US 2.4 Meter Blog

Summer In New England – Covid 19 edition

When Life Hands you Lemons, Make Lemonade

By: Shan McAdoo

Sailing a 2.4 Meter in front of the Iconic Marblehead Light
Doug Trees and I are both getting a little long in the tooth. Time and creeping age has forced us to give up sailing on boats that we had decades in and lots of dedication too. Our bodies simply would not let us hike, jump up for the pole or roll tack.  Thankfully we participate in  a sport that will adapt to our situation.  This is what brought us to the International 2.4 meter class.
We started sailing in the CanAm circuit a couple of years ago, but missed our weekly sailing in Marblehead. So after some thought and some luck, we ended up buying a fleet of boats (5) Norlin Mk 3 International 2.4 meter class sailboats. With these 5 boats we have been incubating new class members.   Once we got the boats, we  began the process of leveling the boats, getting them in working order and getting them on the water.  In addition to Covid, we had to find a home for the fleet and start building interest.
5 Norlin Mk3's preparing for a day of sailing
After the quarantine on organized sailing cleared in July we literally rushed our fleet to the waterfront and started sailing. We did not have a Race Committee, again no problem find a government mark, sail down wind 4/10ths of a mile and set up a line.  By mid July we had all 5 boats on the water, both Saturday and Sunday. We have been getting 5-8 races. No one is keeping score, but some of our numbers are astounding:
  • We have introduced the 2.4 meter to 14 new sailors.
  • 8 of those sailors join us on a regular basis.
  • Our youngest sailor was 19 yrs old.
  • Our oldest sailor was 80 yrs old.
  • We average 3+ different race winners on each race day.
  • At the finish the pack used be be separated by almost 1 full minute first to last, now they are seconds apart.
  • By the time we end our season we will have gotten almost 20 days on the water this summer.
  • Races were won by old, young, disabled and able bodied sailors.
We compared our activity to our friends on the Marblehead Racing Association. They only sailed 9 days, averaging 2 races a day. They cancelled 2 of their race days due to weather, we sailed those days.
By the end of summer racing got pretty tight
Lessons Learned
Fleet building is hard!  We made it as easy as we could for new comers we provided identical boats good sails, easy access and even water when they were thirsty.  Finding people interested in trying the boat was not hard. Finding people that wanted to come out more than once and improve was also not that hard.  Our challenge now is to show these people that our fleet and class is and will remain active for the foreseeable future.
We are amazed at how far we have come and excited about winter sailing on Port Charlotte as well as next summer in Marblehead. We hope to have 10 or 12 2.4s at next years Marblehead NOOD.  With luck we can build a Tour de New England with stops in Newport and Marblehead.
More Photos of our summer can be found here

Marblehead


This weekend in Marblehead we introduced two newbies to the 2.4 meter. Richard G W Boardman and Ric Dexter sailed today with Maureen McKinnon. Sergey Yedrikov, and Doug Trees.
They sailed 5 races and had fun
Yesterday we sailed 5 strong Doug Trees, Sergey, along with Shan McAdoo, John Pratt and Kathy Ryan Breslin. In addition to some great sailing we were visited by some whales who seem interested in joining the fleet.
We are still learning, but the fleet is closing ranks and having fun.

Here is a link to our Google photo album https://photos.app.goo.gl/vM2BrQ1rxNhE4gMr5

Thanks to Kathy Whitehair and Dana McT for doing RC.
We are sailing Saturdays and Sundays till Labor Day. If you want to try sailing a 2.4 meter, get in touch.

Marblehead Fleet

The Marblehead fleet finally got out on the water this past weekend (July 18, 19). We have two very different types of sailing for our 5 identical Gavia 2.4 meters.

On Saturdays, we do clinic style short Windward Leeward courses using a government park as the upwind mark. We got 5 races in for our fleet of 5 boats and had 3 different race winners. Thanks to Doug Trees all of the boats are identical and have fresh sails. As this was the first day on the water minor issues forced us to quit after 5 races, all items were easily fixed.

Sunday brought a single around the buoys race started off of the deck of the Corinthian Yacht Club. We had 3 boats on the line, and even with starting behind the Town Classs, we caught a couple of them.

Thanks to Doug Trees for putting the fleet together, Kathy McAdoo Whitehair for awesome one-woman RC and to our sailors.

New sailors included Rick Saunders and Teddy Hitchcock, joining veterans Maureen McKinnon and Sergey Yedrikov.

Here is a link to some great pics https://photos.app.goo.gl/vM2BrQ1rxNhE4gMr5

We hope you will join us on the water. We have boats and will find a way to get you sailing.

2020 Davis Island Yacht Club 2.4mr World Championship

Organizers of the 2.4 Meter World Championship Regatta, presented by Davis Island Yacht Club, regret to announce the cancellation of the 2020 event, originally scheduled for November 7-13. This difficult decision has been made in line with health and safety recommendations taken by the Government of the U.S. in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Davis Island Yacht Club is happy to report that in conjunction with help from the Royal Brighton YC and the International 2.4mR Class executive we are working on a new bid document to hold the World Championships in November 2022.
We have made the inevitable decision to cancel the worlds in light of the uncertainty inherent in this pandemic. We have spent the last few months assessing this evolving situation and at all possibilities of rescheduling this event in late 2020 or early 2021 but this proved unworkable. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our Club Leadership, Membership, and of course, the 2.4 Meter class and Members. We look forward to welcoming our local, regional, national and international sailors, their families and friends in November 2022 to race in the Worlds at DIYC.

Regatta organizers, the USA 2.4 Meter Class, and the Commodore and the Board of Directors of Davis Island Yacht Club encourages everyone to stay safe and minimize risk by following public health mandates during this global health crisis.

Updates will be published on our Facebook page and official website as information becomes available.