Fleet News

Fleet 5, Marblehead, MA

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Fleet 46, Hull & Hingham, MA

2026 Season Recap from Irene Good, Charlie Wasson and Dave Nelson, Fleet Tri-Captains

Fleet 49, Savannah, GA

View from the Helm - October, 2026

by Doug Powelson, Fleet Captain

Fall is here and we are looking forward to some great sailing weather. As I write this, our last Beer Can Sail/Social, for the year, is scheduled for tomorrow. The end of Daylight Savings time is near. We will have 9 boats on the water with 33 sailors including 6 guests from Landings New Neighbors. I’m really looking forward to this and the social engagement with 40+ at the Dockside Bar. Perfect weather is forecast. I’m excited!

During the summer, sailing activity was negatively affected by the heat. Heat index over 100 was common through much of July & August. It was also a challenging time for boat maintenance. The Summer Thursday Night PHRF series recorded another first place finish for our J/24, Gone With The Wind. David Bailey did an excellent job polishing the silver plated trophy on display in Landings Harbor Marina office. Weekly Rhodes 19 racing was often canceled with low participation due to the heat. Now that cooler weather has arrived, weekly racing is picking up. The CSC Oktoberfest Regatta was another highlight for the club. We had 5 Rhodes 19s and one J/24 in the regatta and took home 4 podium awards. David Bailey and I competed in the SAYRA Club Championship at the South Carolina Yacht Club. We placed 3^rd, representing the Chatham Sailing Club (as they are members of SAYRA). We were up against the best crews from other clubs, racing Harbor 20s. Having never sailed a H20 before, we were quite pleased with the outcome.

We look forward to the start of the Frostbite Series on Nov 7. While the series is officially organized by Chatham Sailing Club, Landings Sailing Club provides the Race Committee support. I will be looking for volunteers to be on the Race Committee. We already have 4 Rhodes and 2 J/24s signed up. After the racing, there will be a Celebration of Life gathering at the Landings Harbor picnic grounds. Stephanie Gould will be dedicating a bench in the honor of Terry Gould who passed away earlier this year. Terry was a valued member of the club and a spent a lifetime on the water. Many of his close friends will be on hand to share remarkable stories of their time together.

We are going through a transition with the leadership of the Club. Sophus Schanche & David Bailey have picked up the responsibility for Racing Coordinators, replacing Mary Kovats who has moved to Charleston area. Ed Zimmer has moved to Wake Forest, NC. Ed was heading up the Maintenance activities and we will need a volunteer to take up this role. Ken Betuker, our long time treasurer, has resigned and David Bailey has stepped into this role. Ken did an excellent job keeping track of expenses and facilitating the TLA reimbursement to members. Dick Kowal has picked up the Merchandising responsibility from Bruce Chong who has done an excellent job promoting the new logo with shirts & hats. Sandi Parshall has volunteered to head up the planning Social Activities going forward. Sophus is organizing the Holiday Party in December.

We had an active search for a boat candidate to add to the fleet. The Rhodes 22 was identified as the best candidate to meet our desire to have a shoal draft cruiser, under 25’, with roller furling, galley, head & swim ladder. A team was sent to Lake Lanier, outside Atlanta, to view 3 boats. One was perfect. Unfortunately, our timing was bad. The Landings Association, which owns the fleet, was not in a position to support the purchase the boat. It’s still on our radar. When the time is right for investment we will look for opportunities to update our fleet.

Our Rhodes 19s are very competitive. New sails were received for Harvest Moon, Yankee and Tinker Bell. Yankee has benefited from new running rigging, control bar and fresh paint on the deck. Randy has new life with topside paint & double sheeting jib. Scholar is the next to receive a topside refresh. Any one of our Rhodes can be a race winner in the fleet races and local regattas. Gone With The Wind recently received a like-new North Sails Genoa. Next year we will purchase a new mainsail for the boat. She earned it.

James Nicol has done an outstanding job to communicate the club activities in local print and online media (TLA, TLREC, TWATL, Phone Directory, Facebook & R19 Class Association website). Alan Perper and Steve Terrio, lead an outreach to the New Neighbors group. This has resulted in a number of new members in increased awareness in the community. Steve has initiated an engagement with the Landlovers group and we plan to invite their members to Beer Can sails next Spring. Angela Margolit continues to head up our sailing training effort. We had one class this year and have scheduled the next one for January 10.

The social activities for the club have been very enjoyable. The Beer Can sail/social events are very popular, even in the heat of the summer. Over the winter months we will have house parties and the Holiday Party which is funded by the Learn to Sail income.

Now that many of our members have returned from summer homes we look forward to a very active sailing season. Yes, this is the our best season, November-March. We can look forward to active weekly Rhodes 19 races, Frostbite Series (6-10 races), Wassaw Cup Regatta, St. Patrick’s Regatta. Something happening every weekend and recreational sailing in between. The Geechee Sailing Club has announced a championship series for 2027. Awards for the top boat in PHRF Spinnaker, Non Spinnaker and Rhodes 19 classes. Our Angela Margolit, is Commodore of the Geechee Sailing Club this year.

Have you heard? Landing Sailing Club is racing in Croatia? True… David Bacon racing his new boat, Turing Machine in the Viska Regatta in mid October. 150 boats on the staring line!

We have a great support team and our desire is to exceed your expectations, whether that be recreational sailing, racing, social activities, sailing education, or just being on the water. We will be looking to rotate responsibilities for these activities and involve our newer members. Come join the fun!