Boating fun and games

Merrily

Administrator
As my club's Laser fleet captain, it's my sworn duty to create fun so the fleet will grow. I'm going to have a few Laser parties and I'd like to get ideas for any sailing games. There'll be men, women, and youth sailors. One race I read about was water balloon tag. Everybody gets half a dozen balloons to throw. Three hits and you are out of the race. Anybody got any more fun twists on racing/sailing?

Merrily
 
At our parties we have all the girls wear Hiking boots....

and nothing else..

OK seriously...
Food, drink and an atmosphere that allows people to sit and talk, sit and listen or do something "laser" seems to work really well.

1. Folks gather around food that takes time to eat..around here that is chips and salsa and sometimes veggie plates and dips and stuff. Little finger foods beat meals as meals end.
2. Have a boat there for a hotshot to rig AS HE / SHE EXPLAINS and demonstrates. Most of us really do not know how to rig the best ways and how to make handles with knots and all that and it is sooooo nice to have someone patiently show you...and let you try it too!!!
3. Get together and build a multi boat trailer. Ours is absurd but it only cost $2500 for EVERYTHING!! Including the beer we drank building it. We have electric brakes ($350) and I think the $2500 included putting the brake controls on a vehicle ( $350) Our basic utility trailer 3500 lb capacity cost $800.
You can make a 2 boat trailer by simply adding a couple strong steel rectangles and some padding to any small trailer but it is sooo nice to have a trailer ready to carry four or five boats. if everybody invests i the trailer, they will feel a need to use it.
YOU WISH the problem was too many people wanting to go at once. Cross that bridge with joy if you ever get there.
4. Bring in somebody's not so well rigged boat and have a party fixing it up.
5. have a group polish of a boat. Pick an ugly boat and use Fred's directions for making the bottom pretty. They are on this forum site somewhere. [http://www.laserforum.org/showthread.php?t=1931&highlight=Make+bottom+pretty]
6. Put on some videos. ..However,,you may find the TV becomes the entire thing so be prepared to turn off the sound or make an endtime happen...without losing everybody to "gotta go now."

Borrow Rene from the Austin fleet...She puts on great gatherings.

No!! You can't keep her!!
 
OOPs I though you meant during the winter ...
Can I have till your lake thaws to answer the water stuff??
 
gouvernail said:
Can I have till your lake thaws to answer the water stuff??

As long as you work really hard on it! Man, you had me going there, Fred. I was wondering why I would be building a trailer when I could be on the water, or in it.

We're going to go tubing this winter, on snow that is. We've got the food and drink part covered. Everybody brings their favorite and shares.

M
 
I think a couple of the ideas mentioned are great.

if you can help out some of the not so frequent members, clean up their boat, help them with some left over parts for new rigging, etc, you might be able to convert them to full timers.

Plus, it's easy to do for the regulars, and as long as there is beer and gossip, you should get all the regulars to attend.

build up and support the base of people who aren't rabid about the sport, but if you give them cause to, they will make it out to every race day.
 
Gouvernail already thought up some stuff that I found in "Other rules: Outside the box concepts." His purpose was differrent though. He wants to experiment with changes in sailing rules. I just want to create some fun at my Sunday afternoon potluck this coming season. My favorites are races with no tacking or no gybing, the leader at each mark must do a 720, not crossing ahead of the last person on the first leg, and pulling the boom off the gooseneck of those within reach at the start. I'd add strip sailing when it's really hot! And maybe no kinetics rules at all. Pump, ooch, rock, and fan the tiller all you like.

"Example of some special games we have tried:
1. With a mid leg start finish line. There is a limit of four tacks on the first beat in this race and you must tack three times after the last leeward mark.
2. The leader at each mark must do a 720.
3. Nobody can cross ahead of ( usually whoever has been finishing last a lot) on the first leg. If the person is a small kid and the wind is light the kid often has the chance to feel his / her first win.
4. Just give a couple people head starts or hold a couple guys back.
5. Touch another boat and both boats must drop out.
6. No gybing
7. No tacking...Takes a lot longer to finish the beats.
8. Winner drinks a beer ( We do as many as a dozen races sometimes) Also, whoever is in the lead on the run must stop by for a beer which he must finish before finishing the race

Some I would love to try:
1. I would really love to try this in a 100 boat fleet where the starts usually become absurd bumping matches.
Before the start: Outhauls must be eased clew six inches foreword and boom vangs must be disconected and sitting on the deck.
A skipper who IS ON the FINAL APPROACH to start may pull the boom off the gooseneck of any boat within reach.
Sailors who do not wish to risk fouling leeward bpoats and paying the boom off penalty can reside in the safety zone beyond the ends of the line or at least five boat lengths behind the starting line

2. Scoring: Throw out the race that does not fit. That lucky break race disappears from the results.

3. Scoring: Throw out the best and worst races

4. 720 AND finish behind whoever you fouled

5. Dump the kinetics rules as soon as planing conditions exist."
 

Back
Top