Fleet 9 Shields sailing got a slow and late start this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but beginning on June 3, we began holding informal evening races with crews limited to three sailors per boat wearing masks and PFDs, maintaining physical distance when possible. After three weeks with the fleet building slowly from 8 to 12 boats, new DEM guidelines allowed us to begin sailing with full crews drawn from within a “stable group” of 15 sailors. Crew lists were filled out, waivers were signed, and 16 boats competed last week in the first official race of the season, run by a lean, efficient Ida Lewis Yacht Club race committee. The summer season has officially begun!
Twenty boats are registered to race, and we’re hopeful of several more in the coming weeks. We welcome four new owners to the fleet, Michael Shea (232), Scott Foberg (151), Eric Shealy (17) and Austin Cohen/Kelsy Patenaude (204), the last of which is the freshest arrival, already registered, and nearly a winner in one of its first Aloha Cup races last Saturday! We look forward to seeing the rest on the water shortly.
To promote fleet unity even as we remain more distant from each other than usual, the Fleet provided official Fleet Nine gaiters to registered and in the water by mid-June. Stay tuned for the chance to order more.
Bomba Charger (156), with Mike Toppa at the helm, won the first Wednesday night race last week, and daughter Holley Toppa was published in Sailing Scuttlebutt on Thursday with a great story (“Coronavirus has a Silver Lining” about Mike’s push to get 156 and family sailing started. I would add that, as Fleet 9’s Executive Officer, Mike has been a key reason that our fleet has already been racing on a limited basis for the last four weeks. If you launched at Sail Newport this spring, you utilized the launch frame that he shepherded into existence—and for many of you he was on hand to help with the launch. Thanks from all of us, Mike!
We hope to have a report on Saturday’s Aloha racing shortly. Suffice to say, the racing was close among the half dozen boats that braved the impending rain and enjoyed a couple of good short races.
I’d like to thank everyone who has been on the water so far for adhering carefully to the Fleet 9 special rules regarding wearing masks, filling out crew lists, etc. In sailing, safety comes first, and we’re all doing our best to keep it that way even as we engage in the sport that love. The Crew Lists in particular are important to maintain so that contact tracing can be quickly implemented if a team member tests positive.
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I’d also like to thank Bill O’Hanley, Robin Wallace and the rest of the Ida Lewis Race Committee. We’ve been in consistent communication and they have been super supportive as we’ve worked together to find the best way forward for Shields racing organized by Ida Lewis.
Thanks also to all my fellow fleet officers—Bill Doyle, Secretary; Ron Oard, Treasurer; David Bush-Brown, At Large; and Mike Toppa, as mentioned above. Each one of them has tended to a workload that has probably been double that of a normal year, and rarely has two weeks gone by without a meeting to assess new developments and revise our plans in keeping with a vision to grow the fleet. Thanks also to past Fleet Captain Ted Slee who handles the fleet scoring, still represents us along with Ron to the Shields Class Association, and recently joined the class technical committee along with Kim Roberts.
Finally, I’d like to thank Brad Read at Sail Newport for his leadership on behalf of all Newport sailors this spring. He actually helped to draft some of the new guidelines we’re able to race under.
That’s enough for now. Time to go sailing. I’ll see you on the water this week.
—John Burnham, Fleet Captain
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