1990 US FLYING DUTCHMAN NATIONALS IN FISHING BAY
Report by Mike Toms

In only their second regatta together, two time college Sailor-of-The-Year Terry Hutchinson and FD veteran Allen Kilgore topped a competitive fleet at the Flying Dutchman Nationals at Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville, V A. In winning four out of seven races in a variety of wind conditions, Hutchinson/Kilgore set the pace for the regatta. Teams from as far away as Florida and New Hampshire made the trip to the shore of the Piankitank River on the southern Chesapeake for a one-day clinic and four days of racing from June 10-14.

The start of racing coincided with the arrival of a cold front, a 20 knot breeze and 2-4 foot waves. Establishing their dominance early, Hutchinson/Kilgore took advantage of superior size and speed and a gear failure by the seasoned team of FD perennials Michael Loeb and Guido Bertocci to win the first race by a comfortable margin. Following up in third place were class new comers and Olympic hopefuls Dave Rosow and Hank Sesselberg.
Terry Hutchinson and Allen Kilgore 1990 FD National Champions
Terry Hutchinson and Allen Kilgore 1990 FD National Champions.

Racing continued the next day with a shifty 12-15 knot northwester. Sailing on an inside course more to the liking of the lake sailors in the class, Hutchinson/Kilgore showed their versatility in winning the first two of three races for the day. The third race went to Loeb/Bertocci.

Shifting back to an outside course in dying northerly, Wednesday's racing began in 5 knots of spotty wind. Hutchinson/Kilgore found themselves on the wrong side of a 45 degree shift and rounded the weather mark last by half a leg. Playing the shifts more wisely, they worked their way back up to finish on the heels of third place finisher Rosow/Sesslberg. Loeb/Bertocci led the whole way around, followed closely by the Rochester, New York team of Don Ver Ploeg and Curt Barnes.
Racing resumed when an 8-10 knot seabreeze filled in from the southeast, which made fighting the 1 knot current possible. Avenging their earlier mistake, Hutchinson/Kilgore won the start and never looked back while winning their fourth race of the series. Rosow/Sesselberger managed to hold off Loeb/Bertocci to take second. After the frustrations of the light winds through out most of this day the sea breeze continued to fill in and provided all the racers with an exhilarating reach the full distance of the long sail back to shore.

The last race of the series began in a light southerly on the inside course and saw some bizarre shifts that allowed the lake sailing masters, Ver Ploeg/Barnes, to jump out to an early lead. They were closely followed by Hutchinson/ Kilgore, who could secure first overall by ensuring that there were fewer than three boats between them and Loeb/Bertocci. Loeb/Bertocci almost won the race by splitting with Ver Ploeg/Barnes as they covered Hutchinson/Kilgore on the final beat. Coming from opposite sides of the course, Ver Ploeg/Barnes just nipped Loeb/Bertocci at the finish. With no boats between Loeb/Bertocci and Hutchinson /Kilgore in third, the 1990 Flying dutchman National Championship went to Terry Hutchinson and Allen Kilgore of Fishing Bay Yacht Club.

90 nats portrait
National's winner's Mugshots
 L to R top row, Sam Lucarelli, Anna Gorbold Guido Bertocci, Alan Kilgore, Dennis Anderson.
L toR bottom row Don VerPloeg, Jonathan Gorbold, Charles Shumway, Arjan Stoof, Mike Loeb,Terry Hutchinson.

EDITORS ADDENDUM:
We would like to extend our thanks to the Fishing Bay Yacht Club for hosting the FD Nationals and the hospitality that they offered to all of us. The yacht club had great facilities with a kitchen available for private use, very adequate boat storage space, and delightful camping. The Race Committee ran a very well organized series of races. They provided us with our well earned lunches out on the course and they forced some of the rookie sailors to brush up on their code flags as all the course settings were in code! Our thanks to all of you for the time that you volunteered so that the Nationals could take place.

Our thanks too to Mike Toms for organizing the whole event. The socializing took place casually at the club house or at a couple of the local rather colorful eateries and culminated in a wonderfully messy but tasty Virginian crab feast the evening of the annual meeting. Thank you Mike for this rare treat and for all the effort that you had to put into making this regatta run as smoothly as it did.

1990 FLYING DUTCHMAN U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
    TEAM                  SAIL#    RACE                                                          EQUIPMENT
PROCTOR FLEET                 1    2    3    4    5    6    7   PTS. PSTN.     HL      CB    RDR MST  Gl     G2    MS    SP
Hutchinson/Kilgore   US 21     1     1    I    2    4    1    3     8.7    1        87L        L     L      PG     lC+   lCR+  N    H
Loeb/Bertocci          US 410    2    2    2    1    1    3    2    12     2        88L     WR    L       PE    UB     X3     D    H
Rosow/Sesselberg    US 98      3    4    3    3    3    2   DS 33.8   3        86L        L    L       PG    lCR+ 2CR+  D    H
VerPloeg/Barnes      US 160    5    5    4    4    2    6    1    39     4        88L        L    L      SSP   X3     lC+     D     H
CARLING FLEET
Shumway/Lucarelli   US 1436   DF 3   10   5   10   4    5    65.7  1        83M       M    M              lC+            Ho    H
Gorbold/Gorbold     K  367      DS 8    5    6     5   7    4    66.7  2        90K    KDV KDV SSP   lC+   2B+   D     H
Stoof/Anderson       US 1456     4  10   7    9    7   11  6    76.7   3       86L       L     L        PG    lC+    lCR+ N     H
Graham/Osias          US 1441   DF 7    6    8    8    8    8    80.7  4        83M     M   WR     Z       lCR+           N     H
Wells/Toms              US 1435  DS 6   DF DS   9    5    7    87.9  5        83L    WR   HM    PB    lCR   NZ    VM   N
Dawson/Granger      US 56      DS 9     8    7   DS 10 10    93     6        83M   WR   WR    Z      lCR   lCR+   N     H
Braun/Osborn          US 109    DS 12 DF DS   6    9    9    97.7  7        84M     M    WR    PE    X3    N        N     H
Huppert/Bernard      US 102    DS 11   9   10 11 12 DS   102     8        84L    WR   WR    PG    lC+  1CR+  Ho    H



Minutes of the 1990 IFDCAU Annual Meeting

Guido Bertocci provided the secretary-treasurer's report. We have over $9,000 in two Certificate of Deposits and approximately $2,000 in the checking account. This is approximately right on schedule. The CD's are the result of past surpluses and help keep the dues price down. The current working funds in the checking account will be used to pay for the remaining TRAPEZES this year. The membership level is slightly down from last year, however, it is still early in the year. We have 178 US members of which 142 are full international members.

Don VerPloeg presented the slate of new officers.
The new officers are:
President -Guido Bertocci .
First Vice President -Robert Evans.
Second Vice President -Keith Graham.
Secretary Treasurer -Guido Bertocci .
Chief Measurer -Paul Hemker.
Trustee -Mike Loeb.

The current US membership dues is $8, which were lowered last year to try and stimulate new membership. The primary cost item for the US class is the TRAPEZE. With about 180 members, the cost per issue is about $4. The meeting agreed to increase the dues for 1990 to $12 in order to be able to provide four complete issues of the TRAPEZE. While the dues alone will not be able to cover the complete cost, however, it is hoped that with increased commercial advertising, there will not be a shortfall. Jonathan and Anna Gorbold have done an outstanding job with the TRAPEZE and have been working hard to attract commercial advertising.
Peter Wells recommended that Fred and Dusty Oess be made honorary members of the Flying Dutchman Class due to their long (10 years) and outstanding service as past TRAPEZE editors. The Oess's will join Perry Alford as the second honorary members of the FD class.

Don VerPloeg described the international efforts to promote the class. The international FD organization is working very well together and has just completed a professional FD video and promotional flyer. These two items are the first real tools that the FD class has had in a long time to help promote the class. Jonathan Gorbold suggested that the class run an ad in Sailing World to provide point of contact for people trying to contact the FD class. Jonathan indicated that this approach had been successful in the Bucaneer class. The ads are approximately $175 per month. The meeting aggreed to run an advertisement in Sailing World four times per year. Peter Wells would like regatta reports submitted quickly to national sailing magazines. All the magazines are hungry for articles and it is a source of free advertisement. The second vice President, Keith Graham, will be responsible for overseeing that this takes place.

Don VerPloeg described some of the efforts to encourage older boats at regattas. One suggestion being considered is the use of a smaller jib. A competitor would select before a regatta the category they would like to race in. The objective is to keep the cost as low as possible so that a smaller jib might be cut from an older full size genoa.

Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts has volunteered to host the Nationals as part of an Olympic classes regatta in early September. Some discussion took place about the atmosphere of this regatta. Traditionally, the US Nationals have been aimed at providing a fun regatta for all sailors, not just the US Sailing Team. Since all the Olympic classes would be sailing at the same time, the Marblehead regatta would be more of a high powered regatta and might keep some members from participating. Popular sentiment at the meeting was to promote the Marblehead regatta as an FD regatta, but also to have a separate FD only National Championship sometime in the summer. Allen Kilgore volunteered to organize a Nationals sometime in July. He has had contact with a number of old time FD sailors in the Hampton, Virginia area who would like to host a regatta. Various individuals agreed to look into possibilities and a decision on the next Nationals will be made before the end of the year.