If you haven't seen the photos, results and story on the 2003 Midwinters check it out here on the class website.  It was fantastic to leave a New England blizzard and arrive in Clearwater for three days of 80 degree weather and tons of wind for some really great sailing.

It was good to see some out-of-towners (outside of the SE district) make the trip. Kevin and Birgit  Gilman came down from the Northeast as well as Dave, Cutter and Adam from JY. It was also good to see Gary and Carol Fritz and Per and Karin Westesson make the trip all the way from upstate NY. Other New Yorkers included Lee Oldack from Sag Harbor (hosting the Atlantic Coasts this year) and Peter Bates from an increasingly active Atlantic Highlands fleet.

 From the mid-west, Mark Allen and Stephanie Schnieder returned for a second year as did Wayne and Damiata Chambers. Also the Downens - Brad, Chris, Josh and Patsy made the trek for Illinois, Aaron Boesnecker from Michgan and Scott Miller.

From the Southwest, district leader Dave Hoye and Misty Reeder came from Rush Creek (host of the 2003 NA's!)

Finally, it was good to see Matt and Tori Gimple (now from Virginia) rejoining the JY racing circuit.

Next year our plan is 45 JY's on the starting line. The location is Clearwater again which just can't be beat for a fantastic midwinter vacation so put it on your calendar for (hopefully) the end of  February, just before the start of Frostbite up North.

Sticking with the travel theme ... we will be awarding 10 nifty JY maintenance kits to the 10 sailors who earn the most regatta travel miles in the 2003 season. These kits include an ABS tool box chock full of all kinds of essential items for keeping your JY in top form. Among the contents are:

- rivet gun and rivets
- ratchet combination screw driver
- pliers
- box wrench that fits all standard JY nuts & bolts
- duct tape
- multi-color electrical tape
- tons of ring dings and clevis pins
- extra drain plugs (who hasn't lost a half dozen of those)
- tiller extension flex joints
- plastic polish and JY cleaning aids
- JY hull repair kit
- most anything else that can or has broken on your JY like the vang tang, rudder pin, shock cords etc.
- telltales, shroud yarn and more ....

You'll be the envy of your fleet. You'll need to keep this baby under lock and key as everyone tries to beg,  borrow and steal it away.

So here's how you win. For any regatta listed on the class website, we will award:

1 point for sailing regatta at your home club (as indicated in your class membership or closest to you)
2 points for traveling to any other club to sail except ...
4 points for sailing in any regatta that is over 250 miles (use Yahoo or any driving directions software) from your home.

You don't need to win the regatta, you just need to sail. (Wow, finally something I can win!) The contest is self-reporting / policing. That is, you are responsible for emailing me with your attendance and points if you are interested in competing. I will report on results to-date in the e-news. Awards will be announced at the NA's and of course, you need to be a class member to claim your prize.  So get off your butt and hit the road!

P.S. We would also like to revive the sailor of the year award. This is given to the JY sailor with the best overall results in the major regional regattas (Midwinters, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, New England and Atlantic Coasts) as well as the NA's.  A maximum of 15 points is awarded for winning each regional regatta with points decreasing by one for each subsequent place (with a minimum of 2 points for sailing). 25 points are awarded for first in the NA's.

With the Midwinter's and the Southeast championships out of the way, John Potter has jumped out to a significant lead, but there is much racing ahead.

Sailor of the Year Totals to date

2003 Regattas

The most up to date regatta calendar is shown below. (Please confirm with the contact or club before traveling as I only report what I'm told) Regattas with a question mark are still tentative as I don't not have final confirmation but believe they are correct.  Please let me know of any others that I missed.

Please let us know what regattas you are thinking about attending by clicking the "update your profile" link at the end of this email. This will give you a list of all the regattas and let you check off the ones you are thinking about attending as well as update any information about yourself so we have current name and address for JY mailings.

Bob Mueller, JYPrez@comcast.net