AYC Commodore Debbie Gosselin issued a New Year’s challenge to the Annapolis Yacht Club Race Committee: finalize the Notices of Race for all regattas and open online registration by Feb. 1 to allow boat owners to enjoy an early start in building their competitive schedules.
“People like to look ahead and plan,” Gosselin said. “It behooves the Club to post the complete schedule of events as early in the year as possible so skippers can begin to register for the various events. This is all about helping sailors get organized for the upcoming racing season and ultimately make it easier for them to get out on the water.”
Race Committee Chair Sandy Grosvenor and her team responded to the challenge with flying colors. With input from the AYC Sailing Committee that Commodore Gosselin formed at this time one year ago, Annapolis Yacht Club has formally announced its 2017 slate of events.
Most importantly, the Notice of Race has been posted for all AYC-sponsored regattas so prospective skippers can review the particulars such as entry fee, registration deadlines, and invited classes.
“Kudos to Sandy Grosvenor for putting the entire schedule together in record time,” said Paul Parks, Chairman of the Sailing Committee. “Sailors have told us they want to know the details of our events as early as possible. We are very pleased to have all the general information about this year’s regattas already posted to the website. Now all interested owners can make decisions sooner rather than later.”
As always, the Annapolis Yacht Club spring season starts with Series 1 of Wednesday Night Racing, which commences April 26. Weekend competition begins three days later with the Spring One Design Regatta on April 29.
Every month thereafter is jam-packed with activity with the First Half of the annual Frostbite Series closing out the 2017 calendar Sunday, Nov. 5. Traditional events on the schedule include the Annapolis stop of the National Offshore One-Design Series (May 5-7), the AYC Annual Regatta (June 10), AYC Summer One-Design Regatta (July 22), Annapolis Labor Day Regatta (September 2-3), and AYC Fall Series (Sept. 30 – October 15).
Special events on this year’s calendar include the US Sailing Match Race Qualifier (June 24-25), the U.S. Junior Women’s Doublehanded Championship (July 13-18), the Harbor 20 East-West Championship (Sept. 8-10), and the J/35 North American Championship (Sept. 21-24).
Race Committee officials have created a Yachtscoring page for all the aforementioned regattas, which makes it easy for interested skippers to review documents and register.
“In the old days, racers lived by the CBYRA Green Book,” Parks said. “These days, we are an online society and Annapolis Yacht Club has responded to the times by making its events accessible by the click of a keyboard.”
Parks and other members of the Sailing Committee recognized that Annapolis Yacht Club needed to actively market its regattas and implemented a promotional campaign to do just that. Parks said the program succeeded in producing a 10 percent increase in participation.
“Naturally, we would like to continue that trend,” Parks said. “That is why we are creating the schedule and posting the Notice of Race earlier than ever before. We have discounts for early entry, and having all the regattas posted now allows folks to take advantage of that perk.”
To further assist skippers, AYC announced that Sailing Instructions for all regattas will now be posted at least 30 days in advance, providing even more detailed information such as rendezvous time.
Annapolis Yacht Club has made some fundamental changes to a pair of its most popular events. Most notable, the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) rating rule will be offered for both the AYC Annual Regatta and Fall Series. Racing rules and handicap rating expert Dobbs Davis recently conducted a seminar to provide Annapolis area sailors with detailed information about ORC, which has steadily been making inroads on the Chesapeake Bay and beyond.
Davis is committed to helping Chesapeake region skippers navigate the measurement process and obtain an ORC certificate. The Annapolis resident can be reached by emailing [email protected].
Additionally, the AYC Annual Regatta will feature a one-design racing circle for the J/22, J/30, J/80, and J/105 classes. A classic government mark distance race will also be offered for PHRF, Cruising, and ORC classes.
For the AYC Fall Series, opening weekend features windward-leeward courses for the J/22, J/30, J/70, and J/80 one-design classes. PHRF, Cruising, ORC, J/35, J/105, Alberg 30, Alerion 28, and Multihull classes will navigate government marks on the Saturday of the second weekend of the regatta.
Annapolis Yacht Club will host post-racing parties and award ceremonies each afternoon on all three weekends of Fall Series.
To review the complete AYC racing schedule and find links to the yachtscoring.com page for each regatta, visit annapolisyc.com/racing/regattas.
