Thanks to all for a great Nationals

On behalf of all our SYC team of management, volunteers and race officials, I want to offer my personal compliments to all our competitors for a great 2018 Rhodes 19 Nationals. Over three days and 11 races, we did not have a single protest filed, a testament to the experience and the skills of the Rhodes 19 sailors.

We hope everyone enjoyed the charbroiled oysters, jambalaya and spaghetti on the deck Sunday and the sumptuous party at the McGregors’ Garden District home Saturday night. For those we can thank SYC general Manager Lee Stall, Clubhouse Manager Ed Krepps, Gerald White and, of course the McGregors and the local members of Fleet 7 who created a quintessential New Orleans menu.

Until next year, fair sailing and steady breezes!

Tom Long, Regatta Chair

Dining around SYC

As we welcome our visiting competitors to the Rhodes 19 Nationals this weekend, we also expect you may want to sample some of New Orleans famous cuisine. So here is a quick guide to some of the dining choices nearest the club.

First is Southern Yacht Club itself. Once you have registered and received your guest card, please feel free to dine at our club in either the 1849 Bar or the main dining room. Thursday night is Grill Your Own in the bar, and regular a la carte service is available in the dining room. Friday and Saturday are open for dining in either location, although we ask you to make reservations at the club so the kitchen and wait staff can be prepared to offer you great service.

Beyond the club itself, here are some other options in and near our neighborhood:

West End

  • Sala is right around the corner from the club on Lake Marina Drive. Operated by the youngest generation of a very experienced restaurant family, Sala  offers both small and large plates, meat and seafood dishes in an upscale bistro setting. salanola.com/
  • Lakeview Harbor is next door, recently relocated from its longtime location a couple of miles away in Lakeview. It is known for hamburgers but also offers a variety of steaks, seafood, poor boys and salads. lakeviewharbor.us
  • II Tony’s, next door to Lakeview Harbor,  is a quintessential New Orleans Creole Italian restaurant. It offers a variety of Sicilian Italian dishes at extremely economical prices. Make sure you get an order of garlic bread to mop up the marinara sauce. www.two-tonys.com
  • Blue Crab is just across the New Basin Canal and recreates the old, pre-Katrina days of seafood dining on the Lakefront. Sit inside or on the balcony overlooking Southern Yacht Club and enjoy oysters on the half shell or grilled, plus a full menu of fresh seafood expertly prepared. And the owner is a member of SYC, so ask for Nick and introduce yourself. thebluecrabnola.com
  • Felix’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar is just down the street. It is a new location for one of the oldest oyster bars in the French Quarter. Back in the 1940s, Felix’s original French Quarter location put the New Orleans oyster bar on the map,

    creating a place where oyster-lovers could ‘belly up to the bar’ and have the freshest oysters shucked right in front of them. The tradition lives on at the Lake.  felixs.com/

Bucktown

Just across the 17th Street Canal from West End is the former fishing village of Bucktown, where, until Katrina washed them all away, the commercial shrimp and fishing boats docked right in the canal. Some are still there in a new marina built next to the Coast Guard station.

  • R & O Restaurant on Old Hammond Highway is legendary for its Italian roast beef poor boy, the R & O special poor boy, pizzas and Italian salad too big for one person. www.r-opizza.com
  • Station 6 is a two-year-old restaurant owned and operated by Alison Vega, a celebrated New Orleans chef who just returned from several years of living in the Caribbean. The menu is sophisticated and features a variety of inventive seafood dishes, plus the traditional oysters raw and grilled. station6nola.com

 

 

Pre-register for your SYC guest card

In order to accommodate visiting sailors during regattas, Southern Yacht Club has instituted a simple process for issuing guest cards that will provide you the privileges of a member while you are here for the Rhodes 19 Nationals.

Simply fill out the credit card application posted here and bring it to the reception desk on the second floor when you arrive at the club. The receptionist will run your credit card and issue you a guest card that will be accepted in the dining room and the bar. All your charges will be posted to your credit card on file.

Credit Card Authorization Form Ver 02

For security, we recommend that you fill out the form in advance and present it when you get to the club rather than send it off early.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at tom@thomaslong.net.

Look forward to seeing everyone down here in just a couple of weeks.

Schedule of events

We are only two weeks away from the start of the Rhodes 19 Nationals at Southern Yacht Club for a weekend of great sailing and friendly Southern hospitality. The complete schedule of races and social events is posted here, so you can make your plans.

Schedule of regatta

A couple of points to take note of :

1) The skippers meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the East Dining Room of Southern Yacht Club prior to the start of the annual class meeting.

2) The practice race on Thursday has been moved back an hour to 1400 to give more time for everyone to rig boats.

The New Orleans Municipal Yacht Harbor right in front of our club is finally being rebuilt, some 13 years after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  (Some things just take time.) We are not certain right now how or whether the removal of the old marina will impact our club’s waterfront, but we have been assured by local officials that there will be space to keep all the boats in the regatta.

So come on down and enjoy what we hope will be a great weekend of racing and partying. We look forward to seeing everyone down here.

Charter boat procedures

We are encouraging anyone who wants to sail the Nationals here in New Orleans October 4-7 but doesn’t want to haul a boat long distances to charter one of our local boats. We have established a simple set of procedures for chartering, and if anyone has questions, please feel free to contact regatta chair Tom Long,  at 504-669-3030 or tom@thomaslong.net.

Rhodes 19 National Charter Procedure

  1. The Regatta Chair will receive requests for charter and will identify owners willing to charter their boats.
  2. The Regatta Chair will provide contact information for both charterer and the owner to make suitable arrangements and include the contact information for Gowrie Group to secure their one-design policy if necessary.
  3. The suggested charter fee is $500 plus insurance that the boat owner deems adequate to cover property and liability.
  4. All insurance policies must name Southern Yacht Club as an additional insured and provide a waiver of subrogation in favor of SYC.
  5. If adequate insurance acceptable to both parties is not put in place prior to the regatta, Gowrie Group offers a special one-design policy for $250, which charterers will be required to secure before the regatta.

See you in New Orleans October 4-7.

Letter from Class President Rick McGregor

Southern Yacht Club
Rhodes 19 Fleet 7

Note from the R-19 Class President

Rick McGregor
President, Rhodes 19 Class Association
www.rhodes19.org
macsail@bellsouth.net

I join the members and staff of the Southern Yacht Club, and R-19 Fleet 7 to welcome everyone to the 56th annual National Championship. Our hosts have prepared a fun week of racing competition and activities. You will experience the hospitality, the cuisine, and the culture that is “Naturally Nawlins.”

This will be the ninth time that New Orleans has hosted the R-19 Nationals, the last being 2013. Southern Yacht Club is no stranger to the racing scene, holding the second oldest regatta in the United States, the Race to the Coast, starting in 1849.

So, sincerest thanks to Regatta Chairman, Tom Long and his team, Fleet 7 Captain, Rocky Sanchez, and Vice President and Gulf Coast Representative, Tommy Taggart. And special thanks to all those who travel, compete and make these regattas the special events that they are.

As we say in Nawlins, come join us to “Pass a good time”, we’ll probably ask you, ” How’s ya momma an’ them?”, and of course, “Laissez les bon temps rouler”!

Rick

Housing requests

For those who would like to inquire about housing here in New Orleans for the 2018 Rhodes 19 Nationals, our housing coordinator is Nancy Blouin. Her e-mail address is f31355@aol.com.

If you contact Nancy, please copy Tom Long at tom@thomaslong.net.

Looking forward to seeing everyone here in New Orleans in October.

R19 Fleet 7, New Orleans, Welcomes You

We are proud and excited to be hosting the 2018 R19 National Championship at Southern Yacht Club.

Much more to come, but be prepared to enjoy great racing, great friends, and to pass a good time!