The 2011 Class / Fleet 1 Championships were held at NHYC last weekend, October 1st and 2nd, and represented the conclusion of the 2010-2011 Harbor 20 regatta season. The final two days of racing capped off a total of 20 Fleet 1 regattas for the season and determined not only the Fleet 1 & Class Champions, but also the winners of the season-long High Point Series, Rain or Shine Series and other perpetual trophies awarded by the fleet.

Excitement built early, as participants checked in, collected their caps and shirts and performed last minute bottom cleaning and tuned their boats. Fifteen A fleet skippers and fourteen B fleet skippers registered for the championships.

Day One started off very promising with steady 8-10 knot winds from the West. The first warning sounded about 12:45 and before the wind started dying off, the Race Committee got off a total of 4 races for both the A and B fleets. The Race Committee did a great job in setting perfect courses in both length and direction!

As required by Class rules, all skippers docked their boats at NHYC overnight. After the races, and after the boats had been tucked away, the festivities began. From 1700 until 1830, a cocktail party featuring a steel drum band and hosted bar got most skippers “loosened up”. Thanks to the Baldwin Cup Organizing Committee for hosting the hosted bar and appetizers. After the cocktail party, NHYC served up a delicious dinner, where everyone continued to recap the nuances of the races that day.  Not ready to head home, some even kept going after dinner in the Pirate’s Den for more stories and lively conversation.

Although the weather was warm, it didn’t look too promising the beginning of day two. With 3-5 knot winds out of the South-South-West. The race committee was all set up with the windward mark near the clubhouse and just about ready to sound the first warning when the wind turned West and started to kick up to 8 knots.  Day two of the Regatta was on!!  After setting a new course, and winds that eventually built up to 10-12 knots, the race committee was able to get five more races completed for both fleets.

A super thanks to a great job by the PRO, Kurt Wiese (one of our newest Harbor 20 Fleet 1 owners and skipper members (PING)) and his race committee team: Anne Wiese, Ed Kimball, Anne Costello, Mindy Froehlich, Alex Vucelic, Charlie, Jamie Johnson, Jeff Marshall, Will Shuman, Bill Crispin & Donna Griggs for photography.

And another big thanks to the NHYC for providing an unparalleled venue for the event, and especially Jenn and Charlie for making sure everything went smoothing and turned out to be truly a National Class Regatta event!  (Jenn, actually making sure wine glasses were full and plentiful during the award ceremony!!) And the NHYC staff for yummy appetizers!  Again, top notch!

Actual races can be viewed online via the Kattack tracking that tracked each boat for each race. Not only can you see the actual track, but you can see average speeds (relative to the fastest) and distance traveled (relative to the distance) but also actual time on the course. For example: On race one, #109 Wiggit (that is me) sailed 624 meters more than Bill Menninger! Did I have a different course????  I guess that explains why it took me about 6 minutes more to finish the race. Lesson learned??). You can see summaries for each race like:

• Average speed
• Average VGM upwind
• Average VGM downwind
• Average speed downwind, ect

Stats that will help all skippers improve their individual performance!  Not all stats for all races are available at the time of this article, but check back often for updates to the Kattack page.

So, who won?  Full results are available on this website here, (select any regatta from the drop menu and the fleet to see the results) however here are the top finishers:

A Fleet

1st: Bill & Diane Menninger; 2nd Tom Schock & Shawn Patrick; 3rd Terry Terry Gloege & Byron Capps, 4th Guy Doran & Mary Menninger, 5th Karl & Cole Pomeroy

B Fleet

1st Helen & Duncan Warren, 2nd Win & Carlita Fuller, 3rd Rolly Pulaski & Annie Donat, 4th Steve Woodruff & Joan Hively, 5th Dick Somers

Historical Champion Results can be viewed here.

All perpetual trophies will be award at the annual awards dinner scheduled for December 4th.

The Harbor 20 fleet & class would like to hear your stories, comments, praises, & complaints. We want to hear want made the Championship special for you. We want to hear from all participants what you experienced, what you liked, what was fun, and what frustrated you. Please, leave comments to this post for others to read and enjoy your perspective on this regatta. If you have people you want to thank…do it here.  If you have some special insight as to what “worked” or what didn’t, share with the fleet/class. We want to get as many comments as possible and prolong this great event though this website.

And, if anyone has additional pictures, or comments, please either email the Webmaster (link on the left) or leave a comment for everyone.

Finally, a super, super special thank you to the leadership (Board) and especially our Class President, Peter Haynes (for working so hard to make the H20 such corinthians in the sport where ALL disputes were handled on the course) and for John Whitney for keeping our fleet sound, tight, and organized. And of course, Warren Duncan, our Fleet Measurer, for making sure that all boat were equally configured to keep this truly a “one class event”.

Pictures of the event (courtesy of Donna Griggs) is available here:  Saturday and Sunday