2016 Fleet Rendezvous
September 24, 2016
The Fleet returned to Oxford for its annual rendezvous on Saturday, September 24. Six Alerions, their owners and guests met at the docks of the Tred Avon Yacht Club. Jim Brodsky and Art Dent were our hosts for the weekend, assisted by Jim Kizziar and Jonah Seiger who served as race committee on Jim's powerboat.
Four AE28’s from the western shore, Orion (David Gantz and Cate Fagan), Liberty Prevails (Eunice Lin), Resilient (Bob Spann and Beth Whiteley) and Skimmer (Jack and Marti Detweiler) were joined by two Eastern Shore boats, SWMBO (Jim Brodsky) and Frolic (Paul Rohrkemper). Guests Ted Slotwinski and Bara Vaida, Art Dent and Don Goodliffe crewed on Liberty Prevails, SWMBO and Frolic, respectively.
The four boats from the western shore traveled to Oxford Friday on a beautiful but windless day and docked at the Tred Avon Yacht Club. That evening, the crews joined Art Dent and his wife Pam for Friday's Ales and Tales dinner at the club.
A cold front moved through overnight so the participants woke up to gray skies, cool temperatures and at race time, 10 to 15 knot winds, with a few higher gusts, out of the north east. Paul had put together nine possible race courses on the Tred Avon River depending on wind direction and using government and OARS marks. Jim and Jonah set up the starting line just outside of R "2" in the Tred Avon and sent the racers on a 2.2 mile course that was a long weather leg to daybeacon "4" off of Peck's Point, then a reach to an OARS mark off of Plaindealing Creek (with a few large cruising boats anchored near-by) and then a down wind leg back to the finish line. The first race was twice around this course and, as the wind got lighter, Jim and Jonah ran the same course once around for races two and three. The NNE breeze had big shifts which made for a challenging day of racing. Skimmer took first overall for the regatta, Liberty Prevails was second and Frolic third.
Saturday night featured cocktails, dinner and the awards at the Robert Morris Inn. The racers were joined by David Poe and his wife, owners of AE28 Coupe de Foudre and Susan Rohrkemper. All in all, it was a great weekend. We look forward to planning the Rendezvous for next year and hope to have more boats join in the fun and comaraderie.
