San Juan 21 Class Association

For forty years Fred Latham's San Juan 21 "mad momma" has sailed on New Years Day on the Neuse River in New Bern, NC.This year was no different thanks to some fantastic North Carolina weather with great breeze and sunny temps near 70 degrees. After a fun afternoon in a building breeze in the mid teens and three good races Fred awarded the winning trophies to Hans Lassen in the working sail class with Doug Longhini finishing second and Doug King third. In the spinnaker class Fred awarded the winning trophy to Mike Evans with Dan Bornarth in second and Jeff Thomas in third.
A big thanks to Fred for once again coming through with fantastic weather. It was great to see Fred for our anual New Years Day event and seeing Mad Momma on the water again for the annual sail.

Overall we had fourteen San Juan 21's out for the event with 8 boats in working sails and 6 boats in spinnaker fleet.

Dan Bornarth
Black Jack # 2403
Fleet 8 -New Bern, N.C.

Wow, a forty year tradition, thats really something. Congrats to Hans and Mike! Sounds like you had Florida weather.

Fred is our local hero. Story has it he went to town to pick up something for his wife and came home with a San Juan 21 over 40 years ago. His boats name is " Mad Momma". You can figure out why. He still owns the boat today.

Forty years ago Fred decided he was going to take "mad momma" out for a sail every new years day. Regardless of weather "mad momma" has not missed a new years sail in 40 years. Fred is getting a little older in his mid 80's and not able to take out his boat, but we make sure the boat is launched and sailed every year.

About fifteen years ago enough people were sailing they decided to make a regatta out of it and now we sail the Fred Latham Regatta every new years day. Fred comes down to the club and spends the day with us and shares stories. He was the all Sails Eastern National Champion in 1974, the second year it was awarded and has has a long history of winning events over the years. all of us at Blackbeard Sailing Club and Fleet 8 truly enjoy the time we spend with Fred each new years day and when wew see him during the year.

The San Juan 21 class goes so much deeper than just our fun little boats. The people who have sailed in the class are what has made this class so much fun. At last years NA's I had the honor of meeting some of the names that are on all of the class trophies. Sitting around after racing and listening to all the history of the class was very enjoyable.

Dan Bornarth
Black Jack #2403
Fleet 8