This is the 58th annual Governor’s Cup, and as far as we can tell, it’s the oldest continuously running organized sporting event in Alaska. Mt. Marathon lost the title in 2020 when they wisely canceled the race due to COVID-19. Fortunately for us, sailboat racing was unusually well suited to social distancing.
For this year’s Gov Cup, we’ll race on both Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have our skippers’ meeting on Saturday at 2:00 PM and on Sunday at 11:00 AM. Racing will follow the skippers’ meeting on both days as soon as winds allow. We’re planning starts for two classes:
- Open Fleet Portsmouth Yardstick) (any boat)
- Buccaneer 18s (one design, scored with spinnaker)
Beginner sailors are welcome, and if you’re new to racing, we’d recommend sailing in the Open Fleet, even if you’re racing a Buccaneer. (The Bucc class can be a little intense.) And note that we’re still looking for one more race committee volunteer. Absolutely no experience is required, and working on the race committee is a great way to learn about racing. If you’d like to help out, just point a note in the #racing channel on the ASC Discord Server.
Instructor, long-time racer, and (occasional) Gov Cup winner Geoff Wright (that’s me!) will be putting on a free Intro to Racing clinic on Friday evening at ~7:00 PM. New sailors are strongly encouraged to attend, especially those who took our classes earlier this summer.
We’ll have a group potluck on Saturday evening after racing. Rumor has it that Jonathon “Dr. Party” Ramirez will DJ the event, so bring your best dish and your dancing shoes!
Also, Nancy Black is cleared to walk, so the planned scooter race is CANCELED. :-)
It’s gonna be an epic weekend, so we hope to see a packed house of sailors!
Polaris K-12 Sailing Intensive
For the second time in ASC history, we hosted twenty young aspiring sailors and two teachers from Polaris K-12 for a four-day introduction to sailing at the club. I was lucky enough to be out there with a crew of volunteers for an absolutely magical time.
I had too many “favorite moments to count,” but I thought it was worth sharing the last-day reflections of two of the students. One said it was the best Polaris intensive she had ever participated in and even better than the Disney World intensive. Another said the whole experience was like an amazing dream, where when you wake up, you just wish you could go back to sleep and keep dreaming.
I want to give special thanks to Addy Wright for making this happen. (She was also responsible for the first Polaris K-12 intensive when she was a sophomore in high school.) She took a full week off of work to volunteer with the kids at school and then at the lake. And that’s after teaching both beginner classes and getting her US Sailing Instructor certification this summer.
In addition to Addy, our volunteer crew for Polaris K-12 sailing intensive included the following folks:
- Christopher Cryan (and Adrian was in the intensive!)
- Angie Oberlitner
- Clayton Oberlitner
- Cathy Wright
- Oliver Wright
- Darren Black
- Steve Ryan
Darren wasn’t on the official volunteer roster, but he showed up and helped anyway because … he’s Darren. And although Steve wasn’t on-site during the intensive, I included him anyway because the club boats were all in perfect working order, and nobody has worked harder to make this happen than Steve. (It was fun to tell the kids about how the Flyin’ Ryan got its name.)
Fireweed Ladies Race & Brewery Sail
The Fireweed Ladies Race was soggy this year, but we had a dauntless group of women skippers out despite the weather. Congratulations to Angie Oberlitner and Brie Busey for taking the top seat on the podium. The full results are here:
2024 Fireweed Ladies Race Full Results
On the Sunday following the race, we had our first-ever fleet sail to the Susitna Brewing Company. Continues were damp, but spirits were sunny. I’m personally hoping this will become a regular feature of Fireweed. :-)
New Discord Page on the ASC Site
We now have a permanent Discord page on the site that explains the platform, all the channels, and our server rules. The page also includes a form for requesting an invitation. You can find it here:
Going forward, new and returning members will receive a link to this page and a fresh invitation when they sign up.
Alaska Sailing Club 
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