Woodstock on the Water

The Youngstown YC Level Regatta

Racing is great – parties rock!

Prettiest of all the Level fleets – the Grand Dame’s of Lake Ontario – 8 Metre’s

Another bevy of bows – the tough and growing 40.7 fleet

40.7 racing looks great – and the post race relaxing is pretty good too

Even Sunday afternoon, the drafts are still deep and long – looking north

The yacht club dockside raft – looking south

Prize giving ceremony

The Youngstown YC had an idea three decades ago, back in the heyday of IOR, to forget about racing with ratings for a weekend, and group boats very close in rating in a “Level” format.  From a handful of boats this event has grown and changed with the times over the years to the point that it is a seasonal rite of passage for many sailors in the northeast.

The results will be reported elsewhere – and while the racing is great here, and the Race Committee first class, the best thing about the Level’s is the socializing.  Pure single class one design events probably give a better racing experience, but for a complete matrix of all the sport is, the Level’s matches up with the best and biggest events of them all.

This regatta is not just the signature event for Youngstown YC, it is the signature event for all of western NY and southern Ontario.  Not only does it bring together sailors from many clubs, it also brings together Race Committee support from clubs all over the region.  RC boats from various clubs in Canada can be seen helping run one of the four courses – Race Committee members also come a wide variety clubs around the region.

While the reason we all go to this event is for the racing, one of the critical beneficial by-products is the social interaction between the various clubs that takes place – this event may be the social glue that binds the entire racing community in this part of the world.

 

 

Insurance & Fun Races – part 2

Below is a response i received earlier today from Glenn McCarthy.  I got to know Glenn’s dad Gene very well during the time we both served on the USYRU/US Sailing General Services Committee, which handles all things related to club racing insurance programs.  Gene McCarthy was one of the, if not THE, driving forces in helping clubs come up with standard regatta insurance programs.  Their work has been invisible to almost all of us, but the benefit to sailing in the US is significant.

 

Hi Peter!

I guess I should start off by saying that insurance covers the all things people do.  How utterly naive not to allow protests.  Aggressive people could collide on purpose, not only damaging boats but injuring people.  And there is no recourse?

Regatta Liability would defend a club and race committee members individually if a bodily injury action were brought against then even if they didn’t allow protests.   So there is no implication from an insurance perspective.

My answer to all of this is that the rules writers need to consider adding the protest rules to the list of rules that can’t be removed.

Sincerely,

Glenn

 

 

Another ice July day in Buffalo

Al Gore needs to reexamine his stance on global warming

While the rest of the country swelters, yet another wonderful July weekend here in Buffalo. 

Only kidding – just a nice shot so that we remember to enjoy every moment of summer.

Insurance & Fun Races

An interesting question has arisen out of the “Gates of Hell” debate relating to the validity of club insurance and “fun” races.

If there are no SI’s, and the race is not properly documented as such, is the club sailing insurance program in effect for this sort of race?

Or, do those who provide the RC boats and who manage these races assume all the liability for the conduct of this “fun” event?

If in running these “fun” events where no protests are allowed, what does that mean when there is material damage to a boat where the insurance companies look to a properly constituted protest committee to help them establish fault prior to settling damage claims?

What if someone dies during one of these “fun” races?

I spent seven years serving on the General Services Committee of US Sailing where these sorts of questions are asked and answered for the purpose of developing club insurance programs so liability issues such as these are minimized.  I am certainly not an expert on marine insurance, but I know people who are, and have asked them for their input on this topic.   I suspect Scuttlebutt might post such a response to these questions.

Trying to run a “fun” race, donating the use of your personal boat and your time, and ignoring simple, standard procedure and protocol that resulted in being named in a personal lawsuit as a result of negligence by competitors, or just plain bad luck, sure would not be “fun” for anyone.  Defending against claims such as these are costly in both time and money. 

It has been often said, the road to hell is paved by the best of intentions.

A Crappy Deal in Mission Bay

One hears that there is alot of crap – literally – floating around San Diego’s Mission Bay right now.

Let’s hope this doesn’t impact our friends who sail at Mission Bay YC – which is to the west of what seems to be the biggest part of the problem – though one of the beaches very close by is closed.

You can read the San Diego Union-Tribune story here.

Time For A Little Perspective

The US Infantry at work

Let’s put the politics of war aside for a moment and remember that for better or worse our country has a bunch of people over in what can only be called real hell, fighting for what amounts to what too many of us seem to think is our God given right to drive gas hogs to sailing events.  Iraq is about nothing but oil – it is what drives the global economy.  Read “The World is Flat” if you want to get some perspective on what happens when oil hits $100 a barrel.  You can also gain some perspective from “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”.

But for now, my thoughts are with a guy I sailed with a few years ago, when he was a rising junior talent.  I had lost track of him until last night when I heard from a mutual friend that he was hurt in Iraq.  Thankfully, I’m told he’ll recover.

Fortunately, he has a supportive family and friends, but one wonders about how the sailing community can better contribute to those we know – and those we don’t – who are serving our country.

I have reason to pay attention to various scientific aspects of the Department of Defense.  When we landed in Afganistan and Iraq I was drawn to a part of the DoD website that gives daily updates on our troops who are casualities or killed in action.  If you want a harsh reality check – read that every day.

So – to my young former shipmate and his family -get well soon, and come sailing again soon.  You, more than anyone else I know, deserve to have a cold beer in your hand with a wind at your back.

Perhaps it is time for yacht clubs to offer life time honorary membership to those members who serve our country in active duty.  It’s the least we can do for them.

 

What If…

…the young sailor who didn’t pass through the gates was under the impression the course was a trapazoid?

He’d then have been the only sailor to have completed the course correctly.

Without a set of clear SI’s, given that he’s from out of town and typically sails trapazoidal courses, why would he think the “fun’ race he sailed in this week would be anything different than what other “big league” places are sailing these days.

Go To Hell…Or Go Away

“Gates of Hell” Laser Race Committee

A long time ago, a guy I crewed with summed up the social politics that drives everything around where I grew up sailing.

“There’s only one champion in this bay”.

And so it seems there is only one race committee chairman who will decide what is best for sailing in that bay, and who is going to be allowed to have fun, as only defined by them.

Or maybe not….

It seems that young sailor who was chucked from the “casual” and “fun” race the other night has been reinstated – but – the conversation to get him there said all that needed to be said about why alot of people leave the sport.

I’ll not go into painstaking detail of the exact exchange that occurred to get the young guy reinstated in the race for the sake of brevity.  However, it can be said that a couple of sentences into the exchange, the Race Chairman simply said about the DNF with no hearing – “well that’s just tough”.

Oh really…..

This is all really simple – yes we need more casual fun racing, and we need to have as few protests as possible.  But, the idea of not allowing protests is simply unworkable, and probably leaves alot of liability issues open for the club.  More to the point, no one learns a damn thing without a healthy rules discussion from time to time.

The club that runs these races is flat wrong for not publishing a very simple set of rules – both in a digital form on their club website, and written ones available at the clubhouse, and on the RC boat for anyone who might want to enter a “fun” race at the last minute. 

The club in question has a really long history and tradition of great sailing – both as a venue, and in terms of competition.  But, its stature is now suspect because of the death of almost all racing - EXCEPT for the “fun” and “casual” weeknight racing.  If that is the only real racing left at this club, then why is it not more formal, at least to the extent of having a simple set of rules that everyone can understand?  Who really benefits with a complete absence of NOR’s and SI’s for any race?

This is a summer community – some people come and visit for one week out of year.  How on earth are they to know “this is how we do it all the time”? 

And when a young competitor makes a mistake on the race course, certainly the best thing is for one of the old hands to help him better understand, both the rules, and the (absurd) local customs.  Best of all is to make it like we had in sailing class – a complete class review and explanation of the situation, how the rules apply, and the process of applying those rules.

The club in question has more than a couple of people with international class world championships and like titles to their credit.   Those five or so people are working their butts off to get young kids into the favored triplehanded boat that the club has a long standing tradition with.  Often times you can see three little heads peering out over the gunwale, while the skipper steers, trims the sails (all the sails) and generally gets the boat around the course.  That sort of thing bodes well for the future.

But – along with teaching proper sail trim and tactics comes with it an obligation to teach the simple process of running races and playing by the rules – which also means challenging the RC to play by the rules.  If the RC won’t play by the rules, if they are just going to throw people out of races without a hearing, then why should anyone play by any of the rules? 

It is certainly not the competitors fault for the club not having a set of NOR’s and SI’s for this series.  But it most certainly is the fault of the imperial RC to just simply say “well that’s tough, the kid didn’t go around the mark (even though we don’t really define that), we don’t allow protests, but we do what we want, and if you don’t like, well, that’s tough”.  How does the kid in question benefit from this attitude?  How does the racing that night benefit from it?  How does the club benefit from it in the long run?

The simple answer – only the RC benefits (because they get to momentarily exercise their ego) - and everyone else loses.

George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm” sums it up best then the pigs take over from the humans, and try to live in communistic utopia.  It works, at least for a couple of pigs, for a little bit of time.  Then eventually their seven commandments become just one – “All pigs are created equal – except some are more equal than others”.

And so it is in some once prominent yacht clubs.  The notion of a “fun” and “casual” race is great, but only so long as you are the one dictating who gets to have the fun.

With oppressive RC’s like that, pretty soon there might only be one sailor in the bay.

So, imperial RC, if you really want to play the game by the rules that you see only as they apply to  and for you, and in effect tell the rest of us to go to hell….we’ll gladly leave and go play the game somewhere else – and have our own fun. 

 It’s a big bay, and whether you believe it or not, you don’t own it.

The Gates of Hell

The real Gates of Hell – sculpture/door by Rodin

Last night in a “casual” “fun” weeknight race, a young sailor rounded outside both leeward gates.

The race committee just chucked the youngster from the race – doing so without a hearing.  It can only be presumed the RC scored him as a DNF because he rounded outside both gates, rather than between them.  No competitor protested the young sailor.

The notion of “casual” and “fun” races is always interesting – but it also depends on who is defining “casual” and “fun”.

In this particular series, there seems to be no printed NOR’s or SI’s.  Try to find that info on the club website – it’s not there….well, there’s nothing much about anything on that particular club website either.

So, absent printed, or digital, forms of the documents that are suppose to lay out the terms of competition, how is a young sailor (or any sailor?) suppose to know exactly the course designation?  There is nothing in the Racing Rules of Sailing that specify that when leeward gates are used, you are required to pass between them.

While the young sailor may have been wrong – the RC was definitely wrong to just score him as a DNF.  This is a clear violation of Rule 63.1 “A boat or competitor shall not be penalized without a protest hearing, except as provided in rules 30.2, 30.3, 30.3, 67, 69, A5 or P2.” None of these rules apply in this particular case.

In my opinion, this matter should be brought before the club protest committee.  The Race Committee should lose, because no protest form was filed in a timely manner, and given the absence of written and available NOR’s and SI’s, the default filing time limit is designated under rule 61.3, which is two hours.  As there was no protest form filed, then there can be no hearing, and the Protest Committee should reinstate the young sailor with his recorded finish position in the race in which he was incorrectly scored DNF.

Protest hearings are no fun – but neither is a race that is run in an arbitrary manner.

And we wonder why teenagers want to play lacrosse and soccer with their peer group, rather than compete in sailing….

Maybe those who run races in this manner ought to spend some time gazing on Rodin’s other major work and consider doing as does this subject….think about whether you are running races that lead to the Gates of Hell, or the Gates of Fun.

 

“The Thinker” – by Rodin

 

 

 

The True Legacy of “Sail” Magazine

Ben Goldhirsh, very cool dude

Bernie Goldhirsh founded “Sail” magazine, and made a nice bit of change when he sold it.   Then he used that money to create “Inc.” and sold that for even more money.  Sadly, he died too early.

But more importantly than making money, Bernie did the best thing of all, he raised kids that can make a big difference.  His relatively young son Ben is the focus of a very interesting LA Times story.  Alot of rich kids have come to Hollywood and pretended to be in the movie business.  Ben could have done that – and in fact he does have a movie production company – but he is trying to make movies that will also have some socially relevant message.

But Ben is doing alot more with his fathers money than just making movies – he’s making a difference. 

I always liked “Sail” – I like it even more after reading about the legacy Bernie has left the world.

Rock on, Ben….

Take 10 minutes and read this story – it’s refreshing to see such thought and progressive thinking. 

LA Times story here.

(photo courtesy of the LA Times)