On the Road to the NACs

This year's NACs are at Tom's River Yacht Club in New Jersey. Ben and I have never been there but people say the club is gorgeous. It's always fun for us to try a new place, Although I remember how anxious I was about going to new clubs when we first started traveling, these days it's always fun to try a new place.

We're looking forward to seeing our buddy, John Kreidler (on the right), who sails at Western Carolina Sailing Club, at the NAC. He's always good for a ton of laughs!

I'm going to also try to exchange club burgees with Tom's River, though I'm not sure too many clubs do this anymore. Last year I bought a ridiculously large number of burgees expecting to trade them at all the clubs we travel to. I love the idea of seeing our Clinton Lake Sailing Association burgee  hanging from sailing club rafters from Wisconsin to Lousiana to Florida and, yes, even New Jersey. But at the few clubs where I've proposed this, I've been met with kind of blank stares, so we'll see!

Anyway, Ben and I left after work today and managed to just get a few hours of driving in before fatigue and rain prompted us to stop for the night. We'll get up tomorrow morning, early and, hopefully, make it to Tom's River Yacht Club after dinner some time. We don't have to  get there at any particular time, though we should attend the Board of Governor's meeting at 10 a.m., Sunday, and we have to get our boat measured, of course.

Racing starts Monday with some round-robin style qualifying races. The fleet is divided into fourth, typically, and three races are run so each division races all the other three. That will determine who sails in the championship and who sails in the challenger divisions and the finals will begin on Wednesday, again, weather permitting!

Not too many other Midwestern sailors attending thisyear, I don't think. So far, I've only heard that Ryan Malmgren and Frank and Marianne Gerry are attending, but hopefully there are others I
just don't know about.
Stay tuned!