Dear Friend of CHARIAD:

Last night, the mighty CHARIAD, and particularly her crew, were awarded the overall Marblehead Class B season championship. The award reflects a huge effort made by lots of folks over the whole season including those who sailed on the boat and many of you who helped off the water.

Greta, Kathy and Shayna are holding trophies awarded to CHARIAD last night for the season and individual race series.

I want to thank the wonderful crew that came together as a team to competently race a complex boat in good weather and bad. We had some great days and some not so great days. Overall, we raced as a team and we won as a team.

Friends of CHARIAD Happenings

The Vendee Globe race has just started from the French Atlantic port of Les Sables d’Olonne. Rich Wilson is racing his Marblehead based Great American IV single handed around the world. Rich will be racing the 60 foot boat by himself for about three months down the Atlantic, across the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and back up the Atlantic to France.

Follow the race around the world — Tracking Vendee Globe. This took a while to work for me.

Jonathan Green, who was part of the CHARIAD crew for the Halifax race, has been a core member of Rich’s team getting the boat and Rich ready for this enormous challenge.

Maureen McKinnon is one of my inspirations. She comes the CHARIAD parties with a cooler full of refreshments! But that is not why she is an inspiration. Maureen won the Gold Medal for sailing at the Para Olympics in Korea. She was a contestant in the Olympics again this year. Click HEREfor a picture of Maureen after returning from Rio this year.

Now What

For those of you reading this outside the US, we are having a beautiful fall. Fall will turn to winter. Winter to spring and spring to summer. We will be sailing again in the warming winds of late spring next year.

CHARIAD is on the hard in Beverly, MA.

And yes, we just elected a new leader for our country.  This was a disquieting election for almost everyone. We wish we had better choices. But we are a big, complex and energetic country with a bright future. Both Obama and Clinton have offered their support for the new president. The American people have chosen a new leader. Our prayers go to Mr. Trump for the challenges he will face taking us forward.

My best,

Rick