iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Kiefer
To: JOHN LOOMIS
Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 1:39 PM
Subject: Western Challenge Regatta

John,

Thanks for volunteering to serve as Regatta Chairman for what, if memory serves, is our 12th western challenge regatta with an international field.

At the North American Championships, they have a special name for DNers who didn’t sail the Western Challenge Regatta…

The Bronze Fleet!

To me, this regatta is all about winning the North Americans!

Just like the Minnesota Ice Sailing Association, this event is almost entirely of evolutionary structure, There’s really no job description for the regatta chairman, it’s a whatever you think is important, and largely ceremonial role.

Having said that, here’s what I’ve looked at as important in the past. (My $0.02)
- We want to be on the biggest and best sheet of ice we can find. I’ll try to get a couple alternatives lined up.
- We need to sail on it and brag about the ice (validate the conditions are suitable) This is already scheduled
- Once we’re on a great sheet of ice, we tried to get as many starts / races in as humanly possible over the course of Saturday and Sunday, this is our secret sauce… guys come because they get about half their total starts in a season at our regatta… (6 at the western region, 6 at the North Americans, 5 at the Northwest = 17 versus 10 Friday, 10 Saturday, 5 Sunday = 25 potential at the Western Challenge, or I’ve tried to sail the fleet until they were all rubbernecks.
- In order to promote this, I’ve been reluctant to score the event for the following reasons, although the consensus is we should do so:
o If there’s no scoring, there’s no reason for pressing things, raising the risk of having to deal with: protests, collisions, etc.,
o In most events the time for administering the scoring process cuts into sailing time
o It’s a pain in the ass and I’m not doing it.
o I’m coming to tune my boat, and brush with the best, I don’t give a damn who wins, I do. I think the event is safer because winning the series isn’t largely the purpose of the event.
- I’ve been reluctant to impose a fee structure because when we become transactional, we’re a real organization… all manner of issues arise when that happens, they all require money.
- The legacy housing alternatives (Fergus, Alexandria, Buffalo, Peppin ) are all known and functional. (They know us and like having us come), there’s no effort required here.

Here’s a short list of things I’d looked at as “probably ought to happen”

- All the sailors should be greeted, welcomed, and made comfortable (know info for launch site & housing locations, boat set up, etc but it’s on the web.
o We need to know who they are, how to reach them (name, sail number, email and snail mail address, and anything else we want to know about them.
- A safety meeting should be held each morning,
o Greetings
o Special introductions (John Peterson PRO), Long distance and first time competitors
o General plan for event, start & stop times
o Fleet split if any
o Social Agenda, & notice board highlights
o KNOWN HAZARDS
o SAFETY REMINDER – THERE’S NO STATUS HERE, THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO GET HURT! It’s a real long way to the hospital from Lake Christina.
- Occasionally there’s a rogue reporter who shows up, they should be told a story (pick one & tell it), and introduced to our funny talkers (Europeans)
- We need to close the event (pick a time, generally no later than 1:00 or 2:00 on Sunday… it’s a long way back to Detroit)
o Thanks
o Recognize contributors and competitors
 Fleet Standings
 Winners
 First time here competitors
 Distances traveled
 Send them home
o We probably want to make sure there’s somebody getting photographs of the sailing but that usually just happens)
o We’ve tried to identify a common meeting location for evening gatherings, generally one with a liquor license, sometimes it’s structured, sometimes it just sort of happens. (if you don’t do this, somebody will)
o We want to identify the rube, er victim, er competitor who’s going to contribute some written observations of the event to the Iceboating.net website, or to invite all the competitors to do so, get a lot of them. (maybe incorporate a competitor photograph with their comments (ask Jimmy if he thinks it’s a good idea) (set up a database [name] [sail] [addr] [head shot gif] [boat shot gif] [email addr] [bio] [www.website.com business or personal], minimum we need 250 words of stuff.

I donno, whatever you think is best

See you on the ice

Mark

4695

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