What's New

It sure doesn’t seem like it could be 10 years since our Etchells fleet was established Shelburne Bay, but this August 23 marks the anniversary of the day a group of five boats received their official “fleet charter” from the International Etchells Class. That group included Dave Powlison, Ernie and Bette Reuter, Rick Stevens, Don O’Brien/Steve Booth, and Jack Milbank. And, of course, this would not have been possible without the considerable support of LCYC.

To celebrate our 10th anniversary and express our gratitude to LCYC for its continued support of Etchells racing on Lake Champlain, the fleet hosted a burger burn on Wednesday, August 19 and not only cooked the food but provided free dinners to all.

In addition to the usual summer cook-out fare, burgers, salads, chips, dinner also included Chesters, compliments of Ted Castle of Rhino Foods, and a birthday cake, complete with Etchells’ logo, decorated by Lauren Harris. Most importantly, John Harris deserves a big shout-out for organizing the event.

After the burger burn, 130 pounds of remaining food was donated to the Chittenden County Emergency Food Shelf on behalf of the Lake Champlain Etchells Fleet.

Today, the Fleet 25 has grown to 12 boats and maintains an active racing schedule that also includes activities such as the rules seminar the fleet hosted earlier this season and on-the-water guest coaching.

If you’re interested in finding out why we’re so enthused about the boat, the racing, and all that accompanies it, contact any of the fleet members.

Testing

Over 75 people attended the The May 19th rules seminar, led by Andy Horton and sponsored by the Lake Champlain Etchells Fleet. Andy, a world-class sailor who also happens to have grown up on Shelburne Bay, took the crowd through a series of situations that come up during starts, with particular attention to rules that apply there. The crowd also enjoyed pizza, beer and Chester’s ice cream, again, compliments of the Etchells fleet. Stay tuned, as there may be a follow up seminar dealing with rules that apply at mark roundings.

This coming Wednesday, May 26, LCYC racers will have the opportunity to see how those rules work on the water, as the practice race evening will include a 2-4 practice starts prior to the actual practice race.

Here is the 2010 Etchells Weekend Schedule:

E1 Sunday, June 20

E2 Sunday, July 18

Ladies' Cup, Saturday, August 7

E3 Sunday, August 22

Etchells New England Championship at MBBC, Saturday/Sunday, September 18-19

Here is the 2010 Etchells Weekend Schedule:

E1 Sunday, June 20

E2 Sunday, July 18

Ladies'Cup, Saturday, August 7

E3 Sunday, August 22

Etchells New England Championship at MBBC, Saturday/Sunday, September 18-19

David -

Through you I want to offer my thanks to the members of Etchells Fleet 25 for their selection of me as the Kimura Cup recipient for 2009. My surprise at the announcement at the awards banquet was complete, for I never considered my service to the fleet as anything extraordinary. I was merely striving to offer the kind of race management I myself would like to see were I to be on the starting line with you.

Sailboat racing offers satisfactions that are rarely available in any other way. Carving a well-tuned boat to weather in heavy wind and steep seas without slamming off the waves comes to mind. Steering a well-designed boat dead-downwind under spinnaker in 20-30 knot winds ranks up there too. The list is long and has many variations. The rewards, although they might be shared, are largely internal, solitary and private.

For me, running a race well also offers satisfactions of its own and in different ways than does racing, because the rewards occur only when others are served well. Like racing, conducting a good race can rarely be done properly alone. Preparation and training and execution must be fine-tuned, and good crew-work is itself satisfying. But the ultimate satisfaction comes when those for whom the race is conducted believe that they were each equally well-served by our efforts. Usually a word of thanks by a competitor or two is sufficient reward. So your profferment of the Kimura Cup that evening was a reward beyond expectations, and on behalf of myself and the good folks who have been part of my crews I thank you all for your very special recognition of our efforts on your behalf.

Respectfully,

Dale

Welcome to the new Fleet 25 Website. Many thanks to Mark Gardner who put this together.