Lightning Fleet 50 (Alexandria, VA)
http://lightningfleet50.org/
2018 AGM & Awards Banquet (recapping the 2018 sailing season)
23 February 2019
Meeting Agenda & Reports
Overall State of the Fleet (Commodore)

I would like to express my sincere gratitude for Jim & Joyce Dillard for opening their home for our annual meeting!  It was a great evening, outstanding food & libations but most importantly wonderful camaraderie. Thank you to everyone who attended!  Who those of you who were not able to make it, we have a very good meeting & were able to cover a lot of important information about the Fleet.  Please take a moment to to ready the recap from our meeting below.

Established in 1943, Fleet 50 is proud to carry on the tradition of the Lightning as the longest enduring, most competitive and fun one-design racing class in the Washington DC metro area. We currently have about 21 active and semi-active boats. Our competitive racing schedule runs from early April through the first weekend of November each year.

Locally, Lightning Fleet 50 had a great racing season, with a total of 62 races completed as part of the scored racing season. This included an 8-week Sunday Spring Series and an 8-week Fall Series (43 races) as well as two 2-day weekend regattas, (the PRSA Memorial Day Spring Regatta (8), Memorials Day weekend, and the PRSA President’s Cup (9) in September) and our Fleet 50 Doc Gilbert Potomac Cup/2018 Dixie Districts Regatta in early May (2). In addition, PRSA also had hosts 2 non-scoring optional events, the Rookie Regatta in the spring and a distance race in the fall. Both events are opportunities to introduce new people to sailing or having opportunities to change up crew positions for new experiences.

Overall, we had great participation in 2018. Of the 21 boats on the roster, we would usually have between 5-9 boats out racing on any given Sunday (a max of 9 boats during one Sunday!). We usually have more than 10+ participating in our 2-day regattas. For our annual Doc Gilbert Potomac Cup Regatta, we moved our date to June, as we hosted the 2018 Dixie District Regatta. We had an outstanding turnout & RC ready to go, but the wind did not cooperate and we only got 2 races off that weekend. Due to our event being the District event, we had an excellent turnout with 28 boats! This season, we continued a regular practice of gathering around the BBQ grill after the racing to trade stories about starts, mark roundings, and other tall tales from the racing.

For the 2018 Racing Season…We had 15 boats participate, [15] were active and [13] qualified for the 2018 Championship Series. We had 12 boats travel to at least 1 away regatta in 2018!

Fleet 50 is now an official organization
As of Jan 2019, Fleet 50 now has a bank account in our own name. Due to recent changes in the banking laws; individuals are no longer allowed to have an individual bank account with a DBA/club name on them. Unfortunately for us, that meant a lot of research & moving to obtaining our own TIN to open the account. Nothing will change is how we operate at this time, but I just wanted to make everyone aware of the new status.

Fleet Business
Fleet By-Laws
Propose to change fleet roles/positions from 9 to 3:
Fleet Captain
Treasury
Secretary
All other positions will be filled on a volunteer basis

Awards
I have been reviewing the financials and I believe that we are spending way too much in awards, especially in relation to the income we receive. I would like to reduce the number of awards from 17 to 9 awards as follows:
Series Championship, from 1st-5th to 1st thru 3rd similar to awards in regattas. (5 > 3)
Iron Skipper [Make Perpetual Award], Bloody Rudder, All Weather Crew
From 9 other awards to 3

Best New Crew:
Most Improved Crew:
Fleet 50 Helper Award

High Impact Crew:
Team Spirit Skipper:
Congeniality Award:
Most Improved Skipper:
Skipper of the Year:
Bungle Bucket:

Membership
Fleet 50 welcomed 1 new members (to make 21 boats listed on the roster)
We were excited to see many boats on the water in 2018, and look forward to building on this momentum in 2018. This year we welcomed:
#15259 Mike & Angie Darrah, Humuhumu

A complete listing of our Fleet 50 boats and skippers can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ya6k47xz

Financial Report (Treasurer)

2017 Beginning Balance $4130.08
End Balance $ ?
2018 Beginning Balance $ ?
End Balance 3,900

The 2019 Lighting Fleet 50 Doc Gilbert Potomac Cup (May 11-12, 2019)
Doc Gilbert Regatta at Leesylvania State Park & Entry Fee remains at $125. The 2018 Doc Gilbert/Dixie Districts was one of the best attended regattas in our District this past year. This year we are once hosting the Dixie Districts over Mother’s Day Weekend and are goal is to reach the goal of 25 boats 2019!

Jim Dillard will work on beer/permits and the Oyster boat.
PRO: Bruce Bingman (confirmed via email 101/06/19 to LML)
We have continued our partnership with the I-20 fleet to have Fleet 50 Member to staff RC will be supported by the PRSA I-20 fleet (and we ready to go with 8 volunteers). Fleet 50 members have volunteered to run RC for PRSA I20 Cheery Blossom, (April 21-22, 2018) in exchange for having the I-20 fleet members help volunteer for Doc Gilbert.

Park Cleanup Day: Saturday, May 4th, 2019.
Regatta Chair needed!
Need a volunteer to be in charge of Food
We need lots of additional volunteers to help. Our job is to host and make sure others can sail! We need to make sure we get visitors, and put on a great regatta.

Officers for 2019
Fleet Captain: Lisa-Marie Lane
Treasurer: Christy Chen
Secretary & Scorer: Bob Astrove

Many thanks to the Officers who served Fleet 50 in 2018:
Fleet Captain: Lisa-Marie Lane
Lieutenant for Racing: John Van Voorhis
Treasurer: Bob Gotthardt
Secretary: Geof f Bishop
Scorer: Will Summers –THANK YOU!!!
Potomac Cup Regatta Chair: Aaron Boesenecker

Complete 2018 season results: https://tinyurl.com/ydcskyqj

2018 Fleet 50 Awards

 

Best New Crew: Emily Patton
Recipients of the Best New Crew award must have completed their first season of racing for Fleet 50 skippers in Fleet 50 racing events. Winners will be determined based on strength of nominators’ citations, for commitment to racing; sailing skill; and support of the Fleet. The winners may not also receive awards for High-impact Crew; Most Improved Crew; or Fleet Helper.

Most Improved Crew: Jared McLenore
Recipients of the Most Improved Crew award must have completed their second or subsequent season of racing for Fleet 50 skippers in Fleet 50 racing events. Winners will be determined based on strength of nominators’ citations, for improved sailing skill, commitment to racing; and support of the Fleet. The winners may not also receive awards for High-impact Crew; Best New Crew; or Fleet Helper.

High Impact Crew: Angie Darrah
Recipients of the High-impact Crew award must have sailed for one or more Fleet 50 skippers in Fleet 50 racing events. Winners will be determined based on strength of nominators’ citations, for making a significant difference in the racing performance of the boat or boats, commitment to racing, and support of the fleet. The winners may not also receive awards for Best New Crew, Most Improved Crew, or Fleet Helper.

 

Team Spirit Skipper: Geoff Bishop
The recipient of the Team Spirit Skipper award will be the skipper that makes racing/regattas a fun experience and does a great job fostering a team spirit on board, improving skills, encouraging participation. This has to do with competitive spirit but also patience on board and ability to make it a pleasant rather than stressful learning experience for the team as a whole, regularly attending races/going out there and doing their best regardless of performance.

Congeniality Award: Jeff Whitten
The recipient of the Mr. Hospitality/Congeniality award will be the Fleet 50 skipper who always seems ready to share a smile, some advice over a beer, makes people feel especially welcomed in the fleet, at the marina, and on their boat – and even better if they provide great lunches/refreshments/beer for their crew, or something to share on the grill after racing.

Most Improved Skipper: Aaron Boesenecker
The recipient of the Most Improved Skipper award will be the skipper who has improved their cumulative score in the Championship Series from the prior year by the largest number of positions.
Aaron Boesenecker from 4th in 2017 to 1st in 2018 (+4)
Lisa-Marie & Jim Lane – from 6th to 5th (+1)
John Van Voorhis – from 8th to 7 th (+1)

Skipper of the Year: Mike Darrah
The recipient of the Skipper of the Year award will be a Fleet 50 skipper who has demonstrated exceptional instances of support of the fleet, bravery, good judgment, and commitment to racing. The nomination has no correlation to how good of a skipper they are. This has to do w/ personality, fun, skill — basically a popularity vote.

Fleet 50 Helper Award: Red Fehrle & Suz Humphrey
Awarded to a fleet member who helps the fleet in a unique, special, or selfless way. Red & Suz for stepping into arduous role of Head Chefs. For our signature event Doc Gilbert. Both Red & Suz put a tremendous amount of time and energy to plan a great menu, shop, set up and cook for everyone for the weekend!

Bloody Rudder Award: Bob Astrove
Awarded to the skipper who travels to the most qualifying traveling regattas in the season.
Bob Astrove: 10 regattas
Lisa-Marie Lane: 5 regattas
Jim Lane: 5 regattas

All Weather Sailor Award: Ed Lane
Awarded to the crew who sails the most days on a Lightning.
Ed Lane: 18 race days
Lisa-Marie Lane: 14 race days
Jim Lane: 14 race days

Iron Skipper Award: Bob Astrove
The recipient of the Iron Skipper award will be the skipper who has had the most race days on the water, including local and out-of-town events and days on the water serving on Race Committee.
Bob Astrove: 23
Lisa-Marie Lane: 18
Jim Lane: 14

2018 Series Championship

Congratulations to Aaron Boesenecker on Beedobeat (14592) for winning the 2018 Fleet 50 Championship Series. John Van Voorhis on Shamrock (15117) took 2nd place, firmly holding on to his 2017 finishing position. Bobby Astrove (7603) once again held 3rd place overall in 2018. Mike & Angie Durrah on Humuhumu (15259) finished 4th this year and Lisa-Marie & Jim Lane on “As you Wish…” (15126) finally made the leaderboard in 5th place.

Lightning Fleet 50
Annual Meeting Minutes, 2/23/2019
Bob Astrove, Secretary

Recap of Past Year
Discussion and Encouragement about Dixie District Purnell Award and scoring. That it is a one event per fleet award to encourage participation around the District.

Participation in PRSA, 62 races in 2018, 21 Boats on our roster, 15 of which were active in 2018, and 13 qualified for our fleet championship. 12 Boats traveled to one or more away regatta’s

We are now a 501C7 Organization. A non-profit club. Required we register under this status due to banking law changes.

As part of 501C7 registration process we discovered we can not locate a copy of our by-laws. Lindsay volunteered to develop a draft set and distributed for comment.

A motion was made and passed by voice vote to reduce the number of fleet officers to 3, those being Fleet Captain, Treasurer, and Secretary

Slate of Officers was presented for 2019, and passed. Lisa Marie Lane as Fleet Captain, Christy Chen as Treasurer, Bob Astrove as Secretary.

A motion was made and passed to reduce the awards for our fleet championship to just first, second, and third place.

A motion was made and passed that we make a perpetual trophy for our annual Iron Skipper award. To be made by a member. Volunteer to be determined.

A motion was made and passed that we reduce the number of crew awards to 3 or 4 for next year. Motion modified to allow the Executive Committee to determine the awards given each year, and to change the award set, as they deem appropriate on an annual basis.

The Treasurer’s report was given. The fleet has approximately $3700 in its bank account. Exact figure is not known, due to us being in the middle of transitioning to 501C7 status and a new bank account is being set up.

Discussion of the Doc Gilbert Potomac Cup, our signature annual event. A recap of last year highlighted that the event was also our Dixie District Championship and we had 28 boats attending.

For 2019 the event will be May 11 & 12. A reservation has been made with Leeslyvania State Park.

Our annual volunteer day at the park will be May 4. Multiple members spoke to the importance of our volunteer efforts there, how it yields a waiver of the rental fee for the Pavilion and a large discount to the park entry fee for our event.

We need a volunteer for Regatta Chairperson and a Food Chairperson.

We had discussion of waiving our scoring penalty for sailing short 1 or 2 crew members in our local races. A motion was made and passed that for the PRSA Spring Series event(s) we will waive the scoring penalty, and attempt to track data on race results. The fleet executive committee will re-evaluate after the Spring Series and make a recommendation for Fall Series scoring. This rule does NOT apply to the PRSA Spring Regatta (Memorial Day weekend) or the Gilbert Potomac Cup regatta.