PM. Wine and
beer are included. Want stronger
stuff? Bring it, or come to the Hotel Mac
in Pt. Richmond where there
will be a (non-hosted) Etchells Happy Hour from
5-7.

Anyone who wants to continue
the party after the banquet can head on over
to RYC where a live band and
the usual bar will be happening.

No whining about evites, and
paypal. Vern Neff did both - was the first
RSVP, first paid, and he's
only had a computer for about a year. Try it,
you'll like it. 19 other fleet
members already have. Plus it's too late to
send a check. So call me at
650-333-6206 if you need help - I'll be patient.
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3. Perpetual Trophies - Where
are they now?

The Fleet Banquet is a special
time for a few silent members of our fleet,
the Perpetual Trophies. All
year long they grace the clubs and homes of the
member who won them the year
before. But for one night they are reunited,
sit together on a table and
get given out again, to go home with this years
winner.

The trophies are:
The Eldridge Award
The Major Damage Award
The Fleet Captain's Award (PITA
division)
The Master Blaster Award
The Seven Knots to Heaven Award
and a few others... (you know
who you are)

If you have one of these awards
and are coming to the banquet BRING IT !!!

If you have one of these awards
and are not coming to the banquet, please
bring it to the KCYC at some
point this week, or else email
scottst@well.com and I will
make arrangements with you to get it.

This years winners want their
trophies; you enjoyed it this year, so please
let them have it. Plus, the
rest of the fleet wants to see them, for one
night only.

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4. Great Pumpkin Regatta -
RC fun, party and a Pursuit Race

This is a great opportunity
to be seen by other fleets, and show them how
cool Etchells are. This is
a fleet promotion event. Plus, since our banquet
is the same weekend, many of
us can participate.

- Kers is doing RC work on
Saturday, and he needs help. Email him at
kcyc@aol.com if you want to
do RC for some other fleets
- After our banquet on Saturday,
feel free to drop by the RYC Great Pumpkin
party to see all your sailing
friends who don't sail Etchells.
- Sail your Etchells in the
pursuit race on Sunday. It's a fun race with
lots of reaching, and is good
for kids/ people new to Etchells.

Last time, I told how the Pumpkin
regatta is loosely based on the Big Daddy
format. Do you know which member
of our fleet trimmed the mainsheet on Big
Daddy Bob Klein's "Leading
Lady" for many years? None other than Vern Neff,
our fleet computer genius.

More here, a cool website:
http://www.richmondyc.org/racing/nor/pumpkin/gp.html
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5. Season Standings - Still
a really tight race

In the words of our official
Scorer, Jeff Holder:

"Well another Fleet 12
season comes to a close. Peter Vessella and crew on
1168 won the 2002 Fleet Championship,
with Moseley just squeezing out Doug
Morss and crew on 1169 for
second place, by one point. Jeff Moseley and his
crew on 1091 walked away with
the Eldridge Trophy for total season points
without any throw outs. Some
of the new boats to the fleet have been sailing
very well, and the competition
looks to get much more intense as everyone
gears up for the upcoming North
Americans (2004) and Etchells Worlds (2005)
that will be coming to the
San Francisco Bay. Obviously, it is a great time
to be in the fleet."

The final season standings
are posted at http://www.sfetchells.org

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The newsletter's over, the
2002 season's over, and the RSVP time for the
banquet is over. If you want
to, you can read this newsletter again.
Otherwise, see you at the banquet.