Helmold/Singletary Wrap-up

Dave “Sailordave” Batchelor – District Governor

Charlie Buckner, his son Silas who just turned 12 and regular crew Dale Oller aboard FS 5971 “MOJO” won the Helmold/Singletary series at the VISA invitational regatta by winning first place.   This team has been sailing together for at least 3 years and really jelled this year averaging just 2.31 points at his 4 best regattas.  They sailed 7 of the 8 regattas in the series.  Congratulations and thanks for winning one for Fleet 27.  The fleet has good representation at most regattas in the series but not competing at the top all that often in quite a few years.  Results are attached.

Considering the economy and gas prices in particular I looked back at results from previous years to see how participation was affected.  As you can see below the number of district members participating* in at least one regatta is almost constant and the number qualifying** by sailing at least 4 regattas is also little changed being down just a little this year.

Year                             District Skippers Racing*                    Skippers Qualifying**

2012                                        61                                                        9

2010                                        62                                                        12

2009                                        62                                                        11

In prior years the number participating was significantly lower and the number qualifying was usually just one or two skippers.  The big change came when we went to a low point scoring system and reduced the number of regattas needed to qualify to just 4 out of the 7 or 8 regattas each year.  The change occurred at the same time we lost 2 fleets to the Dixie Inland district and our total number of regattas dropped from 10 to 8.  Four traveling regattas is a reasonable and doable number and those of us that travel really enjoy seeing old and new friends and the great competition on different waters.  The objective of the donor of the Helmold/Singletary trophy was to promote travel and participation and I believe our system is achieving that goal. 

Don Smith and Chris from Fleet 48 gave “MOJO” a run for the money all season and Ray Merrill from Fleet 27 got more competitive this year and just needs a regular crew to be a real threat.  Tom Bews from Fleet 126 came on strong to take 4^th overall with a second at VISA.  Looks like old guys like me better get in shape so we can sail more often and hopefully better.

A Special Note

Joe Brake, a former H/S winner, sold his Scot a couple of years ago to start a new family and he and Stacy have two great looking sons Beau and Becket and live in Beaufort.   Well, Joe has another Scot he and his dad are rebuilding and we better be ready for his return next year.  Joe is a great coach and he shared has talent by sailing with several skippers during the season and leaving his mark.  I believe every skipper improved his usual finishing position a lot and, by their comments, learned a lot.  Several of them have written about their experience and I will be trying them out my own self.  Thanks Joe for your support of our sport.