I have expressed my dismay at the acceptance of very few races in regattas in my Apparentwind blog postings, A Three race regatta?! and A Two Race Regatta?. Now that I have been involved in Laser sailing at numerous venues for a number of years, it is hard to understand the apparent satisfaction many seem to have with regattas where so little time is spent racing, and so much time spent on everything else. But each to his own.
In Laser sailing there is one race after another with as little downtime as possible. High school and college sailing work the same way. For the past two years the Laser sailors at MYC have been trying to convince anyone who will listen that we have been accustomed to a different format for racing that we very much prefer that format. As a result, we have organized two days of the week to pursue that concept of lots of races in both team and fleet racing. The thriving participation in Thursday and Saturday racing demonstrates the pleasure people find with this format. What a great way to organize sailing! It’s no wonder that so much enthusiasm comes from high school, college, and Laser sailors.
In talking to our out of town Sunfish sailors at our recent regatta, it seems that their experiences and expectations are the same as Laser sailors, high school sailors, and college sailors. Many of them expressed disappointment that we aren’t doing more racing and spending less time waiting and eating.
I see very little reason why our annual regatta can’t give everyone what they want. With the wind conditions last Saturday, it would have been easy. The race committee was efficient enough to have run five races with a lunch break or six races without one. Each fleet could have it their own way. If the Flying Scots want a 5 race regatta, three on Saturday and two on Sunday, they can follow the traditional format that was used this year. Meanwhile, the Sunfish and Lasers can have a second race before lunch, and three more after lunch… if they break for lunch at all. A staggered lunch break would make the food lines faster and the lunch process more efficient. And the Daysailers should be able to have the six race regatta (with one throwout) they have been requesting for the last ten years. The separate start and finish lines that the Race Committee used on Sunday would also help move things along. I have complete confidence that both the shore crew and the water crew can do their usual great job if we just lay out our goals clearly and incorporate them into our planning.
It is time that we at least try to accommodate the expectations of all of the fleets equally. Fleets should be treated like clients, and we as hosts should make every effort to give the clients what they want, even if different clients want different things. I hope we learn from this and set our goals higher for next year.
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As the regatta chair for MYC, I have been listening to the various feedback over the years, including that from the Sunfish and Lasers this year. I mentioned at the end of this regatta that we heard everyone and will work on next year's regatta to get more races in and find creative ways to keep it moving on the water.
ReplyDeleteI will answser a couple of comments in Gary's blog. We did have 6 races in the NOR for the last 2 years and that was becaue the Day Sailers had asked me for that a few years ago. And for those people who like the 5 - 6 races I say amen because that's what I like, but for those who want more, let's do it!
We listen and improve every year. I have no doubt that we can continue to do that as the complexity of the regatta changes. Keep the feedback coming and we'll do what we can!
I am curious how many of these high-racecount laser and sunfish events are single class events. The number of different classes creates an exponential amount of complexity for the racing staff, not just a mulitplier. Our own experience shows that our multi-class regatta is a fundamentally different kind of event from our sunfish/Laser regatta, and rightfully so. You may see no reason why we can't give everything to everybody, but I do. Human fatigue and the skills of our volunteers. Saturday is already a long day; the staff may not want to forgo a break, even if some of the sailers do. Some finishes are missed (and this year they didn't even need to keep track of time), a capsize wasn't even noticed for some time. A paid racing staff of superheros would have no problems running a multi-variate race schedule in 300 acres. A band of volunteer mortals has about as much as they can take.
ReplyDeleteMy experience is mostly in events with two fleets, Lasers and Sunfish, Lasers and Interclubs, Laser full rigs and Laser radials, high school varsity and high school junior varsity. Mike makes a good point that there is increased difficulty in running a multi-class regatta, but the increased difficulty is not exponential. The techniques used to facilitate two fleet regattas still work with multiple-fleet regattas (good subject for a future post), though it is admittedly trickier for the PRO to make it all work well. By the end of the Wife-Husband regatta, I had worked out a course and a rhythm where I think I could have kept three fleets of different speeds running almost continuously. I certainly could have gotten in a lot of races. Most good things in life are hard. And just because this is hard, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to do it. It’s our big, annual regatta and we all want it to be as good as it can be. Being PRO is a challenge on par with being a racer, and it’s fun precisely because it is a challenge. Because it’s hard, we should plan a little more, train ourselves a little more, and practice it all on Sundays a little more.
ReplyDeleteAs Diane stated and I've observed over the years, the races were consistent with what many we have had in the past as well as what people asked for. The Sunfish/Laser turnout was fantastic and far more than I expected. Should this have been anticipated? Could adjustments been made? Did we have the feedback going into the regatta so we could accommodate everyone? Did we get a fill-in PRO at the last minute?
ReplyDeleteThis year has been an eye opener for everyone and a huge amount of credit goes to the promotion of the Regatta to the smaller boat fleets. This was outstanding. The profile of the Club and events is changing and we will surely have more questions to ask next year.
As for the capsize, my crew spotted the capsize. We pulled anchor after 1 or 2 quick attempts to hail the other boat were unsuccessful and I will guarantee I was at the capsize in less than 1 minute. Maybe it took 10 seconds to pull 20 feet of anchor rode. My crew actually saw it happen. I know it may seem like a long time to those observing but let's look at the reality of the event. It's a crap shoot deciding just which fleet to follow for which boat. Do we call all rescue boats for 1 capsize and ignore the rest of the 4 fleets? As I see it, and I have some rescue experience, we did our job pretty well. The water was approaching 80 degrees, the wind barely reached 10 knots if at all, their boat was floating. I'll take the input on this point though, did WE need to fly the life jacket flag? Apparently so. We did for the next race. My crew had their life jackets on. The capsized crew waived off assistance but we stayed with them until they sailed away. The Judge who monitored the capsize event, reported it as " just what we should have done". So, tell me what we shoulda coulda done as I'm part of that " band of volunteer mortals". Happy to be of assistance and proud of our very alert crew. Without the volunteers, there would be no regatta.
Wear your life jackets! That's my advise.
My hats off to Morey Waltuck who jumped in at the last minute to be a "fill-in" PRO. Never should anyone ever diminish his effort, professionalism, volunteer spirit and guidance to provide so may with an event we could easily have lost all together. There should be no controversy on the races Morey ran. Taking guidance from the Regatta Committee, Morey ran great race courses and smooth races as designed, because his heart is with the Club, in sailing and making sure so many could enjoy themselves. When I got my e-mail from Morey announcing he was going to be the PRO, I was excited. Over the years, we have joined efforts running many regattas and this went pretty smooth. I learn each time I work with Morey. I owe my expertise in race support to Morey's guidance and trust.
ReplyDeleteThank you Morey
I do not mean to minimize the fantastic job Morey and the whole crew did. I did want to raise the possibility that multiple fleet types is very challenging for the team, a team that does this at most once a year, and I think the team does about as much as they can. I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteas for saturday's capsize. I only know what I was told. I wasn't there. I do know in other situations that I have been involved in that sometimes the rescue personnel, the entire team, has missed events on the water that I feel they should have know about.