Spring Boatyard Bash

What could make sailors crave summer more than a day with warm weather, plenty of friends and being surrounded by boats? I dunno, but add beer and you'd have Fleet 3's Boatyard Bash!

8 boats were represented with crew meeting to get some spring projects tackled, and some recruits from the Strictly Sail show stopped by to lend hands and meet potential shipmates for the coming 09 season. It's always a good sign when new members jump right in, and it was great to see so many fresh faces getting dirty the sailing way! I was asking Mike Schwartz how many people he's brought into the fleet (answer: more than we can count on 2 hands!) and he commented how pleasantly surprised he is when people take to sailing Shields the way they seem to, what with all the early season rough weather and grungy work.

Since this is a Nationals year, everyone seemed to be thinking speed, and there were at least 3 boats all doing bottom touchups. From what I can tell, everyone felt fast enough to gain at least 3-4 knots of boatspeed, probably more. At least thats the mental advantage some would say you gain when you subject your crew to wetsanding the epicly toxic bottom paints away!

Most exciting news was Jessica Jameson was out working on her ride, Shields #249. Since Tom Kennedy's sad passing, 249 has sat idle, but thanks to lots of Skip Schink's time, we've got a new owner in the fleet who seems very excited to be taking on such a nice boat. We're all looking forward to helping Jessica get up to speed, starting with a planned launch date of next week. Don't worry Jessica, all the hard work is worth it the first time a sail goes up!

It wasn't all work, and crew from 39 and 126 served up a better breakfast than most of us make at home! Tim Franceschini's grill was turning out amazing eggs n' cheese and sausage, and Kris Zeigler and Dale Cohen were keeping bellys full with a truly impressive selection of other treats. Sam from 45 had several cases (and a mini keg!) of Heineken, and while he was giving them out freely, 88 had more fun coming up with elaborate ways to switch their full beers for our empty ones. Probably a poor tactical move as they may reciprocate during the actual sailing season, which would be far more damaging to morale.

The season starts in less than a month!