How can regatta organizers clamp down on the scourge of Mommy Boats and associated unfair and unsportsmanlike coaching of sailors during a regatta?
There's a good example in the Notice of Race for the Women's Match Race World Championship currently being held in Sweden. See below (emphasis mine).
15 COACHES
15.1 Individual Coach Boats shall not be allowed. An individual coach boat is any boat that is under the direction or control of a person gathering information or giving material support for the benefit of particular competitors either on the water or off.
15.2 Coaches may be register during registration time as per 4.1(a) for an accreditation fee of EUR 500. This fee includes access to the same social functions as a competitor. Each team may register one coach.
Only coaches with a valid accreditation are entitled to attend official meetings (e.g. Briefing and Debriefing).
15.3 The OA may provide a combined coach boat. Only coaches registered as per 15.2 are allowed on this boat.
I love it!
I know match racing is a bit different from fleet racing but this is great stuff....
No individual coach boats
If you want a coach at the regatta at all then they must pay a hefty fee
We "may" let the coaches watch the races from a group boat. On the other hand we might not.
That should solve the problem!
Thanks to Scuttlebutt for drawing our attention to this excellent example.
We've had some fun here from time to time, at the expense of Dr. Stuart Walker, by criticizing his somewhat convoluted and turgid prose style in such posts as Unlocking the Mysterious Words of Walker and Lake Winds.
Walker's answer had me rolling on the floor laughing...
The racing rules. To use fewer words, they keep making them more complicated. They were simpler 15 years ago before they simplified them.
Geeze! If the master of the interminable sentence and the deeply nested parenthetical clause and the triple negative finds the Racing Rules too complicated, what chance is there for the rest of us?
We are well and truly into the dog days of summer now. On Sunday evening I looked at the weather forecast for this week and there was one common word for every day and every night... "humid". When we lived in New Jersey the radio weather forecast used to call this weather "3H's"... hazy, hot and humid. I guess Rhode Island is a bit cooler than New Jersey but it sure doesn't feel like it right now.
Just for fun I looked back at the posts I wrote about this time of year in the last four years...
In 2005 I was so exhausted by my outside activities in this weather that I actually stopped writing the blog for several weeks in late July and early August. Eventually, on August 18, I posted Phew all about how tired I was from working as a sailing instructor, training for a marathon, running a new Laser fleet, and winning my age group at the Atlantic Coasts Masters. Phew indeed! It wears me out just to re-read Phew. Wherever did I find the energy to do all that?
In 2006 I think I must have been out in the sun too much as I actually wrote a song about sailing for my last post of July. (OK, it wasn't exactly original. It was a parody of a Lennon/McCartney number.) Rereading The Ballad of Tillerman Oh No! makes me realize how crazy this weather can make you.
2007 wasn't much better. My last post of July had me consulting the doctor about voices in my head. A Time for Every Purpose actually concluded with the words, "Hmmm. I think I must have been in the sun too long last weekend."
And last year I wrote about A Bit of a Yot. That wouldn't have been so bad except that, once again, I was obviously suffering from heatstroke as I wrote it in rhyming couplets with such horrible rhymes as "alluring" and "mooring", and "buoy" and "screwy".
I'm not sure what I'm going to write about this week yet. The heat has frazzled my brain and dried up my creative juices. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. Or what passes here for "normal" in the dog days of summer.
Is it hot where you are? How does this weather affect you?
Thanks to Alex Mineev for a great write-up of what sounds like the ultimate Laser sailing experience: nine consecutive days of racing and clinic in the Columbia River Gorge.
July 13-15 Laser Performance Clinic with Brendan Casey
July 16 Laser Gorge Blowout
July 17-19 Laser Pacific Coast Championship
And check out the description of the Laser Gorge Blowout...
Experience the ultimate thrill in Laser sailing: 18 miles dead downwind from Cascade Locks to Hood River through the magnificent Columbia River Gorge. Big breeze, big waves, and jaw-dropping scenery make this ride a genuine E-ticket! Not for the faint of heart, entries are limited to sailors who have good boat handling skills and are comfortable in winds up to 25+ knots.
18 miles downwind in big breeze and waves!
Wow. How did I miss this? I know it's on the other side of the continent but if I had found out in time what this was all about I could have made the effort to do it.
Sounds like Alex had a good time.
Did I accomplish my goals? - mostly. I managed to truly enjoy the wind. I was 5th at the Blowout (although if I could avoid couple stupid mistakes I could've been 3rd). I figured out the big problem with upwind (vang) and I raced well in PCC. By the end of PCC I was actually reaching the pro kids.
Here's a pic of Brendan Casey, Australian Laser ace, two-times Radial World Champion, and head coach for the clinic, who was second in the PCC.
Congratulations to Paige Railey on winning the European Laser Radial Women’s Championship in Denmark last week. Paige's win continues the domination of the Olympic Laser Radial class by US sailors. Paige and her US teammate Anna Tunnicliffe have, between them, won five out of six ISAF World Cup events sailed this season.
Woody Allen famously said, "Eighty percent of success is showing up."
In sailboat racing the corresponding sentiment should be, "Eighty percent of success at a regatta is finishing every race."
Nothing demonstrates this more than the results of the recent RS400 Racing Circuit event at Hayling Island Sailing Club in the UK. The report at Yachts and Yachting tells a sorry tale of challenging conditions, lap by lap attrition, a winner of one race being the only boat not to capsize, at least nine bent or broken masts, rescue services at full stretch towing disabled boats, multiple boats sailing to the wrong mark, boats sailing too many laps, only three boats showing up for the final race as the wind rose even more...
Which is where we came in. When the dust had settled and the scores tallied, the three race regatta with all races to count was won by... the only boat that finished every race. So next time you feel like packing in early or skipping a race just remember Woody Allen's rule for sailing success: finish every race.
Wait. Hayling Island SC. Isn't that where the Laser Masters Worlds will be next year? Yikes. Only 417 days to go. Better get some heavy air practice.
The summer issue of the North American Laser Class magazine, The Laser Sailor, landed in my mailbox yesterday. I picked it up, hurried back to my favorite chair in the sun room, and quickly perused it. From back to front. Doesn't everybody read magazines that way?
Let's see what we have this quarter. Some times there's good stuff in here...
A stern note to District Secretaries from our Class President about the problem of "counterfeit" sails and other equipment creeping into our class. We all know what he's talking about: the so-called "practice sails" and similar stuff that we see being used more and more at the local level.
Lots of reports about regattas that I didn't sail in. It's been a quiet year for me in that respect.
The international class newsletter is inserted in the NA magazine (as usual) and includes an excerpt from a book Be Your Own Sailing Coach. Hmmm. Might want to buy that.
An article by Evan Lewis on Helping you Stay Hydrated This Summer. Another must read. What can I say? I may not be the fastest Laser sailor but I bet I am the sweatiest. I need to pay attention to hydration more than most.
World Championship Qualification Rules. Quick check. Have they changed the way to qualify for a Masters Worlds again? Nope. Still looks like I have a good chance of securing a place for Hayling Island next year.
Advert for SEA hiking pants. My old pair is getting pretty ragged. Should I try a pair of those "waist lock" pants instead of the ones with those annoying shoulder straps?
Almost at the front of the magazine now. What's this? Looks familiar. Ohmigod. There's a whole page (apart from a quarter page ad) that is a reprint of one of my blog posts, the review of the Advanced Laser Boat Handling DVD.
Joe and I have this long-standing running joke where he posts stuff on his blog about Force 5 sailing and I make fun of it. I don't recall how it started. Joe knows it's only in jest. I don't hate Force 5 sailors. Some of my best friends are Force 5 sailors. Hell, I even wrote a post about Seven Reasons Why Force Fives Are Better Than Lasers.
Joe on the other hand seems to be deadly serious about mocking Laser sailors in general and me in particular on his blog in posts such as this and this and this. Joe has never written a post about Seven Reasons Why Lasers Are Better Than Force Fives.
Part of my friendly joke is that I tease Joe about how few Force 5s are actually still sailing these days. So a couple of weeks ago when Joe posted a photo that amazingly had two Force 5s in the same frame I couldn't resist being a smart ass and commenting, "I actually saw a Force 5 this week. First sighting in Rhode Island in two years living here. It was at the boat ramp when I returned from my sail on Monday."
And then someone called Mark replied and said he might have been the Force 5 sailor that I sighted. Mark described himself as a "sailing buffoon" so, sensing a kindred spirit, I started an email exchange with him and set up a date to go sailing with him on Monday of this week. Turns out that Mark wasn't actually the guy I spotted. Wow, that means there are at least two Force 5 sailors in Rhode Island. (Only joking, Joe.)
We agreed to meet at the public boat ramp in Wickford which is on the opposite side of Narragansett Bay from where I usually sail but nearer to where Mark lives. Sure enough when I rolled into the parking lot just before 1:30pm there was the "sailing buffoon" by the ramp with his Force 5 already rigged. Actually Mark turned out not to be a buffoon at all but a really friendly, interesting, smart, cool dude... for a Force 5 sailor. (Only joking Mark.)
The winds were pretty light, only around 5 to 8 knots I would guess. We sailed upwind and against the incoming tide out of the harbor. It was just after low tide and, being unfamiliar with the area and never one to follow a marked channel, I managed to run aground on the way out. I guess the Laser sailor is the sailing buffoon today.
Once out in the bay we agreed to sail upwind towards Fox Island. Mark learned to sail as a teenager but hasn't sailed much since. He recently restored his father's Force 5 and is just getting back into sailing. He seemed to have a bit of difficulty staying with me upwind so I circled back and gave him a couple of tips, based on my vast experience of having sailed a Force 5 once before. (Don't tell Joe.)
The tips seemed to help and we carried on upwind in a breeze that was slowly dying. Eventually we decided it would not be a good idea to be over two miles from the launch ramp if the breeze totally disappeared so we headed back downwind to the area just outside the harbor. Mark asked some questions about why I was heeling so much to windward on the run and I answered based on my vast knowledge of physics and aero-hydrodynamics culled from once having seen a book by Czesław Marchaj in a library.
We did some windward leeward laps around buoys for a while. There was a class of Optimists training in the same area. I just had to comment to their coach about how amused I was by the way the kids were constantly screaming and shouting at each other all the time they were racing.
"At least I know where they are," he replied.
"Yeah. Even in the fog."
I worked on my roll tacks and gybes, trying to remember what Kurt Taulbee had taught me at the Sailfit clinic in March and what Rulo said on the Advanced Laser Boat Handling DVD. I'm getting better (I think) at timing the "shoulder bump" in the tacks but there's still room for improvement. I think they'll probably write that on my gravestone... still room for improvement.
I finished off the afternoon with another long beat and run, and then suggested to Mark that we head in. The wind inside the harbor had died almost completely and I showed off my light air technique for a while as Mark took out his paddle, for which he was severely mocked by a group of little kids on the dock. It's good for them to learn early how to treat Force 5 sailors. (Only joking Mark.)
Eventually I gave up sailing myself, and stood up and rocked the boat the last hundred yards or so to the boat ramp.
Mark and I had a good chat about various stuff after sailing. He even mentioned that he reads my blog. But then he went out of his way to say how much he enjoys Joe Rouse's blog, and how one of his best friends would write a blog just like Joe's if he decided to write a blog, and how Joe's blog is full of such interesting stuff...
This morning Smilicus left a comment asking, "Morning Tillerman. Just a quick question: If I look at your blog these days, I wonder, when last did you sail??"
Hmmm. You are right dude. This blog used to have many posts about my frequent sailing adventures... practice, racing, big regattas, little regattas... and all the many ways in which I could screw up the perfectly simple task of sailing a Laser around for a couple of hours without turning it upside down or hitting something. These days you don't read much of that here.
It is true that I haven't sailed much this year. It's also true that I haven't written blog posts this year about every time I have been sailing as I did last year.
As luck would have it, Smilicus chose the perfect time (from my perspective) to ask, "When last did you sail?"
I could truthfully answer, "Yesterday."
Ha. When did you last sail Mr. Smilicus?
But what to do about this sad lack of actual writing about actual sailing by the actual Tillerman here?
Write a post listing the feeble excuses why I haven't written much about the times I have been sailing this year
Write a post listing the even more feeble excuses why I haven't sailed so much this year
Carry on writing about every sailing subject under the sun except my own sailing
