Gearing up for Summer

[Graham Siener]

Hey all,

I'm writing to you from Fishers Island, where the sun has been battling to bring conditions from Winter to Spring.

I wanted to share a few class and fleet updates as folks start to plan for another summer of racing.

Annual General Meeting (notes)

At the AGM in January, our Class Rules changed to allow electronic compasses, limited to displaying only bearing (direction).

Special Meeting

A Special Meeting was held last weekend primarily to follow up on a topic raised at January’s AGM: Gibson Island’s candidacy to join IODWCA.  Following a brief presentation by Courtenay Jenkins and Tom Price, the Fleets voted overwhelmingly to recognize Gibson Island (Bylaw 2.1 and Appendix #1).  They have 6 boats and race in the Spring and Fall. So there will likely be lots of opportunities to hop on a boat if you're in the Annapolis area.

The Fleets also voted to decommission the now defunct Manhattan Fleet.

Marblehead Worlds
Defending Champs Norwood and July '25 qualifier Jester will compete in the Worlds in Marblehead this June.  Note that Fishers has received a second qualifier invite.  I'm currently working down the list of qualifiers based on July results. Good luck to everyone competing 🙏

North Americans on Fishers
Fishers is hosting North Americans this August 14-16.  Thank you to Charlie for stepping in as PRO.  We'll be in touch soon to ask about volunteering opportunities.

Nantucket Invitational
The 2026 Nantucket Invitational will be held June 27-28.  Spots are available.  Please reach out to Pierre Uberto Crosby at pierre...@ubertoltd.com if you're interested in attending.

2026 Summer Racing Schedule

We are still finalizing the racing schedule, but you can find a mostly-finished draft here. Notably, July 4th will not be part of the World Qualifier races.

Communication reminders
This IOD email group is the fleet's official communication channel. We also use WhatsApp for more timely reminders and discussion.  Please let me know if you'd like to join the WhatsApp group.  If you want to add someone to the email list, give them this link to add directly.

Thanks and have a great week,

Graham