On-the water Crew Training starts this coming Saturday and a list of registrants can be seen on the home page of the FBYC web site. We are expecting at least 6 boats to be out on Saurday with over 25 candidates aboard. Not all participants have registered on line so the turnout will almost certainly be higher than the number you see listed as registered.

A notice that was sent out to all candidates follows in the main body of this posting. For anyone who wants to see the list of registrants on the new Crew Finder list directions are shown in the notice. It's early days for this new list and much of the information was taken directly from what the candidates provided when they registered for the March 28 meeting at Retreat Hospital.

All skippers who race off-shore are invited to come by the club and meet the candidates on any of the three days when on-the-water training is scheduled after they get off the water which we estimate will be at 1.15 pm each day.

MESSAGE FROM DAVID HAZLEHURST - CREW TRAINING 2006

By my count we had 24 candidates, 10 skippers and 2 crew members at the meeting at Retreat Hospital on March 28. Again, by my count, we had 16 of the 24 candidates tell us they would be attending the first on-the-water training session on Saturday April 8. See http://www.fbyc.net/Events/2006/ for the list of crew training days.

We have a number of requests for all candidates:

- Please register online if you plan to attend any session so we can provide appropriately for all. Specifically, we need to know how many skippers we need to be available with their boats and how many lunches we need.

- Please check out our web site. Click on "Our Club" and then on "Crew Finder" - http://www.fbyc.net/Club/Crew - where you will read how we plan to tell skippers who might be available for crew.

A number of points about this list:

- Your names, addresses and phone numbers will be open to public view so you might want to limit the information you post. At any time you want to have your name removed, click on "send info to Strother."

- We would like the list of names of people at http://www.fbyc.net/Club/Crew - to reflect anyone who wants to be invited to sail. Currently the list is mostly people who registered for the meeting at Retreat, but anyone can add their name by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.

Some few reminders:

- Please allow yourself ample time to get to the club. It can take 90 minutes from downtown Richmond because of bridge traffic in West Point.

- Wear boat shoes, which are on sale at West Marine and Boat US through Sunday, April 2. Also, be sure to wear warm clothing, bring a change of clothing and sailing gloves.

- Park in the lot on the right of the Stove Point Road in front of the new clubhouse. Under no circumstances is parking on the road allowed.

We look forward to seeing you all at our on-the-water training sessions.

David Hazlehurst