One Design Symposium

Merrily

Merrily

Administrator
US Sailing's annual One Design Symposium is being held this year in my home town, Columbus, Ohio. I would not miss this opportunity for anything--attending a first rate conference, yet sleeping in my own bed! Today is a separate all day Race Committee training session which I'm going to. I'll keep you posted on that and the rest of the doings this weekend.

Merrily
 
I spent all day with 30 other people listening to a powerpoint presentation on how to run a Race Committee. There was great discussion with it. Passed the test. Visited with other sailors at the cocktail hour. I'm fried and am going to go get ready for tomorrow's sessions.
 
There's lots of great things going on at the symposium, which I'll talk more about later. The most exciting thing I heard about today is the North Coast Women's Sailing Association, http://www.ncwsa.net/, which is a 501 (3) C out of Edgewater Yacht Club. It trains and improves women's sailing skills and the men of the club are honorary members. It's gotten a lot of women out on the water, skippering, crewing, and owning boats. I'm wondering if it's a good model for something similar for my region.
 
There were about 150 participants at this year’s One Design Symposium. Keynote speakers were Dave Perry and Stuart Walker. We had a report from Jonathan Banks, who represented Sail America, the sailing industry’s association. The growth in sailing is coming from cruising sailboats, either with outright purchase or with fractional deals.

Here are the titles of the sessions that I took. If you want the names of any contacts or general info, e-mail me and I will provide that.

Reading the Wind & How it Affect Tactics, by Skip Dieball and Tom Hubbell

Public Relations—Getting the Word Out

Selling and Fulfilling Sponsorship, market your fleet, class, and club to sponsors

Add Women to Your Fleet (and Watch It Grow)

Sail Fast—Sailing Pitfalls (Lessons Learned), by Skip Dieball

Invigorating fleets Panel Discussion

Sportsmanship by Dave Perry

How High School Sailing Can Help Your One-Design Program Grow

Greg’s GO FAST tips, by Greg Fisher

Throughout the 2 day symposium, door prizes were given in order to get people back into the big general sessions. They gave out weather radios, sailing gloves, cans of McLube, hats, calendars, etc. Early on, John won a Harken sailing calendar. All I got was a free pen from the hotel. With each return to the “big room,” they gave out about a dozen prizes, but not to me. At the end of the symposium, they had a final drawing, and nearly everyone I knew had gotten a prize. In fact, it seemed to me that everyone in the room but me had gotten a prize! (This is what Stuart Walker referred to as a “fugue state.”) Then Susan Epstein, from US Sailing board of directors called out a “last name, Janet Rupert.” Oh joy! What was my prize? Patty Lawrence, who had been handing them out, had empty hands. My name had been called by accident after all the prizes were given out. L Susan thought for a moment and then had me come up to the front of the room, where she gave me the sailing related T-shirt off her back! I now have a unique prize, a Quantum Sails shirt, which Susan and Skip Dieball kindly signed.

The Symposium was well worth the $95 that I paid (with the US Sailing member discount) and I highly recommend it.

Merrily
 
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