Regatta to Test Sailing Industry Skills

Sail America, the trade association for the US sailing industry, will be hosting an industry conference on May 31-June 2 in Milwaukee, WI. Among the educational seminars and networking events will be the Sail America Regatta on May 31.

Sailed in Ensigns borrowed from the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center, the event will test whether sailing industry professionals actually know how to sail. Here are some of the details included in the Notice of Race:

• Unlike other highly prestigious events, we don’t care how much your crew weighs, and we really don’t want to see you in your swim suit.

• The organizing authority recognizes that premiere events such as this tend to create significant crowds, on-water spectators, paid coaches, need for porta potties, parking problems and security concerns. Reasonable accommodations will be made for on-land spectating and each team’s cheering squad. On-water personal coach boats will not be allowed within 10 miles of the race course.

• We will be sailing a particular course, but we don’t know what that is right now. It might be windward, leeward, with start and finish in the middle. Or it might not. The organizers will attempt to communicate the course prior to the warning signal of race one. Seriously, we’ll talk about this at the Skippers Meeting.

• There is no protest committee, and there will be no midnight oil spent adjudicating results. We know you’d rather be familiar with your pillow or the bar instead. As would your regatta organizers. As a result, if you foul another boat, without contact, do one 360 turn to include one tack and one gybe. We know you aren’t going to foul another boat with contact, so we won’t tell you about the 720 you need to do, or that you will have to buy everyone dinner.

• Contact between boats is highly discouraged. Anyone involved in damage to boats may receive one or more of the following penalties:
a. 0500 10 mile run
b. 6 hour fiberglass clinic.
c. Overnight ball bearing pickup crew at Harken.
d. Anything else deemed appropriate by the RRS and Organizing Authority.

• Just as a reminder, if you hit a mark, get clear, and do a 360 including one tack and one gybe. You don’t have to re-round the mark. That rule went away in the late 1900’s.

• We really like radio communication and those race committees who use it to talk to the competitors, but don’t really think you want to carry a VHF radio through TSA. As a result, we’ll try to communicate the old fashioned way – with a white board/flags and yelling. If you see a change in course happening, do everyone a favor and share it with the other boats. If you really want to bring your radio, we might use them so that the race organizer has a voice to cheer on the Milwaukee Brewers the next day.