[Sonar] Thoughts on team racing

[Ernest Brody]

The team racing clinic and regatta was a pretty exciting event.  I think in
the last race Mark had the most excitement, followed by Marty and Kathy.  It
will be a story (I'll let them tell it) to be recounted over and over at
beer after races.  I  think we will never tire of telling what happened to
each of us.

 

The Canadians are stoked.  They are more excited than when we introduced
them to the Sonar at LOWISA.  They're coming to Star of the North with some
new prospects.

 

Team racing has caught on within our fleet and it may spread to the rest of
the YC.  For our fleet we need to take some steps to make it more effective.

.         We need to collect some old but still useable sails.  We need at
least six jibs.  We can then put a colored stripe on three of them so you
can tell who is where at a glance.  It would be (liberals, please forgive
me) a team of whites and a team of coloreds.   If we can also collect six
mains, so much the better.  In any case, we shouldn't be beating up our good
(or even not-so-good) sails.

.         We need more organized instruction.  Blake is one of the two best
team race instructor/coaches in our area (the other is Cappy).  But Blake is
limited by time and endurance.  We should approach the Sailing Center to
develop an adult team racing program.  We should be paying a fee to the
Sailing Center for some instructor/coach to give us classroom sessions,
drills, races, and debrief.  These sessions would have a schedule and
commitment.  Our skills with boat handling and racing will bring us along
the curve pretty quickly.

.         We could also develop some judging/umpiring corps over time. 

.         We need to mix knowledgeable and newbie people so we bring people
up to speed quickly.

 

Thank you Marty for spearheading the initial organization.  Thank you John,
JR, Becca, and Mark for supporting his effort.

 

Our objective should be to have two full teams to go to Sheboygan in 2010.
This is going to grow itself from the excitement.

 

Ernest

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