b'C H A P T E R E L E V E Nflying jets out of Weymouth N. A. S., and now a professional shellfisherman. Taking the floor, LeClaire called it as he saw it: FCW is considered an elite group. Theres nothing wrong with that. Where you run into trouble is if you dont recognize that yourself. Is there anyone here without a college education? One.LeClaire went on, raising some directors eyebrows when he said that we could be a bunch of self-appointed vigilantes, (without) any function in town. We dont answer to anyone .We do so much good work, but sometimes we dont see how other people see us. What should FCW do about it? He had one suggestion. The big thing, he explained, is to just be conscious that our view isnt always the view of everyone in town. In the exchange that followed, Vice- president Jim Blankenship, workhorse of the organizations public relationsLate in his FCW board term, shellfisherman Hillary outreach, commented thatLeClaire spoke up at a directors meeting.We do so much good work, he told his colleagues, but LeClaires remarks tossed upsometimes we cant see how other people see us. a challenge for the communi Criticism might occur, but, he added, You cant get cations committee that has totoo uptight about it.Gordon Zellnerdo with how we are perceived.On that December evening in 1999, the issue of FCWs being somehow different was scarcely settled. But directors had heard LeClaire, and his final advice was on target for them: If theyre going to criticize, theyre going to criticize. You cant get too uptight about it. Nevertheless, his thoughts rounded out directors realization that even in a well-designed vessel crewed by pros, it will be almost impossible to win every race.The Time the Mast BrokeJust as the vaunted New Zealand crew found in the first race of their 2003 defense of the Americas Cup, sometimes the mast breaks.Friends of Chatham Waterways learned that lesson early. Some of its wins -take Chatham198'