Hello fellow ECSC sailors!
Spring is upon us and we can’t wait to dip our keels and cross our tacks.
This Saturday April 2nd, we will be holding a spring Racing Work Party. Come earn some valuable work credits and help out your club. We will get our club boats cleaned and in the water, clean up and do some work on our race shed, and if the weather allows, get the lift for the RIB into the water. Bring your waders or a wetsuit if you have one.
On Saturday April 9th at 11 A.M. we will hold an intro to racing seminar at the race shed. We will go over how to run races and the proper operation of our RC and Safety boats. If weather allows, we will hit the water and run several starts and even a short race. We would love to have everyone from the beginner to our experienced racers on hand. We will need a few boats to go out and practice some starts and train with us.
The following Wednesday April 13th, our 2016 racing season will officially get under way with our first Wednesday Night Beer-can race at 6:40 P.M. This is the first race of our 12-week Spring Wednesday series. Much like last year, we are scheduling a 12-week Spring Wednesday Series, a 12-week Summer Wednesday series, and a 5-week Twilight Wednesday Series. The first warning for the Spring and Summer series will be at 6:40 P.M. The first warning for the Twilight series will be at 6:30 P.M.
Scoring for our Spring and Summer Wednesday series will be the same as last season. Each boat will begin each series with a 7-point slacker-penalty. Once someone from the boat serves Race Committee Duty in that series (and write the boat sail number on the score sheet), that boat moves to non-slacker status and the 7-point penalty is removed. The boat will be scored regardless of the skipper. See the Notice of Race on our website (at www.ecsail.org/racing ) for official information. There are no work credits given for the spring or summer Wednesday race committee work; however work credits are given for Twilight, Sunday, and special regattas.
Sign up for your race committee duty the way I used to vote in Chicago…..Early and Often. The link for our sign up page is on the Racing website, or follow this link http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f084ca9ac22a4f58-race2
Our Sunday series will not begin until Sunday, June 5th. Sundays will consist of 3 short races held between 2 and 4 P.M. There will be two 6-week summer series. All fleets are eligible to race in each series, and each Sunday will have a special class or division championship named. For example, our first Sunday will also be the Catalina 25 Club Championship. Win those three races in your Catalina 25 and you get your name on the Club Championship Trophy in the Race Shed and an extra- special prize. Classes and groups that are included are: Catalina 25, double and triple handed green fleet, J24-Merit 25, Single Handed Green Fleet, Cruisers, Multi Hull, Double Handed Keelboat, J22, Ladies Championship, and a couple of downwind race days.
Speaking of fleets, the fleet designation we will use this year will be the same as last year (Red, White (including our old blue fleet), Green, and Green-multi) except we are establishing a Blue Fleet. B is for Blue, B is for Beginner. This fleet is for sailors who are new to racing (around 2 or less years experience in racing) and sail a boat that rates as a white fleet (including our old Blue designation). If you want to race as a Blue Fleet racer you will need to declare yourself to be scored as Blue Fleet to me at racing@ecsail.org. The Racing chair, along with Larry Conrad (our PHRF czar) and Rich Fox (our scoring guru) will need to approve your “beginner” status. Blue fleet will always start with our white fleet. If you race a green fleet or Red fleet boat and qualify as a new racer, let us know also and we will notate that on the scoring sheets. The Notice of Race (the rules of the series) will be published on our website the first weeks of April. Read them… follow them.
Our major regattas of the year are:
- May 14th and 15th – Mayor’s Cup and Party
- This should be a great event. Two great days of racing. Free Rum pour on Saturday.
- Dinner and a live band – Catalyst Gypsy – Saturday night. Even if you aren’t racing, come for the party.
- Free Drinks and a cheap dinner
- July 9th and 10th – ECSC Regatta and Beach Party
- What can I say? Nick Mates promises to top last year’s party….
- Warm weather, great racing. An all boat raft-up in the cove is planned for Saturday post racing
- With the band on the beach.
- September 10th – INDY 200
- This event for our boats and crews that race with a PHRF over 200 (or about)
- We had some great racing last year and this year should be even better.
- September 17th and 18th – Indiana Governor’s Cup Regatta and Party
- This should be a great event. Two great days of racing. Free Rum pour on Saturday.
- Dinner and a live band – Catalyst Gypsy – Saturday night. Even if you aren’t racing, come for the party.
- Free Drinks and a cheap dinner.
- October 8th and 9th – Hornback Regatta and Chili Cook off
- Where the fast start last – Come to one of the most fun regattas of the year. Slow boat??? No worries,
- The slower the boat, the bigger the headstart. Just watch your rear view mirror as the Multi-hulls try and catch you.
- Also enjoy some of the best Chili in Indiana for dinner on Saturday
Special races during the year include:
- A match race championship on Saturday, May 7th,
- The annual Flying Scot Regatta on May 21-22,
- The Day after thanksgiving race,
- The Ladies Sail on August 13th,
- and a night race on November 2nd.
The ECSC Boat of the Year championship will use the same formula as last year. It included all Wednesday and Sunday series racing, The Governor’s Cup, The Mayor’s Cup, and the ECSC Regatta.
New for this year for the J24 fleet will be a Hoosier championship series between our J24 fleet and the Indianapolis Sailing Club’s J24 fleet. Check out the NOR on our website for details. Events include our Mayor’s Cup and Governor’s Cup and their Geist Guzzler Regatta (June 4 and 5) and their Keelboat Regatta (August 20th and 21st). A champion Club as well as an individual boat will be named.
Rich Fox will be handling our scoring for the season and Larry Conrad is our PHRF czar. In order to be scored in any race at ECSC you MUST have a current PHRF form on file with Larry. If you raced last year, Larry has pre-filled out your form and it is in the PHRF box on the official race bulletin board. You will need to check it for accuracy, sign it, and return it to the completed form folder. If you need to fill out a new form, there are blank forms there. If you have any questions, ask any racer. If you don’t know any racers, just hang out near the race shed with an open cooler of iced adult beverages and one will appear.
A few reminders:
- Your gate key opens the Race shed.
- If you use the race shed (for any reason) clean up after yourself (As Kenny says – The Club is NOT your mother)
- Sign up for Race Committee
- When you use the RC or RIB, put all gear away afterwards and pull motors back out of the water.
- When you use the RC or RIB back the boats out towards the lake, NOT THE SHORE. It is shallow and we have already had to replace propellers from groundings.
- On the race course…. Don’t hit other boats!! Even if the rules are on your side… you break a rule when a right-away boat fails to avoid a collision (RRS Rule 14) Read it…follow it
- Don’t bypass the liar’s table after racing…. It is where memories are made
- Have fun
Our 2016 ECSC Racing calendar is set and is listed below; it can also be accessed on our club’s website at www.ecsail.org on the racing page or the calendar. Or you can click here to view the a PDF of the race schedule.
Rick Graef and Janet Hickok
