2008 RACING PROGRAMS

The object of this association shall be the development of the art and science of sailing, the acquisition of knowledge of the theory and practice of seamanship, navigation, meteorology, aerodynamics, yacht design, and construction and allied subjects; and the furthering of this purpose by the promotion and encouragement of races, regattas and cruises..                                                                     FBYC Constitution, Article III

Offshore Division events will consist of 3 major series:  a Spring series, a Fall series, and the Distance series.  In addition, two stand-alone club events have been scheduled.  These events include a Closing Day Regatta followed by a Frostbite Race.  The selection of formats for these events will provide a mix of drop mark and government mark races.  The regional Offshore Division events will be the Leukemia Cup and Stingray Point Regattas, which will both take place over two days.  These races continue to draw boats from other areas of the Chesapeake Bay.  Over the past several years a number of FBYC boats have traveled to participate in both regional and national events and this trend is expected to continue. We have put a lot of effort into elevating our proficiency in race management. We are clearly benefiting from progress toward that goal and will continue to expand the number of members qualified to perform as PRO. All of the necessary elements are in place in order to provide a successful and enjoyable racing season.

One Design Division events will continue to follow the multi-race day format, with series races spread out over the Spring and Fall interspersed with Offshore events to minimize conflicts for those sailors who race in both Divisions.  One Design fleets and racing at FBYC continue to grow, anchored in recent years by the Front Runner, Flying Scot and Laser fleets.  The steady growth of the Flying Scot fleet, the re-energizing of the Lasers, and the consistency of the Front Runner fleet, combine to promise excellent participation this year. The Spring Series will carry into the month of May.  July will host the Long Distance Race and three Summer Sea Breeze regattas will span the end of June into July.  We will again have several big One Design Regattas including the 69th Annual One Design Regatta and the Laser Masters. The Indian Summer Regatta will be a one day event again in 2008 and will combine the second annual Sail Against SIDS. Our Team Racing effort this year is designed to maintain flexibility based upon the expected level of participation.  We have dates in mind which will be published upon confirmation. We expect One Design Sailing in 2008 to be both exciting and competitive.

Junior Division For the fourth year in a row, the FBYC Junior program has been further expanded to insure all our kids have summer-long opportunities to spend time on the water and get quality sailing instruction.  As in previous years, weíve hired two top-level coaches from Argentina to raise the skills levels of our racing juniors but like last year, weíre also continuing our Learn to Sail program for kids that want to simply learn to enjoy the pleasures of non-competitive sailing at FBYC.  This season, Luis Canuto returns as head coach for our Laser Radial team and will be assisted by Optimist coach Damian Saponara, who collectively have decades of experience between them teaching competitive sailing in regional, national and international events.  They will be providing summer-long opportunities for racing juniors to learn and refine their racing skills through classroom, on the water and racecourse coaching.  In addition, this year weíre adding another tier to the racing program by forming a Race Development Team that will focus on building a solid foundation of boat handling and racecourse skills in preparation to later join the race team.

As always, weíll be kicking off our program with Opti Kids and Junior Week in June, but this is only the beginning. For Junior Week, weíll not only have our exceptional coaches to teach advanced racing, weíll also have nationally famous Green Fleet Coach Tommy Coleman to teach our intermediate Optimist classes.  This year weíve also worked closely with the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association (CBYRA) Junior Division to coordinate our sailing programs with the other clubs around the Bay to provide a summer full of opportunities for kids to test their racing skills at numerous regattas and clinics.  As a part of this program, FBYC will host a Junior Division Regatta as part of the FBYC Stew Pot Regatta on April 26^th, followed by a Summer Regatta and Team Racing Clinic on June 28^th and 29^th respectively.  In order to facilitate the cooperation and coordination of participation of our Junior Parents, we are also implementing our volunteer coordination program to insure kids are able to get to practices and regattas during the week along with our continuing cooperative housing program with Christchurch School.  As in the past, carpooling and chaperoning will be key elements to this program and we look forward to having all participating parents to help with this aspect of the program.