12-8-13 Lido Isle Yacht Club, Harbor 20, Fleet 1, Awards Ceremony.

Starting time 1800 with close to 110 members attending. Shana Conzelman chaired the event and after a tremendous amount of effort by Shana and her committee, one word comes to mind, and that is spectacular.

The first awards given out was for the High Point Series. Gary Thorne 1st Bob Yates 2nd and Len Bose 3rd. The High Point awards are given to A, B, & C skippers who have the best total score for the season in their respective fleets.

The Rain or Shine Series is presented to the fleet one skipper who races in the greatest number of Rain or Shine races for the season. This year’s recipient was Michael Volk who participated in seventy six races. In a close second was Rod Swift with seventy four and in third was Peter Haynes with seventy two. The inflection in Peter Haynes voice, as he graciously presented the award to Michael, indicated that this award will be contested next season. From what I can tell the record is eighty two races set by Peter in 2012.

The Arthur Strock is awarded to the member who has performed outstanding service for the Harbor 20, fleet one organization. After observing the fleet for the first time, as a skipper, this year I could have guessed this one. I first noticed John Whitney busting his butt in The Baldwin Cup this year. He helped organized the rules seminar, and helped us at BCYC obtain boats for our club championships. I mean everywhere I went this season John was already there. Well done John, you raised the bar on this award and thank you.

Next was the Broken Rudder Award. This fine awarded is given to the skipper whose boat sustained the most damage in the heat of battle. I was sailing that fateful Tuesday night, the wind was in the high teens and the racing area was very tight. Mark Conzelman aboard Shana’s Secret sailed just past the leeward mark on the starting line and with all the excitement of a windy starting sequence did not notice the bow sprint of the big power boat and caught one of his stays that caused his mast to collapse. That one could happen to anyone in those conditions. Unfortunately it happened to one of our fleets newest members with his new boat.

This years First Mate Awards goes to the highest placing husband and wife teams in A and B fleet at the fleet one championships. In A fleet Diane and Bill Menninger won and in B fleet Barrie & Len Connelly took home the award.

Next was Fleet 1 Grand Masters Trophy that is awarded to the highest placing skipper over the age of sixty five at the Fleet 1 championships in A & B fleet. In B fleet Win Fuller received the award and in A’s Bob Yates was the winner.

This year a new award was donated to the fleet by the Drayton family. The “Phyllis Rawlins Drayton” trophy. This award is presented to the top women finishers in A and B divisions (either skipper or crew). Now this award was particularly emotional as it was awarded and received. John Drayton and the family had obviously spent a lot of time putting this together and it meant a great deal to them and the fleet. What made the inaugural presentation so special, to me, was the reaction from one of its first recipients

Jessica Newman. Jessica and her father Greg where sitting at our table and Jessica reaction was truly emotional, inspirational and priceless. In A fleet Diane Menninger received the award and it was obvious she to was also very grateful to have received this award.

It was a perfect night and good times will be remembered for years to come.

12-8-13

The forecast was for light wind, sunshine and cooler temperatures. In fact more racers made it to the starting line than I had expected. The forecast for Saturday night was “Dark and Stormy”, and this time I am talking about cocktails, with three yacht clubs in town having their installation dinners and Fleet 1 was having their Awards Banquet after the racing on Sunday.

We had a good turnout with thirty six boats out. Thirteen in A’s and 21in B’s. The racing was difficult in the light breeze because you needed a little luck to find it. I received a rather kind complement from Bill Menninger “You seem to find the breeze when it’s coming in from every direction” with a little bit of frustration in his voice. In the second race of the day Bill got off the line and found the first shift coming in from the right side. He punched out to a big lead as we worked our way downwind towards the PCH bridge. Unfortunately for Bill the wind filled in from behind and Kurt Wiese and I interrupted his party. Kurt won that race and Bill went on to win the day to take home the high points.

In B fleet Carter Ford had his game face on and sailed through most of A fleet through out the day keeping the hammer down until he returns back to A’s. Kathryn Reed aboard “Wood In It Be Nice” has been sailing very consistently and has a good hold on second place.

12-7-13

The first words that come to mind is “Dark and Stormy” and I am not talking about cocktails. Starting time was 1300 and that’s exactly when the largest squall of the day rolled through. Eleven skippers ignored the gale wind forecast and the two red flags above the harbor department and watched the squall roll in from the west.

I had to work this day, at least that’s what I was telling everyone, but it was my understanding that prior to the squall arriving many skippers had thrown a reef in their mains as they watch the wind speed push into the twenties.

Chris Killian told me he had his wife Cathy and son Porter with him and was one of the skippers who placed a reef in his main before heading out onto the race course. To quote Chris “We had green water rolling over the top of the boat, I mean lots of green water,” he explained with excitement still in his voice. Fleet one races inside Newport Harbor and it does take some breeze before we get water rolling over the tops of our boats.

After the squall rolled through the wind eased some and the race committee took down the postponement. Skippers sailing with two crew members and a full main had the advantage off the wind. BYC races lean more towards random leg than windward/leewards.

Per Trebler was the only C fleeter to make it to the starting line. This allowed him to catch up in the series after missing the first day of the series. Rod Graham extended his lead in the B fleet with two firsts. In A fleet Ed Kimball and Gary Throne split the day both getting a 1 & 2. Tucker Cheadle is in a close third place in the series and has been sailing very consistently.

This week, I took the opportunity to learn about Phyllis Drayton and the good times she is having on our harbor.

I first met Phyllis sitting across from her and her husband George at last year’s Harbor 20 awards banquet. After I introduced myself, she said, “Len Bose, ooh, I read your articles. You know, my son John also writes a boating column in the local paper.” This perked my ears and made me sit up a little straighter.

I have come to learn that Phyllis’ family owned a home on Balboa Island in the 1930s-1950s and sailed an eight-foot Balboa Dinghy, a predecessor to today’s Sabot. She and her sister Ann moved up to race Snowbirds and competed in many of the Flight of the Snowbirds races.

She then became involved at the Balboa Island Yacht Club and became the club’s secretary in the early 1950s, all the while staying active in the Snowbirds, Lehman 10 and Sabot fleets. After moving off the island, she returned in the 1980s and ’90s to teach young mothers how to sail. Her son John said, “I’m still surprised occasionally to hear from someone who was taught to sail by mom on Balboa Island.

“She first started racing at NHYC in 1946, 67 years ago! She has raced more or less continuously since then.”

In 1985, she was the senior Sabot national champion and enjoyed competing in the Mother Sabot Amazon Race around Lido Isle. Phyllis was one of the earliest members of the Mother Sabot group started at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club in the early 1970s and remained active for the next 40 years as a Sabot mom. As a family, the Draytons spent many summers at Moonstone Cove on Catalina Island on their Cal 25 and Cal 29.

The Draytons were one of the original five people to purchase a Harbor 20 in the early 1990s. John explained the purchase: “Mom and Dad bought Harbor 20 No. 5, ‘Whim’; it was actually Mom [and not Dad] who put the money down for this boat. First group on the bay — their boat was actually No. 3, but she felt 3 was an unlucky number, so she had it changed!”

The Draytons have been very active in the Harbor 20 fleet over the last 20 years. Most of the time, it’s been George and Phyllis out on the water together with an occasional appearance from one of their three sons and one of their grandchildren.

This type of family tradition of boating in our harbor is now approaching four generations, within many families, and it’s something that truly inspires me in many ways. Like the Draytons, I live for the day I will sail in the harbor with my son and grandchild. This type of family longevity on the harbor needs to be more recognized and appreciated now and in the future.

You might have noticed how big I am on our local fleets and yacht clubs’ award nights, and we still have two big events this week. Newport Harbor Yacht Club is had its annual meeting last Saturday, which was perfect for me because most of the Harbor 20 class will be attending and then trying to race Sunday afternoon.

NHYC awards one of our harbor’s most prestigious awards, the Burgee of Merit. The criteria for receiving the Burgee of Merit include competing in the Olympic Games, winning a major world championship or bringing unusual distinction to West Coast yachting in general. This award is not given every year, so it’s always interesting if anyone will take this baby home this year. I will be attending the Harbor 20 awards night on Sunday, and there is a rumor that there is a new award being presented.

LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist.

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.

 

Division A	Division B	Division C
Chris Allen	Mick Bacich	Bill Allen
Len Bose	Richard Blatterman	Mary Bacon
Jim Buckingham	Joe Carter	Scott Barnes
Tucker Cheadle	Jonathan Cheadle	Roxanne Chan
Helen Duncan	Len Connelly	Mark Conzelman
Carter Ford	Tom Corkett	Andy Everson
Terry Gloege	Guy Doran	Steve Horton
Jeff Gordon	George Drayton	Jan Houghton
Eric Graveline	Nik Froehlich	Toby Jackson
Peter Haynes	Win Fuller	Nina Manning
Tim Hogan	Roderick Graham	Sandy Mills
Walter Johnson	Jane Hartley	Manouch Moshayedi
Jim Kerrigan	John Horton	Richard Mulvania
Ed Kimball	Mark Hurwitz	John ODonnell
Richard Loufek	Gregg Kelley	Karen Pierce
Bill Menninger	Christophe Killian	Ted Reed
Greg Newman	Christopher Killian	Kathryn Reed
Jon Pinckney	Emile Pilafidis	George Samuels
Scott Ramser	Gale Pinckney	Steve Silk
Phil Ramser	Karl Pomeroy	Dick Somers
Tom Schock	Rolly Pulaski	Travis VanDenBerg
Gary Thorne	Kathy Sangster	Michael Volk
John Whitney	Lee Sutherland	Ed Watson
Kurt Wiese	Rod Swift
Bob Yates	Ross Watanabe

 

Unassigned Skippers

Gary Barmore	Carolyn Hardy	Marcia O’Hern
Bruce  Bennett	Dave Janes	Tom O’Keffe
Andy Binkerd	Chris Jester	Dan O’Sullivan
John Brown	Todd Johnson	Jan-Erik Palm
Dennis Clavert	Barbara Jones	Mike Psomas
John Carlson	David Lamb	Paul Queyrel
John Cazier	JK Leason	Douglass Rastello
Phillip Chandler	Mary Longpre	William Singleton
Peter Crary	Craig Lyons	Larry  Somers
Phil Crosby	Helen Mackel	Cindy Stoeckel
Neal Crowley	Tom Madden	Per Trebler
Leslie Disney	John Magee	George Twist
Mike Drobot	John Marshall	Judy Weightman
Warren Duncan	Donald KcCalla	Terry Welsh
Roberta Feurstein	Bernard McNair	Chuck Wert
Roger Grable	Bill McNamara	Kristen Whitney
Richard Gregory	Thomas Mitchell	Jack Woodhall
Rob Hamilton	Dave O’Hara	Andrew Zimbaldi

 

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

 

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

Last Friday we announced that the H20 Fleet 1 Board of Directors voted to implement a plan to divide the Newport Harbor fleet into three formal Divisions: A, B & C.  The aim is to continue great racing for all sailors by dividing the fleet into three divisions, each having approximately the same number of skippers.

Our current “One Design Fleet” is by any World Standards a spectacular success both in the level of competition and in the quality of our off water activities — no other fleet comes close.  We have a broad range of sailing abilities from entry-level sailors and returning experienced sailors to Olympians, National Champions and most recently Collegiate All-Americans.  What other fleet races all year-round and seven days a week in the summer?  This is a Perfect World of Sailing!

To maintain any perfect World we have to make small corrections and changes.   These changes aim to ensure we have fair, even sailing, without overcrowded start lines and with races that do not negatively impact other users in the Harbor.

Peter Haynes has analyzed and computer modelled our fleet extensively.  He reviewed 12 months worth of High Point race results and found that overall we had 58 races with 77 skippers competing.  On average, during popular regattas, 50% of this pool of 77 racers competed.  Based on the total pool of racers and the average participation, the Fleet will be divided into three equal divisions (A, B and C) each containing a pool of approximately 25 skippers. With historical average participation of 50%, we expect races to contain from 10-15 participants.

Movement up or down between the Divisions will be almost identical to what has historically worked very well between the current A and B divisions. Appendix A to the Fleet 1 Bylaws has been revised for the new Fleet Divisions and is posted on the Harbor 20 Website, under Fleet 1, Bylaws.

In simple terms, qualification for Divisions will be as follows:

• Movement up into the next Division will be by either:
  • Winning a Two-Day Regatta
  • Or by Winning Two One-Day Regattas within a 12 month period
• Maintaining your status in a Division A or B will be by:
  • “Placing” during a High Point Regatta within a 12 month period
•  As before, Sailors have the right to Petition the Board if they feel they should sail in a Division other than where they currently are qualified.
• For details see the amended Fleet 1 Bylaws and Appendix.

The new fleet divisions will become effective at the Mid-Winter Regatta on February 15, 2014. The Board Subcommittee expects to announce the new roster of skippers in each Division (A, B and C) within the next week.

 

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

Emile Pilafidis, Fleet 1 Captain

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

The Harbor 20 Class Association continues to be recognized as an organization whose members take pride in its heritage and longevity. It’s truly this pride of membership and a stellar level of competition, which has attracted more and more sailors to the Harbor 20. Newport Beach’s Fleet 1 has seen phenomenal growth and it is our members who have made this happen. The camaraderie amongst our Fleet is unmatched, on and off the water.

Our increased membership is particularly noticeable at our races. Congestion at the start line and our sheer numbers sailing a course in our small channels at times lessens the quality of the experience, for us as well as those we share the harbor with. We have all seen power boaters who find themselves with Harbor 20s approaching with nowhere to go.  We wouldn’t exactly call these growing pains “problems” (most racing Fleets around the world would love to have our “problems”!), but they are pains, nonetheless.  So together we should celebrate our success and, at the same time, move forward to make adjustments to preserve good competition and safety, as well as be a good neighbor on the water.

In May, the Fleet 1 Board of Directors began looking at ways to meet the needs of our growing Fleet. With some new, experienced sailors moving directly to the A Division and many of the original C sailors moving into the B Division, our starts have swelled in numbers and are becoming unmanageable. Frequently there isn’t even a C start. Effectively, we have had two Divisions, A and B. The logical change was to make a third Division that would spread the boats amongst three starts. Sailors in this new Division will race on the same courses, be ranked, and receive trophies like the A and B’s, and have the same rules for moving up and down within the Divisions.

At the November Board of Directors meeting, the Board approved the formal creation of a new C Division, which will no longer be a non-ranking training ground for 2-3 of our newest sailors. A lot of thought has been given to processes and protocol and we are certain that the changes will be positive! Watch for notifications posted on this web site in the coming weeks. We thank you in advance as we begin to finalize and implement these changes.  Our Fleet 1 members come from all walks of life, from new sailors to Olympian contenders, and all age ranges, but our love of sailing the Harbor 20 brings us together and moves our organization forward.  We look forward to sharing more in the coming days and weeks.

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

Emile Pilafidis, Fleet 1 Captain

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT!

Click on the image below to view the Harbor 20 Holiday Awards evening invitation. (or click here).

If ever there was a person who should be our harbor’s ambassador, it is Phillip Ramser. I have never met a more congenial person in this harbor. This is why I write this column — I get to pick up the phone and ask people like Phil if we could talk.

Phil was born in West Los Angeles, attended the local schools, went to college at USC and later served in the Air Force.

Phil’s father, Hal Ramser, purchased a Kettenburg 46-foot PCC hull No. 5 by the name of Antigua. When Phil was 15, one of our harbor’s local sailors, George Strong, asked Hal if he would like to put a group of sailors together and race in the San Diego Yacht Club’s Lipton Cup. The crew included Darby Metcalf, Harry Bourgeois, Kenny Watts and Hilyard Brown.

“This was the very first race I had ever sailed in,” Phil said with excitement in his voice, as if it was only yesterday. “I was assigned to the pit and was allowed to come on deck, to hold out the main out, on the downwind runs. We came into the last race at the leeward mark with inside overlap on Mr. Kettenburg and headed toward the finish. We tacked 24 times on that final leg to beat the San Diego Yacht Club.”

The Lipton Cup has always been the most sought-after sailing trophy in Southern California, and Phil was on the winning crew in his very first sailboat race.

Phil was next introduced to the Snipe fleet by Metcalf. For most of the 1950s, he sailed locally and around the country following the Snipe fleet.

“We had a great time,” he said.

In the ’50s, Phil served in the Air Force, and upon his return home sailed Antigua for a number of years and did very well in our local offshore races.

After he sold Antigua, he moved into the Etchells 22-foot fleet and helped develop the fleet in Newport Beach and Europe.

“We sailed Etchells all around the world — Australia, England, Hong Kong and Scotland,” he explained. “We would have boats built in Scotland and race these boats, then sell them, and we did this for about three years in a row. That’s how the Etchells fleet started in Europe.”

Somewhere, Phil found time to sail 5.5 meters in Europe with Tom Omohundro and Harry “Buddy” Melges before becoming commodore of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club. Just about this time, he purchased a New York 36 by the name of Vidiot and campaigned that through most of the ’80s in our local PHRF fleet.

Taking a short break from owning his own boat in the early ’90s, Phil played a role in developing the concept of the Harbor 20.

“We needed to find five people who wanted a boat, so we did, and now the fleet has over 30 boats racing in most of the events,” he said.

I asked Phil what he thinks are the biggest challenges facing the harbor in the next 40 years.

“I would like to see the anchorage moved back to where it was originally located on the west end of Lido Isle,” he said with concern in his voice. “With the addition of Marina Park, the harbor will become increasingly restrictive in the anchorage area now. That disturbs me, and we should do what we can to mitigate that.”

I asked who his sailing mentors were and who he thought was the fastest sailor in the harbor. Names like Metcalf, Bill Ficker and Tommy Frost quickly came to mind.

“We have had a multitude of good sailors come out of our area,” Phil said.

When asked again who he felt was the fastest sailor, he quickly replied Jon Pinckney. “He is amazing how he watches the water, amazing guy on how he picks up on the wind,” Phil said.

Last, I asked who he liked to beat the most on the race course.

“I never had someone I would go after,” he explained. He would like to beat Bill Menninger, he said with a laugh. Long ago, I enjoyed racing against my old friend Don Ayres, and it was fun competing against him.

“I have never have had any contentious rivalries,” he said with pride. “I’ve been able to get along with everyone rather well. It’s all good.”

If you have never met Phil Ramser, I suggest you introduce yourself, because the way I see it, he is one of our harbor’s amazing guys.

Sea ya.

Len Bose