The FD World is coming to Florida in 2006. The Saint Petersburg Yacht Club will be the host of the 2006 FD World championship regatta, in April 2006. The St.Pete YC last  hosted the FD Worlds in 1997. You can still see the web site for that event here . The 2005 US Nationals will also be held in St Pete, on October 20-23th, 2005. This will allow Americans who have not previously done so to learn their way around Tampa Bay and St.Petersburg, Florida.  2004 Midwinters, now known as the Multi-Class Invitational is coming right up, Jan 27-30. Here is the NOR .

The Carbon fiber mast era is upon us. Earlier this month in St. Pete several boats were fitted and tested with Forte-RTS Carbon masts. The masts are reported to be slightly more limber than the the Goldspar, particularly in the lower half. The weather did not cooperate particlarly, but more trials are planned. At least four of the Forte spars have been ordered by US FD sailors.

In region 1 sailing is offically over for the year since the lakes froze over solid in the first half of December.
 

Sailing continues in California all year. On November 13th, The Corinthian YC in Tiburon, hosted the Burn Your Boards Off regatta. !4 year old Max Fraser and long time FD stalwart Art Lange decisively won the Regatta.This was the first time for Max and Art racing together in an FD. They sailed “Frontrunner” to 2 firsts and one second. Results of the races are below:  1st = Helm, Max Fraser               1,1,2               Crew, Art Lange 2nd  = Helm, Zhenya Kirueshkin   2,2,1               Crew, Jim Bignell 3rd  = Helm, Jean Jimenez           3,3,3               Crew, Peter Henck 4th  = Helm, Miller Hall       DNS,DNS, 4                Crew, Michael Schuppenhauer

Sailing also contines in region III. Venues before and after Midwinters are being explored. Anyone interested in FD sailing opportunities in Florida and elsewhere in the south eastern US should contact Dave Stage .
 

 

Saratoga NY The 2004 Annual Lake Saratoga Indian Summer/Frost Biter Regatta took place over a blustery fall weekend on October16-17th. This is the latest in the year the event has been run, in order to accomodate the Thistle Class schedual. This turned out well, the weather was really nice, cool but not frosty, and the water was still fairly warm, and the Thistle fleet numbered 24 boats! The 72 of them were a jolly crowd, the saturday night party was warm and boistrous and several kegs of beer were drained. The winds were in the 10-15 range with periods of lighter and heavier during tthe racing. Four races were held on Saturday and two more on Sunday.  Four FDs attended including Bill Bernard who recruited Matt Reichart to drive the new Mader. They finished 2nd overall, and are shown about at right. At left Jonathan Clapp with Riccardo Cugini crewing in his first FD regatta.  Bill and Doug Hamilton won most of the races. Chris Reichart and Meridith Jakobowski sailed in US-1415, and made a good showing.

Atlanta, GA FD sailors gathered at The Barefoot regatta at Lake Lanier Oct 8-10th. Three teams represented three states. The home team Barretts, David Stage from Florida with Larry Adleberg crewing in his first FD regatta, and from Tennessee, Randy Schonagen with his friend Mary Dunham sailing a fabulously refinnished all wood Doesburg, previously owned by Ray Kennedy. Light winds predominated, both days. The FDs were joined on a handicap basis by a Buttefly sailor (small scow) who is now interested in FDs. This is a nice advancement for the young region III fleet. There is the potential to muster eight boats in region III currently.
 

Trapeze 147 is currently on the press.  It is a bit slow in coming, and in order to keep up to schedule  #148 is already in preparation. Deadline for submissions for #148 is Nov 30th.

The FD class was an Olympic event for 32 years. The Olympic events were covered by Trapeze reporters and editors to a greater or lesser extent. The current editor has digititized the coverage and presents them to the general public here together in this new archive feature . This item was unveiled to Trapeze readers a year ago.

St.Petersburg FL The 2006 FD Worlds will be held at St.Pete. Besides the annual Midwinter one design regatta held there, which everyone is encouraged to attend,  Lin Robson would like to hear from FD sailors who would like to make arrangements to bring and perhaps store their boats in the area for regular training between now and the Worlds. The FD worlds was held in St Pete in 1997, and the web site created for that event by Don Meirzeski was amonth the first such endeavors. It is quite interesting and can still be seen at http://www.sailfd.org/97Worlds
 

The racing schedule for the coming months is below. Please contact the persons listed if you would like to participate in the regattas this winter.
 

Event	Venue	Date	Contact
Fall FD Regatta	San FranciscoYC, Tiburon, CA	NOV 13	JJ
Turkey Day regatta	Mission Bay YC, San Diego, CA	NOV 20-21	Zhenya
Hot Rum regatta	Mission Bay YC, San Diego, CA	DEC 11-12	Zhenya
Midwinter Championships	St.Petersburg YC, St.Petersburg, FL	JAN 28-29-30	Lin Robson

I have begun working on next years schedule , with tentative dates to be filled in shortly. Regatta organizers should begin firming up plans for next years calender.
 
 

FD Wear Pocket T-Shirts and hats were prepared for Nationals, and a limited number of these are still availible. Back of shirt is shown, the front has a small IFDCO logo on the pocket. Specify Blue or Red. The red versions say "Nationals Warm up regatta" and feature a slightly different graphic.  Shirts are size XL or L, only a few size L remain. Hats and shirts are $15 each. Add $3.50 to order for postage inside North America, add $10 for overseas shipping. Checks should be made out to Diane Ferro and mailed to : 1434 Via Codorniz Ave   San Jose CA 95128

 

2004 US Nationals was a super event. 13 FDs attended with participants coming from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, New England and Oregon, as well as New Zealand and of course the host state.  The Bay View Boat Club in San Francisco was very accomodating, and the race comittee did a fine job. The weather was superb, with clear skies and steady winds in the 10-18 mph range all week, though we also had one race in light flukey wind that reminded us of lake sailing. The swift current was distincly San Francisco however.  The sea breeze didnt really start until after 2pm each day, so the mornings were spent sleeping late and lounging in the club and boat park. The evenings were spent with fabulous buffet dinners and live music in the clubhouse. Anchor Steam is the house beer and it flowed in torrents. Diane Ferro took a hundred photos , and did a hundred other things to help make the event a complete success.
 

Complete Nations report and  more photos are coming up in Trapeze 147, now in preparation. Dead line for submissions is Oct 10th.
 

St.Petersburg FL The 2006 FD Worlds will be held at St.Pete. Besides the annual Midwinter one design regatta held there, which everyone is encouraged to attend, Lin Robson would like to hear from FD sailors who would like to make arrangements to bring and perhaps store their boats in the area for regular training between now and the Worlds. The FD worlds was held in St Pete in 1997, and the web site created for that event by Don Meirzeski was amonth the first such endeavors. It is quite interesting and can still be seen at http://www.sailfd.org/97Worlds

The racing schedule for the coming months is full of interesting oportunites in various parts of the country.
 

Event	Venue	Date	Contact
High Performance Dinghy regatta	American YC, Rye, NY	OCT 9-10-11	Tim Sayles
Barefoot Open Regatta	Lake Lanier, SC, Atlanta, GA	OCT 8-9-10	Dave Stage
Indian Summer regatta	Saratoga Lake SC, Saratoga, NY	OCT 16-17	Bill Hamilton
Turkey Day regatta	Mission Bay YC, San Diego, CA	NOV 20-21	Zhenya
Hot Rum regatta	Mission Bay YC, San Diego, CA	DEC 11-12	Zhenya
Midwinter Championships	St.Petersburg YC, St.Petersburg, FL	JAN 28-29-30	Lin Robson

Carbon fiber spars were discussed at Nationals. Paul Hemker is preparing several spars for US customers based on the Forte product.
On the other side of the pond Proctor is doing some testing. See the Carbon spars page on the International FD site for more details.
 

2004 US Nationals are upon us. Everyone who is interested in FD sailing is invited to the Bay View Boat Club in San Francisco this coming weekend. There will be one or two spectator boats which may have room if you wold like to see the action up close.

Sailors need to report on Thursday the 23rd for registration and boat measurement. Participants are coming from at least six states and New Zealand. Conditions are expected to be breezy and cool.

In the past few weeks several regattas in diverse places hosted FD fleets. Among these were Folsom Lake, California, Miles River in St.Michaels MD, and CORK in Kingston, Ontario.

At CORK the organizers while disapointed by our small number, were very encouraging about our continued participation in week 2. It seems that our class being there at all after an absence of more than 10 years is a bell weather of one design sailing in general. Other classes are also experiencing resurgance at CORK, but the importance of the FD class, whatever we may think of ourselves cannot be overlooked.
Three FD teams appeared at CORK this year. We had nice 10-15kt winds Thursday and Friday, no wind at all on Saturday, never launched the boats, and 7 dropping to zero on sunday. Visiting New Zealander Daryl Way took the helm of USA-7 and ran away with the regatta. Tim Sayles sailed with his son Graham who has grown quite tall and may become a formidable crew with a bit more practice. We shared a starting line with three Canadian Contenders and made friends. the boats are clearly akin to the FD and fun to watch. We will certainly plan to sail at CORK week 2 again next year. I will be contacting FD sailors soon to find out what can be done to improve attendance at this finest venue.
 

In the coming months following Nationals there will be FD racing at some superb venues around the country. The High Performance Dinghy regatta at American YC in Rye NY over Columbus day holiday weekend  is drawing particular attention. Contact Tim Sayles for more information about this event.

This will be followed the following weekend by the Saratoga Lake regatta in upstate NY. This is the last stop on the region I circuit and always an enjoyable event.

Mission Bay YC in San Diego has several events in the autumn months including the famous Hot Rum regatta which should be well attended.

In Region IIIDavid Stage is exploring several racing possibilities and invites FD sailors to contact him about sailing in regattas in Atlanta on Oct 8-9, and Jacksonville,  FL on Dec 4-5.
 

 
 

This week CORK is happening in Kingston Ontario, the North American equivailant of Kiel Week. FD sailors will participate and carry the flag. This is a great opportunity to race the boats in the best possible venue.  2004 North Americans at CORK, Kingston, Ontario

FOLSOM LAKE REGATTA
The Folsom Lake Yacht Club is kind enough to host the Flying Dutchman Summer Regatta on Sat., Aug. 28 and Sun., Aug. 29, 2004.
The Sailing instructions (400k pdf) are availible here. SI amendments .
contact Zhenya for further information.
This past weekend  The  annual Gremlin regatta was sailed at Lake Monomonac in Rindge NH. five FD teams attended. The weather wasnt great, rainy on saturday and flat calm on sunday, but it was a great time anyway. Peter and Barbara Wells won three of the four races and the first place trophies.

New on the web site this month the Rigging menu item now points to a new index of all the rigging and tuning guides on all the FD web sites around the world. There is currently a very substantial body of knowledge availible on this subject by some outstanding authorities on the subject.
 

2004 US Nationals at BayView Boat Club in San Francisco

 Our best wishes go out to our friends in the St.Petersburg area, and elsewhere in Florida who are this week enduring the assault of hurricane Charley.

Recent FD regatta  events in the US include the annual Cazenovia Cuspidor, held on July 24-25th in upstate New York. Seven FD teams gathered from across the region to sail four races. results and pictures are availible here .

On August 7-8th, the Miles River Yacht club held their annual regatta, and the FDs attended, as they have since 1958. Three teams with sailors from Florida, Pennsyslvania, Maryland and Massachusetts raced. the conditions were perfect with brisk winds in the 3-5bft range and cool (for August) temperatures in the 70's. Four of the six races were won by the highly capable team of Jeff Wrenn and Pavel Ruzicka.
Other classes in the regatta includes Stars, Penguins, Lasers and Optis.

New on the web site this month the Rigging menu item now points to a new index of all the rigging and tuning guides on all the FD web sites around the world. There is currently a very substantial body of knowledge availible on this subject by some outstanding authorities on the subject.
 
 

 
 

Bay View Boat Club held their annual Plastic Classic regatta on Saturday July 17th. Something like 60 boats entered in several handicap classes. The team of Zhenya Kiruishkin-Stepanoff and Chris Wrenn finished first in their class on both absolute and corrected time. Four other FD teams entered.

This coming weekend brings racing in three regions, at Tahoe CA, Cazenovia, NY, and Milwakuee WI. If you are thinking of going to Millwaukee and still need accomodations try  the Holiday Inn on South 6th Street and Layton Avenue. It's 15 minute driving from sailing center.(877) 531-5084
 

Trapeze 146 goes in the mail this week. It includes recent news about regional activities, latest on the Worlds travellers and the NOR for Nationals.  If you have not recieved your copy by the end of the month contact the Secretary to find out why.

An interesting new addition to the FD web community has been posted by Mr. Kevin Schmidt of British Columbia. He has recently rebuilt an older FD, evidently an early DeKleer, with a new deck and full double bottom. You can see his web site at http://www.hyannispoint.com/sailing/ . He is just beginning the re-rigging process and is looking for ideas and advice.
 

Many times FD US champion Lin Robson   Lin.Robson@northsails.com of Saint Petersburg FL has bought himself a new FD from Mader. He has also taken a position with North Sails at their Gulf Coast loft. Lin will install a carbon fiber mast on the new boat and will be working on the next generation of high performance sails for the FD.

 

It is NOT too early to be planning for CORK. This is a superb regatta in a fabulous venue. There is a pre-registration discount of $CDN 34 which expires AUGUST 2nd, so go ahead and sign up on line right now. See you there!

June saw racing on both sides of the country, at perennial FD venues, Coronado and Canandaigua.
 

Ullman Sails OD regatta at Coronado YC in San Diego. June 19-20.  The conditions were superb San Diego sailing. The sun was moderate, the winds fair, and the chop small enough to be enjoyable  Results were as follows:  1st          Wally. Eaton                 2          2         3          1          1            9.00  2nd         Doug Dommermuth      1          1          1          ns         ns        15.00  3rd          Zhenya Kirueshkin       4          3          5          2          3          17.00  4th          Jim Algert                    ns         4          2          3          2          17.00  5th          Bernardo Martinez       3          nf          4          ns        ns         25.00

Nine FD teams attended the 2004 Cannonball regatta on June 26-27 .
The weather was excellent, cool and breezy, and besides the usual olympic triangle courses one long race of about 10 miles around the lake was held saturday afternoon. Tim Sayles and Pavel Ruzicka won the regatta, closely challenged by Chuck Linn/Kevin Roland. Third place was taken by the interesting team of Jeff Wrenn and Anna Gorbold in the Gorbolds boat, as Jonathan Gorbold is recovering from a recent surgery. He took photos from the race committee which will be presented together with results and a full report in Trapeze 146, currently in preparation.

Coming up in July there are events planned left, center and right. Three fall coincidentally on the weekend of July 24-25.

• In New York, the annual Cuspidor regatta, which is closing on it's 50th anniversary, forms the centerpiece of the Region 1 circuit. Contact Peter Bushnell for information.
• In California the newly formed NorCal fleet will be hosting their first effort at Lake Tahoe at South Lake. Contact Zhenya for information.
• and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at least one FD will participate in the 2004 "Lake Michigan Trapeze Championship Regatta". This is to be a "Free-for-all" open regatta for Trapeze dinghies, should be a very fine experience. Contact Catherine Switalski for information.
• In San Francisco,on July 17th, the Bay View Boat club is holding the "BVBC Plastic Classic Regatta", and all FD sailors are invited.

2004 US Nationals at BayView Boat Club in San Francisco	2004 North Americans at CORK, Kingston, Ontario
FD Worlds web site

The Pacific Coast Championships were held in one of the most beautiful spots on earth. The best view of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Bay Bridge were in easy eyesight. 10 boats attended. Jean Jimenez put great efforts to put on a spectacular venue for the PCC’s. It was a superb warm up for the Nationals. The folks from the Corinthian Yacht Club were more than accommodating. The Saturday night Mexican theme Fiesta dinner was great. (They had especially good flam.) We had more than you could ever hope for.

We had chosen a day that followed the passing of a low pressure system. The wind was extremely unstable. The outer bay was blowing over 30 knots. The race committee deemed it prudent to keep the boats inside the Raccoon Straights to diminish the wind force. It was to be a triangle course. The legs were about a mile in length. We were seeing conditions where the wind went from 25+ to zero shifting 180 degrees and blowing a gust to 25. One of our capsizes felt like the hand of God came out and flipped us over. Several “saves” were performed by Chris Wrenn jumping from his position on the wire to the other side of the boat. We no longer cleated the sheets. When the wind shifted we just released the sheets and tiller and leaped to the other side. At one point the race committee saw all boats upside down. We call it whale racing. All those white bottoms had a Captain Ahab and 1st Mate atop them. If only we had harpoons.  In retrospect, the race committee said they should not have let us out. They would cancel in such conditions in the future.  Ahh but Sunday was another story. It was the day we all had hoped for. The conditions were 8-14 mph with the expected flood tide. Conditions were not shifty and there were no situations that resembled Saturday. The race committed shortened the course to preserve any strength we may have had left.  We held 3 races on Sunday.  The wind increased throughout Sunday. No one capsized. JJ had a jib cleat fail. Gorilla man = Pete Henck, held the jib without a cleat for the 3rd race. We had great conditions for the Sunday sail. We were at the docks by 2:30.  Diane took more than 200 pictures. they can be viewed here .

The next west coast event is the Ullman Sails OD regatta at Coronado YC in San Diego. June 19-20. Skippers meeting at 10AM on Saturday. Contact Wally for directions and details.

Nor Cal

The Bay View Boat Club on Terry Francois Blvd. put on a very nice event for the FD fleet april 24-25. The club was very happy to host the FD sailors, and provided lots of good dining and festivity, besides first rate racing.  The weather was warm the wind was light and the current was strong. Eight boats arrived, seven rigged and went in the water, six started the first race, and four finished the last race. the results look lke this:    Place   Skipper      Crew            YC     Sail No    Pts.  1     2    3 1     Bernardo Martinez  Duane Ehleringer        805   4     1     1    2 2     Zhenya Kirueshkin- Chris Wrenn             777   5     2     2    1            Stepanoff 3     Jason Lawrence     Miller Hall            1403  12     4     4    4 4     Jean Jimenez       Peter J. Henck           84  19     8     8    3 5     David Blackman     Ryan Blackman          1366  19     8     3    8 6     Vladimir Rivkin    Maxim Satchouk         1065  19     3     8    8 7     Craig Jorgens      Laura Jorgens          1429  24     8     8    8 Diane took these photos, many more can be  viewed here .      Next event: The Corinthian Yacht Club of San Francisco    will be the host of the Pacific Coast Championship regatta (PCC) , May 22nd and 23rd.  Here is the Notice of Race and entry form. All west coast FD sailors (and any one else who can get there) should plan to attend this event. Contact JJ for details.

above: enough wind for a ride. below: the winners Duane Ehleringer and Bernardo Martinez recieve medals from BVBC RO John Super.

 

Region 3
Next race in the region is the Mug Race, 35 miles from Palatka to Jacksonville, Florida on May 1st. Contact David Stage if you would like to meet and/or sail with FDs in region 3. The sponsor is the Jacksonville Rudder club .
 
 

US FD National Championship Regatta

The San Francisco FD fleet has secured the Corinthian Yacht Club of San Francisco as the venue for this years Nationals, September 24-26. The club is located on the north shore of SF bay, overlooking the city. Some of the officers of the club are former FD sailors and the club is very pleased to be the host of our event. Our thanks to Zhenya , JJ , Victor , and others who worked on the venue selection process. This will be a superb event. Contact the fleet members about driving directions, accomodations, and other information. The club's web site includes some excellent maps. Already a number of teams from the east have committed to making the trip. Efforts are also being made to interest Canadian and Mexican FD sailors to attend.  The same club will be the host of the Pacific Coast Championship regatta (PCC), May 22nd and 23rd. All west coast FD sailors (and any one else who can get there) should plan to attend this event.    Also upcoming  in the SF area there will be a Spring regatta held April 24th and 25th, at Bay View Boat Club on Terry Francois Blvd. Here is the  NOR for this event . contact JJ or Zhenya for details.

North American Championship Regatta

This year is the 35th anniversary of CORK/Sail Kingston. Our North Americans will be held as part of Week 2, August 26-29. The NOR is already posted at the CORK web site . This year's event will include fleets of 110's, Europe dinghies, Tornados and HT18 Catamarans, whom we met at Midwinters this past spring, in addition to the Finns, Fireballs and, I-14s we sailed with last year. Less than 2 hours drive from Syracuse, it is practically within region 1, and certainly one of the best sailing venues in the east.

Region 3

Four FDs attended the  "Dogwood regatta" held at Lake Lanier, near Atlanta Georgia, March 27th-28th. Two races were completed in light winds. Results are now posted on the AISC section of the Lake Lanier    web site.

Next race in the region is the Mug Race, 35 miles from Palatka to Jacksonville, Florida on May 1st. Contact David Stage if you would like to meet and/or sail with FDs in region 3. The sponsor is the Jacksonville Rudder club .
 

Web site
I have recently learned that the Association membership application availible on this web site had the wrong ZIP code for the class secretary. It should read PA 19380. I apologize for the typographical error and any confusion it has caused. Without wishing to transfer blame or criticize the USPS, it is apparent that some dues payments sent to the secretary using the erroneous ZIP code have not been forwarded properly by the recieving post office. If you sent dues to the secretary before March 31st of this year and have not recieved any acknowledgement please contact him at <john@saylesengineering.com> to verify that your payment was recieved.
 
 

 
 

The South African FD Class association has launched a new web site. http://sailfd.org.za They have already some excellent content including a number tactical and technical articles, all very nicely presented.

Carbon Spars

Forte RTS of New Bedford, Massachusetts is developing carbon fiber spars for the FD class. Anyone interested in investing in a new, domesticaly produced rig can get in on the ground floor by contacting  Wesley McMichael

 

The San Francisco FD fleet got together On Feb 28th for a tune up day at Pete's Harbor, Redwood City. Five boats were sailed including several which hadn't seen water in decades. A number of interested people attended to see what the FD is about. There is a nice photo album of the weekend availible.  The next gathering in the SF area is scheduled for March 27th. It will be held at Santa Cruz. contact Zhenya or JJ for directions if you intend to sail or would just like to visit and learn about the FD.

The next regatta opportunity on the east coast is the  "Dogwood regatta " held at Lake Lanier , near Atlanta Georgia, March 27th-28th.
This is a big multi-class regatta. At least three FD teams are planning to be there.  The south eastern FD fleet is also considering some other venues for meets. Contact David Stage if you would like to meet and/or sail with FDs in region 3.
 
 

FD NEWS 14 FEB 2004

David Fagen is contending for the 49er class spot. He is posting daily updates from the heat of battle at his web site http://www.sail2olympics.com/    Good luck David!

As many readers know, David has been US FD class national champion and is currently a vice president of IFDCA-US.

FD Worlds

New Boat
There is news that an American sailor, Bill Bernard of Annapolis MD, long time FD enthusiast and Measurer, is planning to buy a brand new Mader FD this summer. He hopes to bring it to Nationals in San Francisco in the fall. That event promises to be quite a show case for the FD class.
 

Trapeze
Trapeze 145 is currently in preparation. Deadline for submissions is Feb 20. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to Trapeze.