By making things better, are we?

Badly run races discourages participation, but excellence in event management has taken the sport down a path of increased certification and cost. By making things better, are we? Not if improvement discourages volunteerism and the standard cannot be met. Dave Ellis shares how he tapped out:

My first race offer task at a National Championship [ was in 1983 for the Windmill Class. Then from 1987 to 2000, I was an employee at St. Petersburg Yacht Club, doing mark set and safety under the tutelage of Patricia Siedenspinner, who literally wrote the Race Committee book.

Going on my own until 2016, I ran each year’s 505 Midwinters and often for Flying Dutchman, 470, Fireball, International Canoe, Swift Solo, Musto Skiff, A-Cat events, and a popular PHRF ‘Good Old Boat’ race.

But then the insurance disappeared, for good reason. SafeSport was a hassle, but doable. The repetitive re-examination was expensive if one lived far from the venue. It got difficult to find race committee help.

Finally, I just stopped. Time for me to do some actual sailing.

Editor’s note: As Chair of the US Sailing Umpires Committee, the report Decreasing numbers of race officials by Steve Schupak has stirred a lot of commentary on Facebook: click here.