Unfortunately Harken has indicated they cannot support the trophies for the 2009 Florida Racing Series. In today's economy its certainly understandable that company's are cutting back, and we are very thankful for their previous years of support.

I will continue to score the series, but there will not be trophies this year unless another sponsor steps up.

Brian

Hey Brian,

Out of curiosity, what would you need in the way of # of trophies?

7 sets 3 deep.

They're needed by January of each year?

Ideas for homemade trophies:

**"catamarans" made with two beer bottles, some dowel sticks and bits of old sailcloth
Pic of catamaran trophy


**Print something nice on the computer and then put it into some sort of frame. This is real kewl if you can get on-the-water pics of the competitors. And with a bit of looking, you can find frames for a dollar or two.

**You can use this stuff called Gallery Glass which is a glass paint available at Wal-Mart to make 'stained glass' on bits of glass pane or plex



**Use bits of old boat parts and hang labels on them. Think of Rick's "Ye Olde Lawne Chaire" or suchlike

The 12' skiff interdominion miner's underall champion trophy was a dummy's head with a helmet...

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/article.php?get=2929

http://xs330.xs.to/xs330/08350/12underall985.jpg
http://z10.invisionfree.com/12ft_skiffs/index.php?showtopic=316

Oh, and I'd switch to harken gear if it was price competitive.

Yes, January at Tradewinds.

Hey, what brand do you find price competitive? Do I smell good prices?

Like Tami said, there are all sorts of ideas to make very inexpensive trophies.

If you have seven fleets that get trophies, have each fleet come up with an idea for their three trophies and MAKE the trophies. (Give them a deadline to have their trophies done, though.)

Trophies like that would all be much more unique and creative.
AND it gets people more involved in contributing their talents.

Brian, Can email me some details on the series and what you are chasing in the form of trophies? Not promising anything but I can see what we can do through Ronstan. bmoon at ronstan.us
Cheers,
Ben

I got a couple plaques you can re-cycle. 'Course, I'm keeping the blocks.

BK,

Contact anyone with a destroyed mast (aluminum or carbon) and cut it into 3 inch segments to be mounted on a wood base and engraved with the series information.

You can even paint designs on them like Tami said.

That's the coolest trophy I have - Ryan's mast section broken at Tradewinds. They used it for one of the Clearwater regattas.

The next coolest one is the Endurance series glass one (although the base keeps falling off - it's not toddler-proofed)

And for "brag flags", if someone had a destroyed sail, you could cut that into pennants, right?

A little elbow grease and some creativity, and you've got a slew of awards for cheap, cheap, cheap! And they're unique. Hagar is definitely ahead of the curve...

Tami,

That is a great idea.

I once made some trophies for a local race out of my old N6.0 mast, cut into ~ 8" pieces. I then took permanent marker and wrote the class, place etc. on the mast. Simple and cheap, yes.

The face in the picture is the one I remember of you, nice smile BTW. I always assumed the face in the avatar, with the nice smile, is also you?

the Other Todd, or is it, tother odd? I like that, the tother odd.

And BTW, I also like the choice of beer bottles in the pic.

You ever tasted a light beer?

We had a guy who Dumpster dived the local plastics store for discarded material. He came up with world championship caliber trophies for fun sails.

Hi Todd,

no, the avatar isn't me. Waaaaaaay not me. It's a compliment that y'all think it COULD be me. But she is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who's the latest bombshell in Bollywood.

Y'know, come to think, we are still using what are actually YOUR trophies from Galv Bay Cat Champs the other year, a couple of cobalt blue highball glasses with the year and race name engraved. -oops- we were s'posed to get them to ya... thanks for the dishes, man!

I like Mary's idea - have each class make their own trophies, probably need to have a designated class volunteer to make it happen - so I will do the H16 Class and Cindi/Walter will do the TheMightyHobie18 Class - 'IF' there is no sponsor later this year.

Ronstan is far and away cheaper than harken in my area.