“An amazing flood of ideas began to flow from both the audience and the panel. Many ideas were new and innovative.”
A new format-brainstorming session unleashes a torrent of ideas on how to improve the racing sailor’s regatta experience
Q US Sailing’s Race Administration Committee has a new chairman, Randy Draftz, the Executive Director of Sperry Charleston Race Week. The members of this panel are the chairmen of committees that oversee various aspects of race administration, including race management, judges, umpires, racing rules, appeals and two new committees for measurers and classifiers. Draftz’s enthusiasm and tireless effort have been the driving forces behind the growth of Sperry Charleston Race Week over the past few years. He considers his competitors to be customers, and his goal is to send them home raving about their experience.
Draftz is approaching his new position as chairman of US Sailing’s Race Administration Committee with the same enthusiasm and effort. Soon after taking it on, he invited several members of his committee to join him for a daylong public brainstorming session in Charleston, South Carolina, in January. He called it “Best Practices of Race Management: What to do when the rules aren’t enough and a decision has to be made.”
He convened a 12-person panel, then invited racing sailors and anyone else interested in race management to attend. The panel was an impressive bunch, including the chairmen of the US Sailing Race Management, Judges and Umpires committees, as well as other highly regarded principle race officers. I was invited to join the panel as a source of information on racing rules. Other members of the panel were five young professional sailors from the South Atlantic area. The result was a panel equally divided between experienced competitors and experienced race officials.
The venue was a large meeting room in the Charleston YC, with the panel seated along one side behind a long table and an audience of almost 100 sailors and race officials facing them. Most of the audience was from the Charleston area, but a surprising number came from out of state. Draftz distributed a list of topics for discussion. Even though the program ran from 9-to-5, we were only able to work our way through some of the proposed topics, including best practices for starting, communicating with the boats on the water, course management, mark management and safety. His goal for the day was to identify the best race-management practices to help regattas succeed.
Before the discussion began, Draftz asked me to speak about how ideas generated during the discussion could be implemented under the racing rules. I directed everyone’s attention to Rule 86.1, a rarely mentioned rule that grants tremendous flexibility for experiments with new ideas for conducting a regatta. Rule 86.1(b) permits any rule in Part 3, Conduct of a Race, to be changed by the notice of race or the sailing instructions. Also, all but one of the rules in Part 5 on protests, redress, hearings, decisions and penalties (Sections A, B and C of Part 5) may be changed. I told participants that, if they heard a promising idea for improving race management or the rules covering protests and redress, they were free to experiment by changing the appropriate rules in Parts 3 and 5 of the racing rules.
Then Draftz began the program. The organization was simple: He named the topic for discussion, then recognized anyone, from the panel or the audience, who raised a hand to present an idea on that topic. Once input on a topic lagged, he swiftly introduced the next one. The response was electric. For every topic, several hands shot up and an amazing flood of ideas began to flow from both the audience and the panel. Many ideas were new and innovative. The torrent of input was often a bit chaotic. I took notes as best I could. Here are what I thought were the best or most-interesting ideas.
Starting Procedure
Q Learn the fleet culture. Rule 30 gives the race committee four different ways to control the fleet at a start; there are many others that can be established by the sailing instructions. Ron Hopkins suggests talking with coaches and competitors to find out what they want. Coaches are a great, and often untapped, source of advice for the race committee, particularly at regattas for junior sailors. Communication can take place either at a competitors’ meeting before the first race or at a debrief session after racing each day.
■ For large fleets, use a three-mark, or even a four-mark starting line, so it’s easier for competitors to judge whether they’re over early.
■ To achieve the same goal for larger boats, after the RC moves a starting mark, it should allow enough time for competitors to ping the starting line, so that their GPS helps them locate the line. Alternatively, simply announce the GPS coordinates of the two ends of the line to the fleet over an agreed VHF channel.
■ US Sailing now recommends the U Flag Rule, Rule 30.3, be used to start a fleet of more than 30 boats. However, several participants in Charleston suggested that using the I Flag Rule and the Z Flag Rule simultaneously gives good results and has the advantage that no boat is disqualified and all boats can sail the race, which is, after all, why they entered.
OCS and Communicating with Competitors
■ VHF radios are now inexpensive. Many panelists recommended requiring each boat to have one to use extensively before and after the start to communicate — on an agreed channel — with the entire fleet or with individual boats. It was reported that one highly-respected PRO runs starting sequences with VHF communication only, and no signal flags. A starting signal delivered by radio arrives on time. There is virtually no delay as the signal makes its way down the line.
■ If you communicate with the fleet via VHF, don’t entertain. Develop clear, short statements and use them consistently.
■ No rule prohibits counting down the time to the start over VHF.
■ The RC should welcome communication from the fleet, but that can be chaotic. To manage input, it was suggested that each fleet appoint a spokesperson on one boat to communicate with the RC. That person can collect suggestions about course selection, startingline length and angle or any other issue. The spokesperson can report them to the race committee. For youth regattas, appoint a second spokesperson to speak on behalf of all coaches.
Course Management, Postponing, Abandoning
■ The importance of data: An experienced PRO collects data to help answer questions that must be answered quickly on the water. For example: When the current is running at 2 knots, what is the minimum wind strength in which a race should be started for a particular fleet? How long does it take the weather-mark-set boat to move the mark 100 yards?
■ The importance of local knowledge. If the PRO for a major event is “parachuted” in from out of town, the No. 2 person on the RC should be a local with extensive knowledge of local wind, current and weather patterns. The best local might be a successful local competitor with little or no RC experience.
■ Add a short reaching leg to the course when conditions are such that it’s difficult to set a square run because of a cross current. Sailors in the audience emphasized the importance of a square run in determining whether a race is a good test of skill.
■ When there is a “Finishing Window” — i.e., a time window for boats to finish after the first-place boat finishes, state in the sailing instructions that boats that start, but fail to finish within the Finishing Window will be scored 1 point more than the points scored by the last boat to finish within the Finishing Window. This makes the scoring system fairer. It avoids the unsatisfactory situation in which the first-place boat finishes, then the wind shuts off so that no other boats are able to finish within the Finishing Window. When this happens in a 30-boat fleet for example, the winner scores 1 point and everyone else scores 31 points.
Race-mark Management
■ When in doubt about whether the position of a mark should be changed during a race, the RC should be biased toward not moving the mark. The risks of not having it anchored in place or of not signaling the change properly are higher than generally acknowledged.
■ Shortening a leg in light air runs the risk of making the leg so short that it is difficult for one boat to pass another on the shortened portion. Such a leg is generally unsatisfactory to competitors.
■ Equip mark-set boats with a supply of anchor-line segments, with Brummel hooks on each end, or a loop on one end and a carabiner hook on the other. Include a couple of short lengths of line to use for small adjustments in the spacing of a pair of gate marks, and longer lengths to use when a mark is first set. Attach a few feet of chain to the bottom of each mark and attach the anchor line to it. The chain is to keep the mark’s anchor tackle below the keels and centerboards of rounding boats so they don’t snag the mark and drag it out of position. In order to avoid having boats snag marks when there is very strong current, it might be necessary to attach a greater weight to the anchor line about 8 to 10 feet below the bottom of the mark.
■ Many boats now have kelp cutters on their keels, rudders and even their sail drives. When such a boat snags a mark’s anchor line, a kelp cutter can sever the anchor line and set the mark adrift. Also, when a boat snags a mark’s anchor line while sailing at top speed, the anchor might be pulled up against the hull, threatening to damage the hull. In such cases, the crew have been known to cut the anchor line to protect their hull. To deal with such a situation, send the mark-set boats out to the course with at least one spare anchor and an ample supply of extra anchor line. Also, add a sailing instruction stating the cost of the mark’s ground tackle will be charged to
a boat that causes the loss of that ground tackle, as well as the cost of repairing any RC equipment the boat damages.
■ When setting a pair of gate marks, anchor one of them with a light Danforth anchor and the other with a mushroom anchor. Then, when it is necessary to adjust the angle of the gate to the wind or the distance between the gate marks, move the mark with the mushroom anchor, which will be easier to pick up and drop than the Danforth.
■ There was discussion of what to do when a mark is dragging and, as a result, is out of position for some, but not all boats in a race. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. However, when a RC vessel displaying flag M (see Rule 34) cannot move into position and save the day, experienced PROS recommend that, if time permits, the race be abandoned and restarted.
Safety Plans, Notice Board and Protest Committee Hearing
Q Nowadays, it’s common for events to post the official notice board online. Put all documents competitors will need on one website and appoint one — or if you must, two — people to administer the site. Put the time and date of posting on every document posted, and place the newest postings in the most prominent positions on the website’s home page. During a regatta, if you make a change in any event document, make that change in a separate notice and not in the original document. Don’t rely on mobile phones to communicate with boats unless you’ve checked that all major service providers have adequate signals in the area where you’re hoping the crews will receive text messages or answer their phones.
■ Every event needs an emergency medical plan and an emergency weather plan. You hope you won’t need either of these but, when you do need one, it immediately becomes the most important feature of that day’s racing.
■ In your sailing instructions, state that each person in charge of each racing boat (see Rule 46) is responsible for knowing pertinent health information about each member of the boat’s crew.
■ Decide on a VHF channel to use if a emergency arises. Every boat or vessel associated with your event should be informed that emergency transmissions have priority over all other transmissions.
■ Develop criteria to follow for the display of flag Y requiring the wearing of PFDS. Consider doing safety inspections to determine that competitors use crotch straps when necessary to get the full benefit of their PFDS.
■ Develop a plan for handling concussions and communicate that plan to your safety team. Stay tuned to the latest research, which might indicate the wisdom of requiring some, or all, competitors to wear helmets.
■ The US Sailing Safe Powerboat Handling Course was highly recommended for training emergency-boat operators in boat handling. Local EMT and fire department teams can help train your crews in how to handle medical emergencies. They, in turn, can learn how to deal with boats by learning the best way to move a seriously ill person ashore from a small power boat.
■ Well before a scheduled event, contact your local NOAA weather office to find out how to get the best weather information while you’re out on the water running races. Develop a plan for action in case of a dangerous change in the weather, such as a thunderstorm or squall. One race officer in the audience recommended “Spark” or “Storm Radar,” two weather apps that provide timely information about nearby thunderstorms.
■ Because sailing is an Olympic sport, US Sailing is now required by federal law to mandate that every certified race official, sailing instructor and coach complete the three-part online “Safe Sport” course and completion of the Safe Sport update course every 12 months thereafter. And, be warned, these same individuals might soon be required to pass federally approved background checks to maintain their certifications.