Happy New Year all! Wow hard to believe that 2011 is already here and we can start looking forward to another great year of racing! And if it is the January issue of MainBrace it must be time again to talk about the GRITS events for the coming year!
Last year five fleets in Region 3 got together to create a racing series consisting of five regattas, one put on by each club. And for GRITS 2010 the scores were kept for Gold and Silver Fleets for the racers from those five fleets that entered the regatta series. It was a kick off year to see how well the idea worked and if there were any bugs or ways to make it better in years to come, then we could do just that.
While it turned out that GRITS 2010 was a good time and drew a lot of folks out to race, but there is an even bigger and better way to do it for GRITS 2011!! All of the good stuff from the past year has been kept, and two new features have been added that should make it even bigger and better for all this coming year!
Again in 2011 there will be five GRITS regattas used for scoring racers for the final standings. The five fleets that were in GRITS 2010 are again hosting GRITS 2011 regattas, as shown in the following list of dates, fleets, and location.
March 26 & 27 – Fleet 96 – Dixie Sailing Club, PunchBowl Regatta, Lake Martin, AL
April 16 & 17 –
Fleet 95 – Chattanooga Challenge Regatta, Chattanooga, TN
August 27 & 28 –
Fleet 134 – Weiss Lake Regatta, Leesburg, AL
September 18 & 19 –
Fleet 58 – Gone With The Wind, Lake Lanier, GA
October 15 & 16 –
Fleet 52 – Equalizer Regatta, Nashville, TN
Final standings for Gold Fleet and Silver Fleet again will be the racers best three finishes over the total series. Thus anyone racing in four events gets one throw out, and if in all five regattas, two throw outs. First place in a regatta gets 30 points, second gets 29, and so on down the line. Highest point total sum for three regattas wins it!
The two important changes make GRITS 2011 even bigger and easier this year. For the first year to test out the scoring system, only the Region 3 racers from the five fleets holding the regattas were scored. This year it is come one, come all. No matter what region you normally sail in, or have as your home fleet, you enter a GRITS regatta, you get scored for it and can come back any time to keep on competing for the prize. To make it easier for those entering one other change has been made. For the coming year, IF the racer had ever won any C22 Region or National Championship PRIOR to the start of this season, they are required to race in Gold Fleet for the series. However, ANY racer that starts the series in Silver Fleet may continue to race in that fleet regardless of how they do in any other C 22 event held at any other location during the 2011 racing season. They may continue racing in Silver Fleet for the entire year, or until they choose to move to Gold Fleet, but results of any other event will not mandate that they move to Gold Fleet DURING THIS YEAR. Next year – maybe – but for this year, you start in Silver, for the GRITS events, you get to stay there for the entire GRITS series.
So that’s it for 2011, the only thing you all need to do now is make your plans to be there and enjoy the competition and fun of Great Racin In The South! See ya on March 26th at Lake Martin!!