Thursday, February 13, 2003 – 10:44 AM

Newsletter
Bellingham Yacht Club
2625 Harbor Loop
Bellingham, WA
98225

Dear Members,


The Cheekee Monkee, Bellingham Yacht Clubs, Corsair F-31 owned by Kim and Lynda Alfreds has won the overall National Championship, the Corsair Cup. The cup was awarded at the Galveston Yacht Club, site of this years final qualifying event, the Galveston NOOD. Check the Farrier Website for more information: www.farrierclass.org.

The quest for Gold…..or in this case the Corsair Cup. This is the inaugural year for the Corsair Cup. The cup is awarded to the sailor who finished with the highest point score during the 1998 regatta year. The Fledgling Farrier Class Association, named 7 regattas around the country as qualifying regattas. Each competitors finish place was adjusted by a fleet size factor and the numbers were added up and each competitor was ranked accordingly. The results can be seen on the FCA Website www.farrierclass.org.

Lynda and I own an F-31, aft cockpit version with the short fixed rig, hull #24. When we heard about this series, we thought it would be fun to try to get to the required 3 races this year. We went to Pensacola in 1996, it was time for another visit.

The year started off in a hurry, we decided that I should learn a little more about racing F boats. On the March 6th, we loaded up the boat and drove non-stop to San Diego from Bellingham, WA. (1,430 miles) We launched the boat and left it at Shelter Island Marina. Lynda flew home and I flew to work in North Carolina. I flew back in on March 12th for the Rick White seminar. WOW, what a lot of drills! Gave me a chance to try out our new
fully battened jib from Calvert Sails. Lynda came down on Sunday and we spent the week sailing and hanging around San Diego waiting for the first event of the year. The San Diego NOOD.

Special thanks to my wife Lynda, Ron Rigler (F-31) and Greg Trigeiro (ex F-27) for crewing in the San Diego NOOD. We had good, but cold, winds from the north, a fairly steep chop and good sized swells over the three days. The Rick White seminar paid off because we were very fortunate to place 1st overall in this regatta. It was a very exciting regatta.

Monday, the boat comes out of the water and over to Corsair for a minor repair. We were hit at the start from astern by another F-31 and cracked the gel coat on the port Ama. Arriving at the Corsair lot, much to my chagrin, I attempted to crush their van with the Cheekee Monkee. Fortunately, Lynda spotted the van as I was relocating it with the boat and we got off with very minor damage.

Wednesday morning and we are on our way to Pensacola! Highway 8 to highway 10 all the way (almost). We had a flat in Texas, didn’t even realize it until we pulled into the motel parking lot. That makes 2 tires in two years. Highway 10 in Louisiana is horrible, we could only drive at 40 mph because of the bumps. So we went north to hwy. 168, much better!

We arranged to leave the boat in storage at Flat Island Finns in Pensacola for a month. We arrived on Saturday afternoon, the odometer is now reading 4,185 miles.

A month later we fly back to Pensacola to retrieve the Cheekee Monkee and do some lazy sailing up and down the beach for a week before the Pensacola Rendezvous May 7-9. We are the first ones for several days. The next to arrive is Jim and Deb on their F-24 MkI, then the beach starts to fill as the week progress until we can count over 50 F boats on site. What an amazing sight.

Many thanks at this regatta to the Key Sailing Team, what a great job they did. Special thanks to Lynda, Ron Rigler (Flew out from LA to sail with us) and Jordan Myers (another F-31 owner from the Annapolis area) for crewing on the Cheekee Monkee at Pensacola.

We didn’t do so well here. All that driving and laying about in the sun must have taken it’s toll on me, we were off the pace for this regatta and I completely blew our best race by not restarting properly after being called over early. We placed 4th in the F-31 fleet.

Well, now the driving challenge, we were scheduled for a race in Victoria, Canada, the weekend after next, the Swiftsure International, an offshore distance race, May 21-25. 3,357 miles, another flat and five days later we arrive back in Bellingham. Clean the boat get her ready and sail the Cheekee Monkee over to Victoria.

The third regatta for us in the series was Whidbey Race week, July 12-17, a five day, Monday to Friday series, only 50 miles away! This year, despite the poor F-boat turnout, it was great sailing with winds raging from drifting conditions on the first day to 30 knots later in the week. This regatta seemed to be a two boat event, the Cheekee Monkee vs. Hanoman, both aft cockpit F-31s. Based on the National Handicap, we both ended up with 12 points, tied for first place. Tom got the nod by finishing with more first palaces than we did. We finished in second place. Many thanks to Lynda, Greg Trigeiro (who flew up from San Diego for the regatta) and Alan Hamilton, a junior sailor from our local yacht club, the Bellingham Yacht Club. This was the series winning crew as it turned out.

No one else it seems was able to complete three regattas for the Corsair Cup, so it seems that it was our insane desire to drive almost 10,000 miles in pursuit of the holy grail that did it for the Cheekee Monkee. But…..The story doesn’t stop there.

Just in case someone was going to show up at the last event in Galveston, Texas, Galveston NOOD, Sep 18-20. Lynda and I made plans to attend. We couldn’t take the time to haul the Cheekee Monkee down there, so I managed to charter an F-24 MKI from Dallas. Greg Smith, the owner, agreed to bring his boat down to Galveston and to crew for me in the regatta. We thought, with the heavy winds forecast that we might stand a chance, but as it turned out, light winds all the way. We finished in the middle of the pack. Hot, sweaty and plagued by mosquitoes. Thanks to Greg Smith for being a part of this years campaign.

We did four out of the seven regattas. Lots of driving, great fun and much understanding from Lynda. Next year, I hear there will be more events to choose from, this is a great wayto have fun with your F boat, come out and support the 1999 series.

The trophy shouldn’t go to the team that drives the most, but they do say, 90% of the battle is just showing up!

So, JUST SHOW UP.

Warmest regards,

Kim & Lynda Alfreds

PS. The perpetual trophy should be delivered to the Yacht Club from Corsair Marine.

Link to original article (click here).