Feedback from Tradewinds?

This event should have always been a three day event. My only complaint might be the 10am start on Saturday - that was cruel and unusual punishment and not typical of a three day event. 😉 ...and only getting one t-shirt per team (even though we preregistered). I say let the preregistered folks get their shirts for both members of the team.

Great! Loved it.

Two race courses a must for the two differnet fleets is a must. Offset mark, at least on

faster boat

course, can't sppeak for

not as faster boats

course. Like the throw a day idea for travelleing (averaging of the scores). I thought the beach crew did a great job. Courses were nice, marks really visable. Suggest coarse baord be hung on starboard side of committee boat rather than be held by an individual. This way it is up all the time. Had a great time for our first out of town beach cat regatta and will be ther again.

Jake, you were there? did you get a haircut or something?

Sorry I missed seeing you <img src="<>/frown.gif" alt="frown" title="frown" height="15" width="15" />

I shaved my beard / gotee! But honestly, the orange boat is hard to miss! 😉

I saw you a couple of times but got pulled away every time I started to head that way.

All around this was one of the best events i've been to in a while! Great job by all involved in organizing and running the event!.
2 courses & 3 day format were both perfect! It makes it much more doable to come from the north as we got a lot more racing in.
Agree with Jake on the 10AM start being a little early, though it was nice to be done early (but we were done REALLY early and F18s were last out).
The RC caught on as the weekend caught on, besides a couple slip ups they really did a great job and were very friendly and open to suggestions. They finally gave the F18s a course 2 in our last race on Saturday... when we had course 1 we were stuck waiting for quite a while as the 20's to finish their course 2.
They also displayed some compass bearings for the windward mark in the last few races... really nice.
Jake... you really were stealthy looking all clean shaven... kinda creepy. Now do you and Frank always race as hard as you are in that pic <img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />

hahah creepy!
i haven't heard (or thank god seen) any mankini comments or pics

[quote=andrewscott
i haven't heard (or thank god seen) any mankini comments or pics

Mankini was not there but his brother Harry showed up on Saturday. Yuk!!!!!!!

The weekend was awesome. Seperating the fleets worked brilliantly. The three day format was great. I would also like to see a later start on Saturday (gotta sleep off Friday's party), and an offset mark would be great next year too.

Many thanks to Rick, Mary, Chip, Barb, and the rest that came and helped out!

If I could have gotten Frank to sit up every now and then, maybe we would have beaten Trey! (just kidding...obviously that was between races). Frank and I sailed pretty well together that weekend and got a lot better in the heavier air (not usually our strong point on buoy regattas). I think that's the first time we beat Mike and Holly. Trey sailed really well - Livingston helped bring his game up a little too. If I could have gotten off the start line worth a darn we might have had something for them.

Right, Jake. I watched you on one start and you were still in irons as the fleet took off. Ouch! Didn't hurt much, however, as you were third through the leeward gate. Great boat speed.

Chip, Barb, Mary, John and I took a 20/20 hindsight and thought these ideas might help:
*Start at 11AM on Saturday -- too long of a day, for them.., and for the RC. Friday and Sunday start times stay the same.
*Try not have all the boats come to the beach at the same time -- chaos
*Be sure the RULE for the Friday not sailing is spelled out.., if you are there on Friday, you can't use the weekend scoring rule. (this is how they do it at Spring Fever -- they are the creators of this idea after all)
*For the Spin boat have an offset mark
*Remove the swimming boundary rope during the event. A-Cats claim this as the reason they boycott the Tradewinds.., too hard for them to get past the rope. Will make it easier for all.
*More simple registration form (most of that stuff is for the Steeplechase where we might have to identify bodies and boat parts to the Coast Guard)
*Need to buy or repair spare marks and ground tackle. Luckily no one speared a mark.
*For pre-registration a place to put shirt sizes, and if you want additional shirts.

T-Shirts is still debatable. As a bit of history, the Tradewinds used to give one shirt per boat. Then one year we actually made money for CABB. So, CABB said they had enough money and didn't need to make more, so we gave two shirts.
However, now I personally have to finance the event, and last year I lost almost one thousand dollars.
The result is we went back to the one shirt per boat. Haven't got the it figured out yet, but might not have lost money this year.

Buy the way, you guys are good around the tap.., extinguished two kegs of beer. You are Captain Noah Tall's heroes.

Rick: Its simple. Only give out Tshirts to those who pre-registered - therefore, only buy tshirts for that amount of people.

Rick.. the preregistering system you have is great, it's a great way to see who might be coming.
However, I think it would be a good move to have people preregister and pay at that time.
It would be easier for your planning purposes, plus you would have money ahead of time to finance the event.
If you had a late fee cut off date it would make it simple for you to order the right number and sizes of shirts and etc.
In addition, you wouldn't get as many people registering and not showing up.
We're considering using The Regatta Network for all our regattas in the NE this upcoming summer. It takes a couple dollars per entry but well worth it to make it easier for everyone.

The regatta network that the A Cats use is a little cumbersome and allows for you to pay at the event. There may be a way to change that to prepay, not sure. You dont want it to be too hard or scare off would-be sailors who cant or dont like to put thier credit info out there.

Regatta Networks is a great choice!

You can use the service as a stand alone regatta site just like the A cats do with the compete-at product or you can integrate it into your club web site like Rock Hall YC does.
http://www.rockhallyachtclub.org/regatta.htm
as the season goes... each box will be filled in with the link and allow you to link to regatta networks for the entry form that you can design.

There are about 6 companies that provide regatta services.

We have almost 10 years of experience in using online registration and our policy evolved to publish the regatta price and then add on the service charge for the service when you go to pay. People have no problems paying the surcharge for ticketmaster ... and no problem with the regatta fee.

Just like the ball game... If you have bought the ticket... you show up at the ball game... no matter what the weather... unless it's canceled you won't get a refund.

Also.. you have no problem paying more at the door for the privilege of deciding to race at the last minute. 20 bucks seems to be about the right amount to encourage people to sign up by Thursday night of a Saturday regatta.

Unfortunately, this deadline does not help much with T shirts.... the printers really need more time to not charge you a rush fee. Cascading deadlines... with the No T shirt for you after xx date are easily set up in any of the systems.

Food order deadlines vary... a YC needs to usually order food by Tuesday at Noon for delivery on Friday. Burgers and Beer on the other hand can be purchased on Friday with the info collected by Thursday night.

My Yacht Club, Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, has been using RegattaNetwork for a couple of years and it has been working well. There was a hesitancy implementing it for fear of sailors not wanting to use it and not coming. That never happened. On the plus side there is always an attending page for potential competitors to look at enticing more to show up if they see the group is going to be there.

You could make:
pre pre registration which includes t-shirts
pre registration no t-shirt but no late fees
late registration add on late fees (or no food included)

Later,
Dan

Rick,

Thanks for putting on the event and going to three days - I think it was a really great three days of sailing and your list above sounds great. We'll certainly be back again after focusing for a year on starting! 😉

I didn't even think of the swim rope - it's not too bad with a double handed boat but would be tricky for a single handed boat (and for people particularly sensitive about their hull bottoms). I hope to see more a-cats next year.

Jake

What? Not enuf T-shirts? I can see it now- Muggings everywhere in the dark out behind the beer tent-rip-offs of Oh-so-rare T-shirts, leaving only Mankinis or less!

It will be like Haitx...Ooop that was not politically correct. Damn that rum. We are lucky/privileged and ought to be grateful to be living here, sailing for fun, not scrabbling the ocean bottom or alleys for food.

I agree. I always preregister. Quick and simple. <img src="<>/laugh.gif" alt="laugh" title="laugh" height="15" width="15" />

Let the slackers go topless.

Liked the three day, never experienced a two day tradewinds, so that's a pretty much worthless opinion. It does make the justification for driving 1600 miles a bit easier to swallow. (Beyond the obvious exodus from the frozen hell I'm back in) Actually the weather has been pretty decent, I'll take sleet and close to freazing temps over negative numbers any day.

Offset for spin boats is must in my opinion. We didn't have any close calls, but it is a nice piece of mind during a busy time on the boat.

It was really awesome to put faces to names of people that I've known on here for 4+ years!

Hoping to do it again next year.

Awesome regatta this year. The three day format definately helped, and two race courses made the turnover quicker. I agree with all the points the race commitee/ organizers discussed and appreciate the attention to improvement. We are already looking forward to next years event.
One point to add, is that the order of starting classes does not need to be announced ahead of time, as the next start is indicated by the class flags the RC flys. By predetermining the starting order, the RC is limited in options to manage the race course.
Karl, it was quite a pleasent surprise to discover how nice of a guy you are. <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

Chris

Unless you run into his brand new boat during a practice race! haha sorry Karl! It was great to meet you

Ummm, thanks? Do I really come across as that much of a butthole online?

Not in the

on topic

threads. 😉

Major butthole 😛

A bunch of people have also posted feedback on a sailing anarchy forum:

SailingAnarchy Multihull Forum

I generally agree with all that has been said (if you get rid of the swim rope, consider adding a couple of small marks to indicate when you are in the 'shallow' water area, kind of nice to know when to pull the boards up).

As for the Friday count/not count rule, I agree, you need to better define when to use this. I would suggest as 'there on Friday' being a boat that has either left the beach with the intent to race on Friday or checked in with RC on Friday (preferred). Don't just define it as they were here on Friday, as that leave some room for interpretation.

Simply you could require people at registration to declare if they are racing on Friday are not, no matter what they end up doing, hold them to that decision.

Offset mark, 'nough said, it needs to be there (on the spin fleet at least).

Fun event, more beer, more red cups, and more heat (less dead fish) !!!!

This what is used at Spring Fever (with one addition) and what we've adopted for the KPRR

An average of all the races (including the throw-out if there is to be one,) scored for the two days, whether it is the Friday and Saturday races for those who let us know in advance that they will not be racing on Sunday or those who don't arrive until Saturday and then race Saturday and Sunday. That average is then inserted into all of the race scores for the day that was missed. After that, the throw-out is taken off of the final score.
There are a couple of rules that we do not deviate from:
• If the skipper is here on Friday and chooses not to race, for whatever reason, his Friday scores are entered as DNSs. If he arrives late and cannot possibly start the first race(s), if he notifies the RC that he is racing, his Friday scores will count and the missed race may be used as his throwout or be averaged at the discretion of the scoring committee.
• If someone needs to be home with the family and can only race on Friday and Saturday, and, provided they tell us at time of registration, we will score the same way for the missed Sunday races. Should they change their mind and decide to race on Sunday, they will be welcome to do so but their actual scores for Sunday will not be counted, only the averaged scores will be used.
• If a fleet only has 30% or less of its fleet on Friday or Sunday then an average will be created for all the members of the fleet on those days.
• This information will be posted along with the SSIs on the bulletin board prior to the start of racing.

...his Friday scores will count and the missed race may be used as his throwout or be averaged at the discretion of the scoring committee.

Why is this left to the scoring committee to decide after the fact? Seems like you'd be setting them up for potential redress hearings.

Mike

Easy fix, anything else?

The situation you want to avoid is one where the wind is high on Friday or Sunday and a team decides to not go out so they can average their other scores. The two to three day conversion is intended to permit a reasonable scoring opportunity for those who can't make all three days of racing fit their schedule without penalizing anyone. If you show up on Friday and are able to sail but choose not to (for whatever reason) then you don't fall into this

special needs

category...i.e., no soup for you.

Hadn't thought of that, but Jake is right. Occasionally, people like to take advantage of rules to help their cause.

Especially now that I'm a parent (just a more convenient excuse of course), I rarely set the boat up if it's blowing 20 anymore. But, I would take my DNS over using a rule to get better points.

Mike