PRSA
Fleet Captain's Trophy

Awarded for outstanding race committee duty in series sailing

 History of the Trophy

This trophy is awarded for outstanding race committee duty in series sailing. It may be awarded at the end of the Spring Series and at the end of the Fall Series, though it need not be awarded if no race committee is judged to have conducted races of an outstanding caliber. A committee of four racing sailors, appointed by the Commodore, will judge the performance of each race committee during a series and nominate a single race committee to receive the trophy. If the initial nomination is rejected by a majority of PRSA Fleet Captains, there will be no award for that series. Flag officers do not participate in the vote on the recommendation of the judging committee.

The trophy was authorized by the PRSA Executive Committee, Commodore Matt Krafft presiding, in August 1981.

The trophy is constructed on a slab of wood taken from the trunk of a wild cherry tree, measuring almost 3 feet in diameter, that was felled in a squall that swept without warning across the Potomac River on June 15, 1980. Race Committees that would like to win the Fleet Captains’ Trophy may be interested to know that winds in the squall were measured at 78 MPH shortly before a local anemometer was disabled by a power failure. It is probably not necessary to record that no small boat on that part of the Potomac River survived the storm, and that rescue operations consumed several hours.