District 11 News

SSA Gets New Fleet Captain
June 4th, 2010

After 3 years as the fleet captain at Severn Sailing Association, Dorian Haldeman has passed the torch to David Sliom. Dorian has done a great job for her fleet members. She also oversaw the hosting of 3 major regattas at SSA, the District 11 Championship, Laser Atlantic Coast Championship, and US Sailing Singlehanded Championship Area C Elimination.

Dorian, it’s been a pleasure working with you and your fleet. Thanks for your time and we’ll see you out on the regatta trail.

David – welcome to fleet leadership. It’s a fun role to play and not nearly as thankless as it would seem to be. I look forward to working with you on issues that affect your fleet and thank you for your efforts in organizing great laser sailing in our area.
In an email to his fleet, David set out some of his goals for the upcoming year. One important one centers around increasing support an participation in Radials. It’s a goal we’ve been working on across the bay and it’s great to have SSA in a leadership role on that effort.

Read David’s email:
 

As most of you know by now, I have been asked to take over as Fleet Captain from Dorian, who has dedicated vast amounts of time over the past three years to our Laser fleet. Besides being one of the most popular Fleet Captains, Dorian has also done so much work to help to build our Laser fleet here in Annapolis. I know I will never be able to fill the shoes of the talented Fleet Captains of the past, but I will do my best to at least keep the fleet going in the positive direction it has been placed in.

As Fleet Captain, there are two items that will be my priority for the next couple of seasons. First, to continue the good work of Dorian in building the Laser Radial fleet at SSA, we plan to have a separate Laser Radial fleet at the remaining SSA weekend series races as well as the Crab Claw regatta. So many people that attended the Masters Nationals and raced Radials had such a good time, they are committed to racing Radials at SSA. Bob Tan, Dorian, Sandy, Steve Kofer, Kim, Joan, and others have committed to the Radial fleet for this season. We have been promised a separate starts for the Radials at all weekend races, and this fleet should be as competitive or more so than the Standard fleet. I foresee 15 Standards and 15 Radials racing all the weekend series races, which is really exciting. The key is that people commit to the Radial, there will be no switching of rigs within a series, and we ask that those committed to Radials do not sw itch to standard rig just because the wind my be light. If everyone that weighs 160 and below race Radials on a regular basis, the competition will be more even and fun for everyone. I am really looking forward to seeing our Radials have their own starts this season

Second, I want to continue Dorian's committment to making our fleet a "coaching" fleet. We have so much talent locally, and a few top level coaches in Gavin, Ashley and others. I am hoping to schedule several coaching clinics during the season. We will gear most toward newer Laser sailors, but I am planning to bring in a professional Laser Coach for a more advanced coaching session either in the Fall or early Frostbite season. In addition to these coaching sessions, I would also like to get someone out with a video camera at as many TESODs as possible. We could film the fleet and get together some time to review the video and learn. Anyone interested in helping out with this, please let me know.
Cheers,

Dave
 

Posted June 4th, 2010 by Jon Deutsch