Race management in the cross hairs

The Vineyard Race started its 89th edition on September 1 off of Stamford Harbor in Connecticut, with PHRF and ORC fleets using either a 116 or 143 nm course. Among the 88 teams was active owner Scott Weisman with his R/P 45 Pterodactyl.

While the 2023 race is long been over, the debate on its management lingers on. Following a Scuttlebutt report on what Annapolis Yacht Club is doing for handicap racing, Weisman shares a recent experience to the north:

Scuttlebutt is right—education and ethical behavior are needed to restore credibility, a sense of fair-play and participation to handicap racing. Participation continues to atrophy.

Our recent experience with Stamford Yacht Club’s 89th Vineyard Race (what had been a historically well-managed coastal distance race) is illustrative of the added burden and traps for green Race Committees managing ORC fleets. The SYC Race Committee erroneously attempted to modify the ORC scoring modality in contravention of the RRS, NOR, and SIs.

When called on the carpet, the SYC Protest Committee became hostile and sought to miraculously use the ORC Race Management Guidebook to truncate the right to redress. During the appellate process, a senior member of the SYC Race Committee, perhaps concerned that their manifest race management errors would cause acute embarrassment, sought to intimidate us to drop the appeal.

The US Sailing regional Appeals Committee found that the ORC Race Management Guidebook is not a Rule—the request for redress was valid, the ORC scoring modality was not changed in accordance with the NOR, SIs, and the RRS, and was an improper action of the Race Committee, surprising (as the issue was never raised and was denied by the Protest Committee), that the Vineyard Race NOR and SIs drafted by Stamford Yacht Club (same language was used in the past several years without incident) created a conflict between the NOR and the SIs miraculously empowering the Protest Committee to pick an ORC scoring modality they deemed ‘fair’.

Shockingly, the Protest Committee selected the scoring modality improperly selected by the Race Committee and rejected by the Appeals Committee—thus, the SYC Race Committee got what they wanted and did not need to properly score the 89th Vineyard Race. Obviously, the decision is once again on appeal.

As long as the current band of race managers operates the long-running Vineyard Race (2024 is the 90th edition), participation will decline and precious sponsors will run for the hills, concerned that the arrogance, shenanigans and ineptitude will damage their valuable brands.

Annapolis Yacht Club and US Sailing should be commended for their efforts to reverse the trend by fostering adoption and understanding of ORC through intensively educating the racing community on how ORC works, is governed and administrated, and how to take baby steps to get started.

Unfortunately, the effort will be wasted if the Organizing Authorities remain ignorant or uninterested in adopting best race management practices. ORC places higher demands on Organizing Authorities–errors like the ones that marred the last Vineyard Race can be especially disastrous, further undermining credibility and adoption and retarding participation.