This news letter is a little early as I wanted to convey several new things that are happening with NYRA. We had numerous requests to revisit the Boat of the Year rules in order to equitably handle boats that are racing in large classes and in small classes. The rules that the board has adopted are now on the web site. The main two changes are to score boats relative to all boats in their class, instead of just against NYRA boats, and to use a high point scoring system where a boat receives one point for racing plus a point for each boat that she beats in her class. For example, if a boat finishes first in a seven boat class, she will receive 7 points. If she finishes fourth in a 5 boat class, she will receive 2 points.

In other board news, Eric Rosenbaum is leaving the area for a new job in Texas. The board selected Bill Jarvis to fill Eric's vacancy on the board. Eric has been a great competitor and a lot of fun for the past year. Please wish him the best in his new job and let's hope that he decides to come back soon. (Eric, once again, I didn't know the Dr. Crash award was going to drive you away. Had I known, I would have awarded it to someone else.)

There is a whole lot of racing on the horizon. The First Citizen's Cup is raced March 25th and several of NYRA boats are headed to Charleston for CRW in early April. Close on CRW's heels will be the Clark Cup, NYRA Invitational and NCYRA in Beaufort over Memorial Day weekend. Once again, I ask for all NYRA members to step up and race for NYRA at the Clark Cup as it is an ICRC event. We have been very close to winning this for NYRA in the past and with just a few more boats we should be able to win. In particular, we need to have boats in the Cruising and non-spin fleets.

The NOR and Sailing Instructions for the NYRA Invitational are now available. The plan is to hold the race the week before Memorial Day weekend and to hold it on the New Bern end of the river. It will be a two day event with race central at Northwest Creek Marina.

NYRA is also the sponsor for NCYRA this year and we are working hard to organize this race. If you would like to help out, please let me know. Also, in order to grow this race, we would like to see as many NYRA boats as possible make the trip to Beaufort. It has always been a fun race and is a great experience to do some ocean racing for a change.

Missy Baskerville and Tinka Talbert are working hard to put the NYRA Women's Race together for this September. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

One last plea, we really need to grow NYRA membership. If you are a skipper or crew that enjoys racing, please consider joining NYRA this year.

Lee King
NYRA Commodore
lrk30470@yahoo.com