Hi all!  What else to do on the coldest day of the year so far but think about sailing?  : )  In a couple of months boats will will be splashing and it is time to look forward — but first, a quick look back.  We were fortunate to have a safe and successful season in 2022.  Oh sure, there are a few starts and a few legs I want back, but overall we had a blast and continued to sail Spirit well.  Work distractions didn’t help either and I found myself putting the boat at the bottom of the to-do list, which wasn’t great.  Did you know it is helpful to tune the rig before each race???  ; )  But despite these things we had some nice performances!   3rd in spinnaker at EGYC Annual (and the first J/Boat), 2nd in the JYC crew rotation race, 2nd in the Safe Harbor ATI and 3rd in Sail For Hope were some noteworthy finishes!  : )  But most importantly we continued to grow as a team and learned some new tricks — all good for the long view.  

2023 should be more of the same.  Over winter Spirit got a new bottom and I hope to do a few more tweaks before the season starts to advance us in competitiveness.  Spirit will launch from Stanley’s Boat Yard in Barrington probably in late April and our first race is May 9th (94 days from now if you are counting!).  Of course, we’ll do a few rehearsals before that.  Dress warmly.  ; )

I’ll be aiming for a pre-season crew meeting in early April and we’ll review the final prep list for the boat and look at the upcoming schedule.  More to follow on those dates.

Lastly, consider this the official announcement that the Crew Manager site is up and running and loaded with dates for 2023.  Bill has been busily enhancing Crew Manager over winter and the site has never been faster or easier to use.  As usual, you select the races you want to do and I’ll assign positions for each race as numbers allow.  Once I’ve made assignments, the row your name is in will turn green if you are racing that day.  Simple but feel free to reach out with any questions.  https://spirit.crew-mgr.com/

Okay, all for now.  Can’t wait to get going and thank you for being a part of the team!