It was great to be back on the bay and beautiful weekend it was.  A fairly good turnout with 8 boats anxious to get back out and figure out what all these lines used to do!

CRYC did a wonderful job with their annual regatta.  They set up a very long weather leg with a two-lap course. The day was sailed in 10-12kts with higher gusts coming out the east with the lulls pulling back to the NE.

Race 1 saw 1202 Scott Piper get off to a good start but with an edge in speed and height, he marched through the class and took a significant lead at one point, but missed the shift to the right at the top of the course.  Bill Mauk & Barr Batzer in 928 played the top right and came out on top.

On the 2nd beat, Scott, not to be undone, played the top right hard...then the shift came in the from the left and Bill and Barr got it right again.  Tom Piper in 1261 played the left in the second beat as well and came out in 2nd.  1055 Buddy Cribb was on a camping trip for the day....actually he was just being "camped on"!  However, they continued to sail well and came in 3rd in a very competitive race.

Race 2 saw more of the same...nice long weather legs with an initial shift to the right.  Jeff Dever's boat sailed by Richard Shellow played the race well until the final rounding.  Storms approached with the remainder of the front which generated an unexpected left shift.  Some played this well and others got caught expecting more of the right to come in.  However, with the left shift, a bearaway chute set on the final run was all that was required. However, Richard banking on more right, threw in a jibe which enabled Tom Piper followed by Scott Piper to get by on the final run.

Race 3 was abandoned due to approaching storms.

Results 1261 Tom Piper 2, 1 (3) 928 Barr Batzer/Bill Mauk 1, 5 (6) 1202 Scott Piper 5, 2 (7) 1055 Buddy Cribb 3, 4 (7) 1090 Richard Shellow 7, 3 (10) 1145 Jeff Nehms 4, 6 (10) 1225 Robert Bell 6, 7 (13) 196 Sharon Bourke 9(dnc), 9(dns) (18)

In other class news, Buddy Cribb has ordered a new boat!  He is expecting delivery after the first of the year of this newest 1300 series boat.  A class meeting will be scheduled in December or January in conjunction with one of the two regattas.  If you have ideas and how to implement them, come prepared!

CLASS GOVERNOR BALLOTS

All International Etchells Class members and associates should have received their ballots from National for Governors and 3 class rules being voted on.

Governors...we have found it to be important to protect your national authority and thus the need to vote for individuals from the US.  Currently, there are 5 from the US and 4 from Australia representing the most slots to be filled.  Tim Patton from Bermuda is our current Chairman and has done a nice job.

Rule changes:

5.1.3 Material and reinforcement....this changes jibs to be a minimum of 6.5oz where we use to have 5.8oz on light air jibs.  Testing done by Dirk and Jud have shown that there is no difference in performance between two DCL jibs of both materials.  Therefore, since this is a specialty sail, the 6.5oz should last you longer.  With no performance edge, this would seem to be a no brainer and suggest approval.

5.5.1 Acquisition...this one has been around the block a few times.  But here are the basics.  The hard core sailors, those that travel allot are being penalized under current acquisition limits (1-M, 1-S & 2-J).  You just can't do the circuit with only one Spinnaker.  So many have either stopped sailing in their local events which we never want to happen...or others have gotten around it with beater boats which is something else we want to stop. Some want more spinnakers...others want heavy spinnaker cloth.  But by opening it up to 6 of anything, everyone can have what they want.  Many believe this might open up the development of speciality sails....unless you have been snoozing for the past couple of years, they are already here.  So the long and short of it, do we want to penalize those that sail a lot?  We think not so we suggest approval.

5.5.3 Use....this strikes the word "sanctioned" from the current rules basically saying you can't borrow sails from one boat to another...another attempt at stemming off the tide of beater boats.

If you have any questions regarding these issues, contact Tom Piper at tpiper@rbgrove.com or 305-477-0277(new work number).