As the US Sailing Multihull Council Chair, let me see if I can help…


Easy, go to the US Sailing website and navigate to Membership: http://www1.ussailing.org/membership/SelectMemberType.aspx

If you want to be counted as a Multihull sailor on the Member Partner Program (formerly known as Golden Anchor Program): https://www1.ussailing.org/membership/MPP/Default.aspx?ycid=100729I

Granted, the MPP link is not as easy to find, and is one of the many things we will be improving over the winter. The MHC portion of the US Sailing website has been badly neglected for years. This is OUR fault, not US Sailing, and the staff is pushing us hard to improve the content (we have several multihull sailors working on this as we speak), which can only help us in the big picture.



Again, do a little research, and you will find this (way too much to list here): http://membership.ussailing.org/sailors.htm

If there are additional benefits that you would like to see, send me an email. Jack has been asking me repeatedly for what else the organization can do to improve the value to its members.



This isn’t entirely accurate, but is a commonly held perception. I’ll leave it at that, let’s focus on making the most of the opportunity that we do have (and again, how many people here were directly affected by either decision?).


Unless you choose not to join, US Sailing is not “us and them.” It is a member-driven organization, run primarily by volunteers. Yes, there is a staff, but they are there to serve the members per the bylaws and regulations of the member-based organization. Join and step up to help, and you will see that the doors are wide open, and there is an army of people interested in helping us to be successful.


As for the rules debate; I totally understand that it is possible to run any race, anywhere, using any rules that you want. My question is, why would you? Most people racing at this event are used to racing under RRS, and when boat-on-boat situations arise, will probably expect the other boats to act accordingly.

Moreover, in this case, the event flyer says:

How is this intended to mean that the RRS do not apply? What other racing rules are you invoking?

Other than this little detail, I certainly don’t see any “liability” issues for the (non-) RC stemming from the collision. The collision was caused not by and act or omission of the (non-) RC, but by the actions of the three boats involved. Reaching starts are not unheard of, and the setup of the start line did not cause the collision [if anything, by having the (non-) RC start boat off anchor, additional carnage was avoided]. Furthermore, as I often tell Opti kids, even if I have a really bad day and give you the worst start line in history, it's your job to start properly and not hit anyone.

As an aside, I am also a certified (Regional) Race Officer. I have been doing this since 1997, and since 2007, have been heavily involved with monohull regattas of varying levels, up to and including nationals, NAs, Worlds and US Sailing championships. I have never felt any sort of mistreatment from US Sailing or any other club due to my status as a cat sailor. If anything, most places are ecstatic to have me show up with a solid knowledge of what is going on.

There is nothing to be gained by anyone here if the Tradewinds/Stevens Trophy event fails in any way. I did reach out to Rick, and offered to help. He told me he needed judges, and I gave him some advice on how to find some without having to spend much money. He did not mention a need for an RO, but I would be willing to help if needed, or there is a long list of certified folks in FL that could probably help.

Hope this helps.

Mike