The 27 Fleet

Submission guidelines:

1. This is free. You don't have to be an Association member to submit a picture, but we'd appreciate the support.

2. This is what I want to know (paste this list into a blank e-mail and answer the questions – I don't insist on hull number, but everything else is a must, or this page loses a lot of its point, which is to appreciate where we all are and what we do with our boats):

• boat's name;
• its mark, hull number if you know it (it's on the stern just below the rub rail);
• your home club with Web site address and where it is located;
• what year you acquired her;
• who owns her (perhaps more accurately, who sails her) and where you live (which may be different from your club location);
• your e-mail (obviously I will have this, but if you put it here, I will encode it so it can't be read by address-harvesting robots (read the source html on my address above to see what I mean) and publish it on your boat's page; if you don't put your address here, I'll keep it to myself;
• a couple of lines about what you do with her. See a suggestion by clicking any of the thumbnails above.
• finally (and this can be an interesting game) – can you get a Web mapping service (Google, Mapquest, Terraserver, Yahoo or anyone else out there) to deliver a map whose star shows exactly where your club is located? Most of the present maps are really close but there are some annoying discrepancies. RCYC's star originally was on the wrong island; ABYC's star shows where the club's mailbox is, not where the club is. Lakeshore YC's star ended up about a kilometer inland – probably at the local post office. When a street adjacent to the club's park location was selected, the star moved acceptably close. I'm guessing about precise locations, but you know where you are – give me the map's URL. (Google's "overhead images", to borrow a term of spook-speak, really are fun; they're detailed enough that I can single out my own boat.)

3. Sailing photos are better than at-the-dock photos. It's more entertaining to poke fun at your sail trim than the scandalous number of bottles you carelessly left on the cockpit coaming. Against that, don't feel you absolutely have to have a perfect sailing shot – give us what you have, tell us about your boat and resolve to get that perfect sailing shot to us soon (as Toyota says, continuous improvement beats postponed perfection). Photography hints are offered on page two.

4. Please look at the photos on this page before choosing ones to submit. I try to keep context (like the committee boat in the Kat's Paw photo) and some 'breathing room' around the sails, but other than that, I crop moderately closely. I then set the size of the cropped photo to 400 pixels on its longest side. I can bump them up from 350 wide to 400 wide without too much trouble, but if I'm working from sizes below that, the pictures start to pixelate visibly (I used to ask for a 300 pixel minimum, but the quality of submissions, as well as the greater accessibility of digital cameras has raised the bar). Therefore, imagine your photo cropped as you see above and make sure you have at least 350 pixels horizontally or vertically. Remember, it's your boat that you're trying to make look good and bigger is better.

This photo is 600 pixels wide. Big enough, right? Not really – most of the background is irrelevant to The Fleet. Roll your mouse over the photo to see how it will be cropped to keep the context (the sun) and some breathing room around the sails and hull. When that's done, the remaining image is under 300 pixels tall, which will not do the boat justice. Most digital cameras produce really big images – and that's what we need here.

5. Photos from a digital camera or film photos that have been scanned by a lab (such as Kodak Picture Disc, etc.) are the best sources. I really prefer copies of the original file, not images that you've cropped or colour-corrected. I will do that in a way that makes you look your best and gives us a consistent look.

6. If you scan the photo yourself, send me a copy of the original file.

7. If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, drop me a note and I'll walk you through the process.

8. I'll say it again – this is a work in progress. Give me something now because I'm happy to update as you get better pictures or new information.

9. Send your photo and your info to .