Welcome to the 2024 Season!
From President Nick Bowen March 29, 2024
I hope that you and your organization are well on the way to planning your activities for the coming sailing season. NBYA looks forward to helping you with your efforts in whatever way we can. Our on-line calendar has been updated for 2024. It includes links to promotional material for racing events you might be running. 2024 Racing Season
Check it out and make sure your info is correct. We will also email this material to our mailing list of around 2000 sailors on the bay. To participate, just send your information to me or our Administrator at nbyaadmin@nbya.org.
For adult sailing, NBYA is planning an enhanced Boat of the Year series of events in association with our member club’s events along with our annual Swanson/Bay Yacht Club Challenge.
On the Junior side, the NBYA Junior Committee has been working hard to put together another awesome summer of sailing. You can now follow NBYA Junior Sailing on Instagram at @nbyajuniorsailing — follow for timely regatta updates, news about other important events and initiatives, and content submitted by sailors, families, and programs throughout the summer. NBYA, with the help of their member programs, is organizing a Coach Development series, designed to specifically target two audience groups: instructional staff (“learn to sail”) and racing coaches. Throughout the Spring, we will be creating development sessions for these two audience groups. We also want to remind everyone that NBYA provides stipend to cover the Level 2 course for NBYA program coaches, which is a class that provides a significant education for racing coaches. Once we have the schedule finalized, you’ll be able to find it on our website as well as our Instagram – @nbyajuniorsailing – if you don’t follow us, you should!
The Committee is planning to host a full range of junior events for Opti, Laser, and Club 420 sailors. We are grateful to all the programs and clubs that have agreed to host regattas this season – Thank You! We are excited to announce a return to a more traditional Junior Race Week, meaning that all fleets will race out of the same location, Colt State Park, in August.
Lastly, we’d like to remind everyone (particularly anyone hiring for a junior program or anyone who coaches at one) that NBYA has an amazing grant program available for coaches who pursue advanced US Sailing certification. If approved, NBYA will provide a stipend to cover the course fees of Level 2 Instructor, Level 3 Race Coach, or Level 3 Head Instructor certification programs. This reflects our commitment to enhance the learning experience for our sailors and deepen the knowledge and skills of those who work with them. Information about this grant program can be found on the NBYA website, under the Junior Sailing drop down menu.
Your organization’s continued support is necessary and appreciated. It allows NBYA to continue all our vital programs and services to our area sailors. Attached is a copy of your membership invoice and update for our yearbook registry. Please complete and return by the end of the month so we can update our records and include you in important information for the upcoming season.
There are a few special projects that we be taking on this season:
We are forming a subcommittee to enhance the Mary Rose Marshall Girl’s Memorial regatta. This is a special event to promote and develop female sailors. Based on feedback from families, sailors, and programs, we’ll be looking at how to fine tune this event to make it more meaningful and “worth it” for all involved. If you are interested in this subcommittee, please email our Chair Paige Chafee at nbyajuniorsailing@gmail.com
NBYA is working to gather more information on our prestigious perpetual awards. While the “story” of many of these awards (Peggy Read, Mary Rose Marshall, Alicia Tabor, Bradd Swett, etc!) is known by some – either through word of mouth or from some physical written document we can’t find anymore – we want to better preserve this history and make these stories more known to our community. We hope in enhancing the digital storytelling around these awards, we make them even more worthy of striving to win them.
We plan to survey our members and will be looking for suggestions on how the club can improve. Watch for the survey link in April.
If there is anything that we might do for you, please get in touch with me. I am new to this job and have a lot to learn. Help me out with your thoughts, concerns and suggestions.
Sincerely,
Nick Bowen, President nsbowen@gmail.com 203-947-6966