On October 25 David Brawner published the first issue of an electronic newsletter through which he plans to "pass along what I hear while wandering the halls at AMYA." Brawner, the AMYA Region 2 Director-elect, originally titled his venture The Square Peg Bulletin, but has received permission to change the name to The AMYA Bulletin...The Unofficial News. Subscriptions are free and open to all (making The AMYA Bulletin in a sense an RC sailing version of Scuttlebutt), and brief submissions are accepted.

In addition to news from and about AMYA, the first three issues have contained late-breaking regatta reports, links to RC racing videos on You Tube, and links to web "sites of interest" like this one. Click here to visit a webpage where you can subscribe to The AMYA Bulletin.

Badly needed, long overdue, and well done! Congratulations, David!

An improved version of the new CRonicle Index (version 1.10) is now available. Click here to go to a page that provides further details and a link to download the .XLS file.

A work in progress, the Index will be updated each time a new issue is published, and should improve in quality, content, and user-friendliness over time. We hope you find it useful.

A high point of the Saturday evening banquet at Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead during the 2008 Nationals was a slide show about the 2009 Nationals, presented by Dick Huntington and Jean Malthaner. Now everyone can enjoy the show (and get the juices flowing for sunny San Diego where, as the slide show will inform you, it rains only three days in October and the average snowfall is 0.0 inches). Click here to find out how to download a video file that you can play on your computer.

Issue 60 of the CRonicle was delayed about two weeks so that it could feature stories and photos from the 2008 Nationals. It went to the printer on October 16. If you have not received it in your mail by October 23, dig out your last issue. You will find that it bore bright colored stickers warning that your subscription was about to expire.

It's not to late, however. Click on the Register/Subscribe link at the top of this page, fill out the form and mail it with your check. As soon as it arrives, Issue 60 will be in the mail to you. In addition to tales about the weather in Marblehead, the complete report of the regatta, a description of the "First Annual" Class Forum that was held during the Nationals, and lots of great photos by Elaine Huntington and others, Issue 60 contains an outstanding article about Fleet Building by John Burnham, as well as the usual fleet reports, a Follow in My Wake piece by Chuck Winder, and the final installment of Dan Butterfield's Country Pond series (the suspense is over: it has a happy ending).

Incumbent President Pete Maxson and Vice-president Chuck Buzek, along with John Skerry (treasurer) and Jim Linville (Region 1 director) won the contested AMYA elections by decisive margins. 755 ballots were received. The full results are posted on the AMYA website (click on "Election Results Are Posted" there).

Hurricane Kyle failed to show up as had been predicted, and instead Redd's Pond resembled the eye of the storm for both days of the 2008 Nationals. Most of the races had to be sailed in winds of zero to three knots, and some heats over very short courses lasted for nearly 30 minutes. And what wind there was came from every point of the compass at random. (Oh, by the way, it rained nearly continuously throughout the regatta--during both the racing and the social events.)

With that introduction, you might expect the final standings to be scrambled, and the 26 competitors from nine states (only two registrants stayed home because of the weather)  to have gone home in a sour mood. WRONG. The cream of the racing talent rose to the top, as it almost always does in a well-run regatta, and the order of finish came very close to duplicating the seeding chart for the first race of the series, with 1999 and 2007 champion Dave Ramos (Chesapeake Bay Model Racing Association) eeking out a one point victory over Marblehead sailmaker Steve Cruse, and 2006 champion Chuck Luscomb (Dry Pants MYC/Connecticut) third.

The racing part of the event ended with a whimper instead of a bang when Race Directory Judy Skerry took mercy on the soggy sailors and declared an end to the racing when the wind died completely about 30 minutes before the scheduled deadline Sunday afternoon. But the elements failed to dampen spirits, and as they left Redd's Pond a bunch of wet but happy sailors were vowing to head cross-country  for next year's Nationals in (sunny) San Diego.

Click here to see the complete results, and a few photos of what you missed if you weren't able to enter the Nationals this year. And watch for a full report and other stories about the Nationals in the Autumn CRonicle.

Ten boats raced at Redd's Pond in Marblehead on June 29, despite the weather forecasts, the look of the weather that morning and the threat of algae. The weather gave the fleet fine racing and algae was only a minor irritant. Steve Cruse is the 2008 Region 1 Champion. Biff Martin placed second, and Stuart Tubbs third. Click here to see a full report.

The three CR 914 national champions among the 26 entries from five states in the 2008 New England Spring regatta hosted by the Dry Pants MYC in Deep River, CT on April 12-13 lived up to their credentials. After two days of intensive racing (17 HMS races plus a seeding race, 54 heats in about 11 hours of racing) 2007 champ Dave Ramos from CBMRA took 1st place by 7 points over '06 champ Chuck Luscomb from the host fleet. Dave Van Cleef from Newton, MA took 3rd with Brian Jobson from the host fleet rounding out the trophy winners in 4th and Biff Martin from the Marblehead MYC 5th.

DPMYC put on another outstanding regatta, holding at bay the rain that had been forecast both days, coping magnificently with the 90-180 degree shifts created by the same northwesterly wind that plagued the '07 Nationals in Deep River (where "the wind never blows from the northwest"), and again hosting outstanding social events on Friday and Saturday nights.

Click here to see a couple of photos and an Excel spreadsheet file of the final results.