This column offers readers a chance to tune in on various aspects of our fleet. Fleet email excerpts, selected articles, particularly choice photos, and whatever else catches the editor's eye will appear here.

Technical tips and photos regarding sails, rigging, engines, purchasing, trailering, and posts regarding regattas, racing rules, results, etc. may be found on the Members Bulletin Board.

The new owner of Twins is Ivan Dimitrijevic.

Welcome to the fleet, Ivan...

Fine Model of Alerion Express 28

Scale Model of H. Gutman's Cassiopeia — Built by Seacraft Classics and Abordage SA.

See the Photos>Boats section of this site for more photos of this recently completed, outstanding Alerion Express 28 model.

News from the Alerion Express 28 Chesapeake Bay Fleet

Alerion 2008 Rendezvous—Chesapeake Bay

It’s no April Fool’s joke. Based on your feedback, hold the dates for two rendezvous’ of the Alerion Express 28 Chesapeake Bay Fleet this year. The Spring outing will be held on the last day of that season, Saturday, June 21st. Don Goodliffe will again be hosting that rendezvous at his home on Plaindealing Creek following an afternoon of casual racing in the Tred Avon River off of Oxford.

The Fall get-together is scheduled for Saturday, September 6. One of our newest fleet members, Bill Smith, who sails Gabrielle, hull number 141, will be our host at his home on the Severn River at the western end of the Academy Bridge (Route 450). We’ll sail up the Severn, around St. Helena Island and back to Bill’s house. Garth Hichens and his crew from Annapolis Yacht Sales will be co-hosting the event.

The fastest boat at each regatta will take home an engraved, silver plate commemorating their achievements as well as have their boats’ names engraved on the Hoyt perpetual trophy. As we get closer to each date, additional details will be provided on each day’s activities.

In other news, we have a number of new fleet members since our last sailing rendezvous. In addition to Bill, welcome to: Steve Cofer, who sails AE28 316, Halcyon, out of Annapolis; Walker Johnson, the new owner of Bob Gallagher’s Rosebud now based in Whitehall Creek; and Bill Reeves sailing Wind Dancer, hull number 98, out of Urbanna, VA on the beautiful Rappahannock River.

One of our owners, Dave Cochran, is planning on sailing his Alerion around the Delmarva Peninsula this summer. Anyone interested in taking their Alerion along on this 300+ mile cruise should drop him a line at (contact Paul Rohrkemper or Dave Cochran directly).

Paul Rohrkemper
Alerion Express 28 Chesapeake Bay Fleet

Arabella Sails the 2008 Lightship Race

Hi Everyone.

Arabella went on the Double handed lightship last Saturday and took my friend Henry Culp and me along for the ride. What follows, with some modifications, is an email I sent to Michael Land about our adventure. Chris Vaughan asked that I send it too everybody. Usually I like to tell these sea stories in the bar after the race, but this will have to do.

Mr. Toad's wild ride is what it was.

We had a good start at the GGYC and were first in our division to reach the bridge. Blowing about 15 on the way out but with big rollers. Our GPS malfunctioned briefly with regard to the lightship waypoint and we got set south of the ship channel further than intended in the big ebb and got to the SF entrance buoy in about two hours, which was a little late, but as things turned out, it may have been a lucky break as we avoided a wind hole that others ahead of us fell into.

Blowing up to about 25 on the way back with 12-15 foot rollers. Hit a lot of 10's thru 14's and one amazing 15.0 on the speedo. I can't even imagine how fast some of the Express 27's and other light boats must have been going on the way back. We were way ahead of some of them rounding the lightship, but they got to the bridge before we did. Lighter winds inside the bay and moved more slowly against the fading ebb to the finish at GGYC. Ended up 3rd out of 9 finishers in our phrf spinnaker division even though we had no spinnaker (missed 2nd by two seconds to a Merit 25), 7th out of 38 overall corrected, and 6th fastest elapsed time, actually finishing boat for boat ahead of a bunch of much faster boats which started before us. Benefitted greatly from a big wind hole which was at the bridge in a 4 knot ebb when lots of other boats ahead of us got there from the north side and stalled out trying to cross over, but when we arrived along the south shore in a reverse eddy we brought a little breeze with us, never stalled out, and a whole bunch of us finished about the same time. Had the pole wing and wing for the latter part of the trip and the boat was smokin'. I didn't see any spinnakers flying until we got to the dead air zone by the bridge and then there were many. The boats ahead of us, ultralights and low phrf's must have been going really fast, even without spinnakers, at least until they hit that wind hole. Some boats were reefed. We never reefed or even tried to, and in those conditions might not have been able to without motoring.

Electric bilge pump stopped working when we needed it as a lot of water was coming aboard from various directions, but fixed it today. It has two filters and the second one, back and up under the port seat, was plugged. I didn't even know it was there before. Manual one has different piping and worked ok except the boat was heeled a lot so sometimes there was no suction because the water was over on the starboard side, not over the keel.

During one puff during a close reach coming back the braided cover on the jib outhaul line parted with a bang! It was made up by Easom, a 3/16 amsteel core with a double braid cover over the part that goes through the rope clutch and around the winch. I think what happened is that the jib sheet released suddenly under load when I sat on the tail hanging down from the trigger cleat (at the moment I was trying to replace the hatchboard after coming up from below,) which caused the boom to go out suddenly and when it reached the point where it couldn't go any further because the outhaul was maxed out, everything was really loaded due to the wind and the cover parted due to the impact load, possibly at the rope clutch but maybe elsewhere, as we didn't exactly figure out what happened at the time. No damage other than to that line. The amsteel didn't part but slipped a little on the winch and it was a little tough to get it wound back in as the 3/16 core doesn't work to well on the winch.

I didn't know the sailors who were lost on Daisy and didn't see them out there although we must have been in the vicinity of buoy #3 a short time before they were last seen by others. With the big rollers and spray all over the glasses it was hard to see the shore let alone 35 other sailboats spread out over the course.

This was a fun race in pretty extreme conditions and the boat performed very well. A double-handed boat for a double-handed race. If going, I recommend putting in a wooden hatchboard for ocean races, lashed to the boat, and the upgrades to the jib outhaul, including using a rope clutch instead of a cam cleat, upgrading the foredeck block and using hi-tech line would be essential. Jacklines are required by the rules, harnesses and tethers should be. Be sure and double check all your rigging first, and clean out the bilge pump filters before the race rather than afterwards.

One more thing, you might consider bringing an extra set of underwear.

-Harry

Alerion Fest 2009

Alerion Fest will be at Richmond Yacht Club the weekend of October 18-19, 2009.

New Alerion Express 28 Fleet Formed in Chesapeake Bay!

NOTE: 10/4/07 We are delighted to note the formation of a second Alerion Express 28 Fleet in the Chesapeake Bay area!

Their new website may be viewed at:

http://www.chesapeakealerion.org

From Pete Lyons at Lyons Imaging

It was a real pleasure photographing the Alerion Express 28 fleet on
Sunday afternoon. The photos are uploading to an online gallery as I
write this. You'll find them near the top of the events page at
lyonsimaging.com, or via this direct link:

http://lyonsimaging.smugmug.com/gallery/3582501

Thanks again for inviting me out! I hope you'll like the photos.
I'll do my part to get them out to potential publishers! Hopefully
you'll get the cover you'd like to see--or maybe a 2-page
spread. :-) All of you looked GREAT out there!

Peter

Thanks to all who attended Alerion Fest #1. We got great weather and the
seminars, sailing, and socializing were informative and fun! We started
with a deisel engine seminar given by Mike Haley from KKMI. Lots of very
useful info that made many of us realize how little we know about our
engines and just how expensive that could be. FYI, never try to start your
engine for more than 20 seconds without closing the raw water intake. It
can cause sea water to flood your engine. Think very expensive fix! Mike
Haley frequently gives a comprehensive deisel seminar at KKMI. I recommend it to everyone. It's not so we can learn to do the work ourselves, but more about learning what to watch for so our engines last for many years.

Sat. PM we went out and sailed around for several hrs., then returned to the RYC for appetizers and drinks on the deck, followed by a delicious potluck dinner. Watching the sun set over the Bay and 8 Alerions moored
side-by-side was beautiful.

Sunday, Ralf Morgan gave an informative rigging seminar. Because we had to be off the dock by 12:30, Ralf couldn't go into much detail, but he has
promised to do another in the future. As some of you know, Ralf is a wealth of info and he is always willing to share his knowledge.

Sun. PM saw 8 Alerions sailing around the Brothers in 10 - 17 kts. of
breeze. It was t-shirt sailing at its best and all was captured on film
by Peter Lyons. www.lyonsimaging.com. I don't think the pix are up yet, but they will be worth a viewing as soon as they are. I expect to see some of them in a national magazine soon.

Everyone had such a good time we have decided to do it again next year.
Hopefully, with a years notice everyone can attend. It's not just for
racers! We welcome any suggestions for next year. Thanks to all who
attended and heartfelt thanks to everyone who cooked and brought the
delicious food.

Regards,

Chris

Alerion Fest 2007 Video is on You Tube

To see Debbie Castellana's nice video of the Alerion Fest 2007 on You Tube, turn your sound on and click this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a13c6iRKaUo

For Debbie's stills of the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGDSGpKy-88&mode=related&search=

More on Alerion Weekend - September 29-30,2007,

We are having great response to A-Fest. 10 boats have signed-up so far!
Lyons Imaging WILL be there on Sun. We should get some great fleet shots, but this is also a chance to get the photo of your boat that you have always wanted. So put on the makeup, get your hair done, shine that boat and you'll get a great picture to show all your friends who wonder what you do on the weekends.

If you contact Peter Lyons at:

http://lyonsimaging.com/

I am sure that he will be able to entertain any special requests.

Happy Sailing,

Chris

Results of the 2007 Alerion Express 28 Racing Season

The 2007 racing is complete and congratulations go to repeat champion Chuck Eaton! Newcomer Michael Land placed a strong second and looks to be a threat to Chuck next year. Nancy Pettingill moved up a notch and Dean Deitrich and Roy Steiner sailed the second half of the season while getting used to a new boat. Watch out for them next year! Harry Allen and Georgia and I brought up the rear. Both of us suffered from poor attendance. Thanks to all who sailed. We are slowly building our fleet and next year we hope to
have 8 - 10 boats racing.

Regards,
Chris Vaughan
Fleet Captain

Alerion Weekend - September 29-30,2007

Ahoy AE 28 Fleet!

Hope you all are well and have enjoyed a great summer season of sailing.
Alerion Fest will be happening the weekend of Sept. 29-30. This is not a
racing event. The idea is for all of us who own these beautiful, fun boats
to get together to learn more about rigging, maintaining, and sailing them.

Everyone will have a chance to check out various boats and rigging
solutions. It will also be a chance to learn about deisel engines and how
to tune your rig so that it is safe and fast.

A Fest starts Sat. morning around 9AM at Richmond Yacht Club. At 10 there will be a deisel engine seminar given by the best engine tech in the Bay, followed by an informal BYO lunch. In the afternoon, we plan to have an informal sail-around...trade boats, have fun. Sat. evening we will have a potluck dinner at the yacht club. The bar will be open. RYC has showers
and we will make docking arrangements for anyone who wants to leave their boats overnight.

Sunday will start at 10 with a rigging seminar given by Ralf Morgan. Ralf
has 3 decades of experience in the sailing industry and he has been a font
of information and assistence to many of us in the fleet. If you have any
questions about our boats, Ralf will have a detailed, informative answer.

After Ralf's seminar, we plan a fleet sail around the Brothers. We hope to
have a photo boat for this. I can see a photo of 10 Alerions rounding
the Brothers in magazine. After rounding the Brothers, we all sail home.

Our fleet is the strongest AE fleet in the country! We have a professionally designed web site that has become the premier info source for Owners and prospective owners of our boats. People often contact us before they contact Pearson Composites. We are the only fleet that has organized one design racing, and at RYC we have had a well attended Beercan Season with 5 boats most Wed. nights. We would like for AE Fest to help us solidify as a fleet and I encourage everyone to attend.

It'll be a lot of fun!

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to this e-mailby Sept. 15, but if you
change your mind at the last minute and just show up, that's OK too.

Regards,
Chris Vaughan
Fleet Captain

P.S. I have also included an updated fleet roster. We say goodbye to
Patrick MacGuire, and welcome to Deb Castellana and Chuck Goettsche, the new owners of Ariel (ex Coatue).

New San Francisco Bay/West Coast Alerion Distributor — 09/07

Passage Yachts has been awarded the local dealership for the classic, beautiful, fast, and responsive Alerion Express Yachts. Alerions in sizes from 20 - 38ft add a new exciting element to their current line of Beneteau, Island Packet, and Wauquiez.

Passage Yachts

Passage Yachts, Inc.
1220 Brickyard Cove Road Suite 103
Point Richmond, CA 94801
510-236-2633

Alameda Office
1070 Marina Village Parkway
Suite 101
Alameda, California 94501
510-864-3000

http://marina42.net/cgi-bin/p/m42p-home.cgi?d=passage-yachts-inc

sales@passageyachts.com

About the Alerion Express 28 Fleet One Bulletin Board

By popular demand, this website feature is up and running.

The Members Bulletin Board is intended as a resource for Alerion owners and crew everywhere. BBS membership is not limited to local Fleet One Alerion members and includes owners/members from Texas, New York, Los Angeles, etc. It is, however, not intended for the general public or sailing industry personnel.

If you would like to become a Alerion Express 28 Fleet One BBS member:

1.) Contact the fleet (Click the CONTACT link above in the website toolbar) and request an initial access ID and password.

2.) Once you have received your initial access ID and password, you will then need to click on the MEMBERS link above in the website toolbar for initial access to the BBS.

3.) Finally, you will need to register on the BBS itself with your own personal ID and password.

Ths site is for sharing info on technical issues regarding the boats, rigging, sails, engines, maintenance, purchasing, as well as racing issues and news, fleet events, and more.

Please contribute and make this resource a success for all Alerion owners and crew members.

Alerion Photos from Leslie Richter of http://www.rockskipper.com

We have several sweet, new racing photos of several of the boats up on the site. These were taken in the dusty conditions of SFYC's 2006 Elite Keel Ragatta.

Leslie Richter of www.rockskipper.com is a professional photographer and has more than very graciously agreed to let us use these (duly credited) photos gratis as a fleet-building resource.

The photos are available for purchase online via SmugMug for a very reasonable prices and I hope you all will considering buying 'em.

Here, for example, are Maeve II, Arabella and Mil Besos at a start. Nancy and Co. looking nicely de-powered...

To see/purchase: http://www.rockskipper.com
http://www.rockskipper.com/gallery/1517619#73717955