At MY Regatta We Will Absolutely....

gouvernail

gouvernail

Super Opinionated and Always Correct
Let's keep it to a couple items per post.
My belief ( I am absolutely certain about this) is all regatta organizers want their event to be really great. We fail either because we just don't have the resources to accomplish what is necessary to make the event we want to host happen. OR We fail because we had no idea what other people want us to do.
What would you make absolutely certain is included in your special weekend?
Perhaps it is something which takes some effort on the part of the hosts?
Perhaps it is a policy decision that you want to make certain is taken care of the way YOU want it to be accomplished.

I will even go so far as to ask for a format:

A. Opening short description or title
B. More lengthy explanation (include "how to do it" if necessary )
C. Reasoning and or sales pitch


Please do not consider any regatta subject to be inappropriate. It should all be on the table



I started this thread and I approved the message written above
 
A. Sail to the time limits and make them as late as possible.

B. When the Notice of regatta says "No race will be started after 1 PM," everybody knows the last race may go to 2:30 PM and then the boats will need to be packed, we will have a trophy thing, and the trip home can start. Every competitor has either made a decision to sail for that time period or has already decided to miss the end of the event for outside personal reasons.

C. Sailing regattas are for sailing. Wew can eat lunch anytime. We can meet with folks on shore anytime. The unique sinfular purpose for a regatta is to play the game of racing sailboats.
The assembly of a racing fleet is a rare special event. It costs money to invite the people. It costs money for the people to get themselves and their boats to the site. In some cases, lIke Midwinters or a nationals, the average competitor spends about $1000 on travel, lodging, entry fees,and other special regatta related costs. The oportunity cost of lost work time need not even be factored it. IT IS EXPENSIVE TO ASSEMBLE A RACING FLEET.
When the RC arbitrarily decides to give up and go in while there is perfectly good sailing wind, time on the schedule clock, and an already assembled fleet, my blood boils. The way I see it, a fifty boat fleet being sent in after four races when a fifth race could have been sailed is worse than equivalent to grinding up two brand new Lasers and throwing them in the trash. The RC not only wasted $10,000 but the committee lost a PRICELESS opportunity for some of the fleet members to sail the best race of their lives.
When I run a regatta I do two things related to time limits:
1. Instead of the "no race started after" time limit, I use a "no competitor shall finish after" time limit. The way I see it, we want to know when we will stop racing. We don't care when the last race will start because nobody really knows how long a race will take. When the RC realizes there is no longer sufficient time to complete a race, they send the fleet home.
2. I make that time limit appropriate for the sailors we expect to have at the event. In Texas it takes virtually everybody about five hours from arriving on shore to pack the boats and travel home. If we are off the water by 3 PM everybody has time to stop on the way home for dinner and still be home, unpacked, and in bed by 10 pm.
When out of state sailors are flying home, I consider the available flight schedules and if there is sufficient demand to inconvenience the rest of the fleet by quitting early, I sometimes move the quitting time up a bit to allow sailors to get to the airport. Generally, the majority of the fleet is best served when we assume distant travelers will fly home beginning the next morning.
 
If there is free beer. There absolutely should be a similar supply of soft drinks.

If you have beer on tap, you ought to have soft drinks on tap. I don't think lemonade and ice tea are sufficient for the rest when there is beer in cans or on tap for those who drink beer.

Not everybody drinks beer or wants to drink beer at a regatta. Forget about the "we all pay the same entry" reason. The fact is we are all invited guests and the non-drinkers should absolutely not be treated as second class guests.


So end my example posts. What would you do??
 
At MY regatta we will absolutely
A. Learn to sail faster
B. The winners will be asked before dinner to discuss what they did that made them succesful. There will be an interview-like setting in which they will be first asked a couple of general questions, followed by some more specific questions about certain parts of the race.
C. The sport will die if we only sail fast without telling others how we do it. Sailing without good competion is boring (done it) and sailing against great sailors who do not share their knowledge is frustrating (done it).
 
My club hosted a regatta this fall and I was the chair. WE were successful because:

A) 56 stoked laser sailors showed up! and over 6 people joined the ILCA at registration.
B) They received VALUE for their $40.00 entry fee. (T shirts, Water on the course, Great catered dinner, choice of drinks, and post regatta snacks w/drinks at trophy presentation).
C) GREAT Race Management.
D) AWSOME free raffel after dinner on Saturday night, (shirts, hats, gift certificates, cool duffel bag, dry shirts, roof rack protectors). Everyone was a WINNER!
E) A DJ for music Saturday night.
F) Pre-race, "from the experts" tuning/boat handling talk for the expected conditions and "local" advice for the current.
G) We had no wind and several folks said it was the best event they had attended in a long time, (we have an active district).

One phrase of wisdom. You can't control the weather, but all the rest is up to you. A long time ago I saw a T-shirt that said, "I knew there was a party, but you mean there was a regatta too?"

Remember to HAVE FUN!
 
Rob B said:
F) Pre-race, "from the experts" tuning/boat handling talk for the expected conditions and "local" advice for the current.
Click to expand...

Sounds all very good! Can you say a bit more about the pre-race clinic? How did you set this up and who did run this?

Georg
 
Sure. For the boat set up/handling session I asked our district series champion to rig his boat and give a talk. I knew he was attending the regatta from the pre-registration list and asked him if he would do the talk. He was happy to. So, about an hour before the skippers meeting on Saturday AM we called everyone to stand around his boat for the "seminar". He discussed Outhaul, vang, cunningham set up, hiking strap set up, traveler set up, for the expected conditions and why he was set up in those ways. He also discussed how he would move his body in the boat for the expected conditions and why. I also listed/scheduled it on the NOR.

The "dock talk" was conducted by our local laser fleet guru who has been sailing at our club for 10 years. I asked him a couple of weeks before the event if he would be willing to do it. We all walked down the dock, (after the boat set up talk) and he pointed out the land features and the behavior of the currents during the flood/ebb tides. It was difficult for him to spill all the "local knowledge", but it made for a more fun regatta for the outta town folks who had not sailed w/us before and it was a great lesson on currents in general and what features cause stronger or weaker currents

Both sessions took an hour together, (about 40 minutes on the boat set up and 20 on local knowledge).
 
At MY regatta, I will:
A. NOT send everyone out if there is obviously no wind and isn't supposed to be until the 12:30 seabreeze.
B. provide some form of power-bar-eat-in-between-races thing instead of no lunch at all or a soggy sandwich.
C. constantly let the competitors know over the P.A. system if there is some sort of snag.
 
Just let me restate Gouvernail's requested format again:
A. Opening short description or title
B. More lengthy explanation (include "how to do it" if necessary )
C. Reasoning and or sales pitch
 
But any answer at all is great!! There are already a few things fromthis list being organized for the NAMasters and easter laser regattas...Good stuff. keep it coming in whatever format!!
 
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