February 2017
Hello All Mercury Association Members!
I am honored to have been elected the class President for 2017. Most of you have known me for many years, but those who don’t, I look forward to meeting each of you and working with everyone to promote and continually improve the class! I would like to acknowledge Eric Conn, who graciously served as class President for 3 years! What a terrific job he did keeping the class heading in the in right direction!
The annual meeting was held in January, at the Paso Robles Inn. Old and new topics were discussed. Peter Baldwin (Fresno Fleet) reporting that Huntington Lake is a go this year, great news! New owner of Mercury 416 Dave Morris (Monterey Fleet) submitted a bid to have the Monterey Yacht Club host the 2017 National Championships. This was approved and agreed upon unanimously. The subject of a GPS being allowed while racing, as well as GPS course tracking was reviewed by the officers and the technical committees. It was decided that no GPS devise use will be allowed while racing. GPS course tracking is permitted, but only after racing is over and the data is reviewed on shore. Our chief measurer, Dave West has sent out a list, via email, of the boats that need to be weighed and measured. If your boat is on this list, make sure you get this done before racing in the National Championships!
Mid-Winters is fast approaching, February 18th and 19th at Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club. This always proves to be a great weekend of sailing, and CBYC does a wonderful job of putting on the race, as well as hosting the dinner Saturday night. If you are planning on coming, and I hope you are, and your boat needs to be weighed, I’ll have the class scale available.
The Mercury Class 2017 calendar is full! We will have wonderful racing at some of the best venues on the west coast! I hope there is a, one day, or weekend, regatta that will fit into your schedule. So dust that boat off and get out and do some sailing!
See you on the water!
Park
Mercury 572