• "Local Sailboat Racing - Is It Broken?"

• Andy Horton Qualifies for Collegiate Championships

Local Sailboat Racing - Is it broken?

Rob McDowell

Twenty ways to help fix or improve your local and regional sail racing program.

lthough we've all heard that there is again decent racing at some high profile regattas in a few popular and pricey classes, the real heart of sail racing is at the local and regional level, and that still has high blood pressure and a certain shortness of breath. Most local clubs are seeing a decline in racing interest, and profound shifts in the type of racing that is popular. Sadly, many racing programs are still being run in the same way as they were twenty years ago when sailing was surging in popularity and folks would put up with almost anything to race. Now it seems we're all lacking time, money, and that primal urge to just sail. We're conditioned to do more, expect more, want more, and just manage more of everything, which means sailing now has to fit in with everything else. The new reality is that to have a hot local racing program you either have to live in a strong sailing area, or you have to build it in a way that it can compete with other activities. Here are some ways to do that.

1) OUTBREED DON'T INBREED. Look to the larger regional community for new sailors instead of the traditional yacht and country club set. Find a way to make participation in a racing program welcome and affordable for everyone. It gets boring to race against the same people all the time. This means that the primary organizing structure for sail racing needs to be representative of the groups that will comprise the new vision of sail racing rather than just the existing yacht clubs.

2) IF SOMEONE WANTS TO PLAY, SAY YES INSTEAD OF NO. This goes along with the spirit of the first suggestion; think inclusion, not exclusion. Extend a welcome to other sailing flavors than monohull keelboats. Multihulls, both daysailing and offshore, have attracted an incredibly loyal set of sailors that seldom are welcome in the traditional structure of sailboat racing. Monos and multis can coexist on the same race course with a little anticipation and tolerance, adding diversity and excitement to events. Sailboards are another source of wind and water oriented folks that can help rescue sail racing. The boards are fun only in heavy air, sailboat racing is a strategic and boatspeed game that is rewarding in the full spectrum of wind conditions. It sure is more fun than hanging out waiting for the wind to blow up. Dinghies and course racing keelboats (Stars, Solings, et al) are inexpensive ways to get on the water. An open racing program that includes these boats, even if you sail an offshore style boat, creates a broad based interest in sailboat racing that will eventually improve your fleet also.

3) MAKE IT FUN, KEEP IT FUN. Why is this not obvious? Or if it is, why is it so seldom really fun? Maybe because of that narrow, traditional view that most clubs have of racing. Open things up, pay attention to whether everyone is enjoying the event, not just the owners. Remember parties?

4) SAILING IS A TEAM SPORT, RIGHT? Why is it that owners and skippers get all the recognition? Yes, they paid the bucks, but improving the lot of the crew is one of the great secrets of racing success.

5) ORGANIZE. In 1975 a cruising couple guilted into running a race around government marks, and results being mailed out two weeks later may have been acceptable, but not anymore. The entire process of a racing program needs to be organized. Not only does this make the experience of racing better, it also makes the experience of running races better. If your organization is using volunteers to run your races, they need to have the knowledge and the tools to do a good job. There are many burned out ex RC people out there that will say that being involved in the administrative end of sailboat racing was an intensely unpleasant experience. If any part of an event stinks, it affects the aroma of the entire affair.

6) ADEQUATE RACE MANAGEMENT This is part of the above, but needs to be emphasized. If you cannot do a good job of running a race, don't run it. The legacy of a poor event lasts longer than that of a non existent event. Get out there and study good race management, find some good people and train and recognize them, and do it right.

7) NO LOUSY COURSES. Have you ever awake at 4:30 am, powered 20 miles to a race, and spent the next six hours parade reaching around some course that wouldn't work no matter what direction the wind was from? And knew that the next day you could do it again? Or maybe the weather mark was a government mark near a rock that was a foot less than your draft? Even if your club has run the annual Commodores Race for 50 years around the same course, and it's always stunk, that's no reason to inflict it on anyone again.

8) IMMEDIATE RESULTS. Handicap racing is imperfect at best, but is likely to be with us forever. Having to wait more than a couple of hours for results is not in the spirit of the instant gratification nineties. It is not difficult to accomplish timely results, if the process is well planned. Maybe some people like the suspense of waiting a week to find out if you were awesome or ordinary last race.

9) PUBLICIZE, RECOGNIZE. I don't know a sailor that doesn't want recognition for their success. That also is true for their crew, the folks that ran the race, the folks that organized and ran the party, and the kid that drove the launch. A T-shirt, some mention in the newsletter that is sent to all the competitors, organizers, and other interested parties (you have one, right?), maybe a toast at the party will help make it fun for everyone. Recognize competence, reward brilliance, educate everyone else, raise the level of everything, organization, management, finances, courses, and competition.

10) SERIES RACING IS INSIGNIFICANT. Each race should stand on it's own as a complete and meaningful event. If there is interest in creating a series award in addition to the individual awards, fine, but don't diminish the importance and quality of organization of each race and the necessity to attract competitors on the merits of the race, because it's part of a series. A series is only as meaningful as the races within it.

11) ENSURE THAT ALL PARTS OF THE GOVERNING BODY HAVE THE SAME GOAL. It's not helpful to have parts of the whole system of sail racing acting as isolated, individual fiefdoms. The regional organization, the rating board, class associations, clubs, sponsoring organizations, and individual sailors all need a system of communication that clearly expresses the common goal of promoting and facilitating sailboat racing. This is only going to work if some entity makes it work, it's not necessarily natural for one group to consider the needs of the rest of the world when they pursue their agenda. Most big boat owners don't easily see their link with off the beach catamaran sailors. A rating committee cannot act with a goal of protecting one group from another (say stock boats vs. modified boats), and mesh with the larger goal of promoting and maintaining quality sailboat racing. Lacking a well developed regional organization, the possibility of good local racing is much more haphazard.

12) KEEP RACING INEXPENSIVE. Avoid the temptation to see the boats racing in an event as a profit center because without them you do not have an event. Sailing is expensive enough without having exorbitant entry fees. Alternative financing methods are sponsorship, advertising, donation, licensing, and their various combinations. If the sailors are treated as a valuable resource, they will respond by supporting the event.

13) DISCOURAGE UNNECESSARY PROTESTS. There are small minds out there that will do anything to win, including using the rules. Set up an arbitration step before the protest room, and be ready to deal with protests quickly, with an impeccable and capable committee.

14) THINK ENTRY LEVEL. Start a formal program to introduce people to sailing and sailboat racing. Groups to target beyond the usual 20 and 30 something yups are kids, seniors, college students, singles, and turning cruisers into racers. Consider establishing a one design (or Portsmouth) fleet as trainers. Don't punt on this, people need a program to get involved, we need a source of new sailors.

15) GET THE SAILING INDUSTRY INVOLVED. Make contact with the marinas, boat dealers, repair shops, sail lofts, canvas shops, riggers, etc. They will be willing to help, but like anyone else will be much more willing if presented with a concrete program. Don't just lay something on them, get some input as you develop it, they are the first line of contact with who is out there sailing.

16) ESTABLISH A FEEDBACK LOOP. Find out what people think, both those using the sail racing program, and those who should be, but aren't. Listen.

17) MAKE WINNING SYMBOLIC. Offer a variety of methods of result calculation. Performance in handicap racing is very sensitive to windspeed, check out using a windspeed dependent rating system. Investigate time on time vs. time on distance handicapping. Look at a golf style skipper/crew handicapping. MORC has a neat table of curved sec/mi handicaps that helps out the smaller boats in a fleet. Give trophies for elapsed time finishes as well as corrected time. Recognize improvement. Offer some of these alternative methods of calculating results as information only columns on the result sheets, computers love to crunch numbers. Realize that the best sailors will usually win, so feed their ego, but offer something to the rest of the world.

18) LOOK THROUGH A WIDE ANGLE LENS See how things interrelate in a region. Try to help make everyone's program successful, even if you never sail there. Be willing to sail there. Don't be a narrow minded geek, this sport isn't big enough for that.

19) GET A RATING CREDIT IF YOU SAIL WITH A KID. Maybe a bigger one if you let her drive.

20) CHECK #3 OUT AGAIN.

So, stop complaining, get out there and sail, thank your crew, introduce somebody new to sailing, and let somebody else drive now and again. Have fun. Let others enjoy.

Andy Horton Qualifies for Collegiate Championships

Andy Horton - Hobart College

ndy Horton, sailing for Hobart and William Smith Colleges placed second in the NEISA Championships. This help the team qualify for the ICYRA/Sperry Top-sider Coed Dinghy National Championship hosted by the University of Wisconsin in on June 6-8.

Hobart College for men and William Smith College for women are coordinate four-year liberal-arts colleges located on the shore of Seneca Lake in upstate New York. Hobart and William Smith College sailed against the cream of east coast including, Navy, Kings Point, Old Dominion, St Marys and Georgetown.

The regatta was hosted by SUNY Maritime College located in New York City at Fort Schuyler on the Throggs Neck peninsula where the East River meets Long Island Sound. According to Fritz Horton, Andy's father, Andy began the weekend series with two "less than stellar" races, then came back with a series of first and second place finishes. The outcome of the series came down to the protest room, where Hobart College faired very well, winning their protest and qualifying for the Nationals. According to Fritz, the crew from Hobart and William Smith were very focused and avoided some of the youthful pit falls that are often associated with sailing events.

For more information about collegiate sailing check out the following links!

• The Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association