Dear Members of Fleet 1 of the Harbor 20 Class Association,

How could you possibly have a more perfect world than sailing a Harbor 20 with a group of friends in Newport Harbor?  I have seen this picture many times: the sun is out, we sail with 10 or more boats in 10 knots of wind, Race Committee gives us a 200ft line, the mountains are dusted with snow and we round the first mark in 5^th with 4 boats around us. We sail on. A couple of colorful power boats cross the fleet down wind and 6 boats round the bottom mark like a string of pearls. We pick up a place with a perfect rounding, get another by tacking toward the slightly favored pin end of the finish line, and finish third. Next race we try to improve up wind, remember to stay clear of congestion, and with luck we will Trophy. We get a nice engraved whiskey tumbler for third place at the end of the day. We chat with our fellow competitors afterwards and find out why they were faster, or slower, today. We go home with our tumbler after learning something new, meeting some more sailors, discussing some rules and never thinking about work and or our aches and pains. Now that’s a perfect day!

What would not be a perfect day is if we are sailing with 25 boats (or almost as bad, just three), there is congestion on the 200ft line (which is max in the bay), boats hit each other, fiberglass gets damaged, the Power Boater is yelling at us mid-course, the mark rounding is so chaotic that your great start and upwind leg turns into last place at the rounding. Your husband has said so many bad things on the water you don’t even go to Prize giving.

The Fleet 1 Board of Directors has tasked the committee to reduce the possibility of that imperfect day by evening up the size of the three racing fleets. The methods were published in Part’s 1 and 2 of this series and results are as follows:

Fleet 1 Re-Partitioning based on new ByLaws defining 3 Divisions: A, B & C

The partitioning was based on total High Point score for the past 12 months of sailing. The total participants were divided equally into three Divisions as shown below.

Skippers that did not race in any High Point races during the last year could not be assigned to a Division because they had no score. These skippers, as well as any new Fleet 1 members, will be welcome to sail in the C Division.

In addition, all Skippers may petition the board for qualification for A or B Divisions if they feel they do not belong in their assigned Division. The rules for promotion or demotion between divisions, including the procedure for petitioning the Board can be found in the ByLaws and in this Article.

Unassigned Skippers

Divisions Webpage

Sailors will be able to follow their progress between the Divisions on the H20 Website on a new page called Divisions.  You can preview it here.  This page will replace the current “A Fleet” webpage which currently tracks the Qualifications, Promotions and Demotions to the “A Fleet”.

Effective Date

The new Fleet 1 Divisions will take effect at the Mid-Winters on February 15-16. Until then, the current rules of qualification, promotion and demotion between A and B Fleets will remain.

Questions

The following individuals have volunteered to be available to answer any questions related to the new Fleet Divisions changes and Fleet Partitioning.

Division A:     Richard Loufek, rloufek@insightinvestments.com, 714-939-2365

Division B:     Nik Froehlich, nikfroehlich@me.com, 949-254-2609

Division C:     Michael Volk, michael@mvaarc.com, 949.463.5900

Warren Duncan, Chairman of  The Board Sub-Committee for Fleet Improvement

Emile Pilafidis, Fleet 1 Captain