[J22-Fleet 1] Ideas to Increaser Participation on Sundays

Wed Jun 27 16:13:33 CDT 2012

Beth,

It was disappointing to see the J-22s have only 5 boats at the MYC Sat.
Fleet #1 champ races 2 weeks ago and only 10 last Saturday.  That program
was designed to have J22 sailors give up 5 weekend to race J-22s and get in
15 high quality champ races.  That is the "more sailing fewer days" you
refer to below, but they didn't show up.

In a sense I have started the committee you are referring to by putting this
out and asking the fleets captains to talk to their fleets and any one to
respond to me.  That is the brain storming, but it is by email and not a
meeting at the club or a select group.  The idea is that in this way we can
ferret out what people want.  I was think of making a distribution list of
those who respond to continue brain storming.

Part of the piece below made available the idea that maybe the J-22s would
prefer to run as many races as possible in Wayzata Bay only on certain days
and make that their Champ Series.  Maybe they would like to run WB Races on
the 5 Sundays that the Fleet 1 races are at MYC on Saturday.  That could be
5 weekends (focus) with 2 Races at MYC on Sat. and 3 to 5 races at WYC on
Sunday in the Bay.  Maybe as many as 30 races in 5 weekends, 10 days of
rigging and unrigging.  That would be focus.

Regarding MYC:  I was more thinking that people wanted to kick MYC out on
Saturdays and the whole WYC fleet of 125 boats would take over.  They have
all of their fleets racing champ races on Sat. AM up until regatta time in
early August.  We could work something out after the MYC boats go to the
regattas, but that would interfere with what is a growing BI Series with
children.  What could we do to build the BI with children.?   Its starting
without us doing anything special.  How about a kids picnic after certain BI
races and score it differently?  We also have many WYC racers racing at MYC
and to make them make a choice or to have some WYC boat not have their
regular crew due to the conflict might be tough.

Keep the ideas coming.

Bert

From: Beth Frampton [mailto:beth.frampton at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 2:23 PM
To: Bert Foster
Cc: Terry Foster
Subject: Re: [J22-Fleet 1] Ideas to Increaser Participation on Sundays

Hi Bert,

Thank you for sending your thoughts. What I am hearing from members is that
they want more sailing on fewer days. I'm afraid that simply adding
additional races on Sunday is not going to solve the problem. Those who are
already participating may or may not stick around for a second race, and
those who are not currently racing will not start coming out. 

I had hoped that with a committee, we could do some brainstorming and come
up with some new ideas. At this point, I hate to hear you say that anything
is 'impossible'. MYC is also struggling with participation, and maybe we can
find ways to share the course and build both programs. Maybe it won't work,
but I think it is too early to take it off the table. Just because something
has been done for 100 years doesn't mean it has to continue that way. 

Regards,
Beth

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 2:11 PM, Bert Foster <Bert at apexq.com> wrote:

Hi Fleet Captains and some WYC Sailors,

If your fleet isn't in the address line, please forward this to your fleet. 

There have been many comments about this subject in the survey, emails, and
postings on Facebook.

Some History and Thoughts to Keep in Mind

1.    The Race Committee is charged with establishing the schedule and
recommending it to the Board of Directors for approval.

2.    The RC is to establish a racing program for the "ENTIRE YACHT CLUB",
and to try to meet the needs and desires of each Fleet.

3.    The WYC is not going to get the Main Lake away from the MYC on Sunday
morning.  They have had it for 100+ years.  There are many sailors who sail
at both clubs.  And motorboat chop is much harder on scows than keel boats.

4.    Many of the WYC race officers work the MYC races and many WYC sailors
race in the MYC Sunday morning races.  They both had a hard time getting
from the MYC race to the 1:30 WYC race.  So, we moved it to 2:00.  Also the
wind is sometimes better later in the day.

5.    Running 2 Main Lake Sunday races back to back with all the fleets is
not practical.  The RC would need to wait up to 60+ minutes for the last
boat to finish, then reset the course, then have a "start sequence" for all
fleets which would take an additional 24 minutes.  When we tried 2 races BTB
we had half the fleets one Sunday and the other half the next Sunday.

6.    We changed it back because a Sunday Fleet could go a month without any
racing.  If you only raced Sundays and you were to race on the 1st & 3rd
Sundays of the Month and the 3rd Sunday was called off (no wind) you would
not race until the 1st Sunday of the next month.

7.    On most Sundays, Wayzata Bay is available to race on.  It is very good
for many short races with a smaller number of boats.  Maybe up to 30 boats,
but a problem with 50+ boats.  So, one, two, or three fleets could race a
second or even a third or fourth race in the Bay on Sunday.

8.    Historically the WYC has had a "window of time" or a time slot for the
races so members could plan their time.  If you planned a family dinner
Sunday evening, you don't want the races to go into the evening.  It is
different for Regattas where you plan to race until late if there is a need
to get in the races.

Possibilities

If some fleets want more races on Sunday we could complete the regular
Sunday Main Lake races for the A Series with all fleets, and then take some
fleets into Wayzata Bay for a NEW SERIES and have the mark boat run a group
of short races with center start even while other fleets are finishing the
Main Lake races.  We could give those fleets a short Main Lake course so
they could get to Wayzata Bay early.  They would usually be over by the time
we came in from running a Champ race on the main lake.  If some fleets
wanted to skip some Sunday Main Lake Champ races, we could start them as
early as 1:00 in Wayzata Bay, with a third committee boat and Race Officer
(more expense), but only when WCSC doesn't have a Sunday regatta.  We need
to keep in mind that the WCSC runs regattas in Wayzata Bay some weekends.

We probably want to maintain the current Sunday Champ Race starting sequence
in order to preserve separation of the boats and quality racing for the
entire club.

Conclusion & Process

The RC could run some fleets more Sunday races on specific Sundays if they
want them.  The fleets need to discuss what they would like for their fleet.
Feel free to email me or discuss this with me at the Club.  We can put
together some program and have the BOD review it.

Regards,

Bert Foster

RC Chair WYC

H 952-473-2240

C 612-281-9999

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-- 
Beth Frampton
beth.frampton at gmail.com

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