Having spent some time as the Last place boat, I can relate to this situtation. As our fleets grow, and new people take part, it is important to encourage the new sailors to move up from the last place. One way we have done this is to bring back the B Fleet. The other is for the top sailors to help the new sailors with their set up and sailing techniques. Recognition is also important for the new sailors, when they do have a good race, or move up in the fleet.

Caleb Tarleton

Maybe it's different levels of the game, I don't know. But...

I've never found resentment to be a proper motivator, at least for myself. You should never resent somebody's success (whether in sailing or in real life) unless it came purposefully at your expense. I find that most people who resent other's performances fail to properly analyze what they can do to better their own performance. In trying to help people in our club that's what I try to emphasize - being able to look at your own performance and try to judge where improvements can be made.

I've found that most people in our club are very happy that the front runners are more than willing to take the time to help them. Unsolicited help is usually low-key, but if somebody asks for more, folks are willing to speak. Note that giving help and advice is different from the other side of bad sportsmanship - the poor winner. The poor winner takes delight in pointing out other's faults in a way that is nothing short of rubbing the loser's nose in smelly stuff. Maybe that is what is being referred to in Mark's comments about nobody wanting hear why the winners won.

I find a lot of times people like to blame the ratings. And again, it's easier to do that than to honestly answer the question as to to whether you are sailing your boat its own rating. They end up resenting a class of boats or the numbers crunchers. You see this in all types of handicap racing.

Getting to the level where you can learn - here's advice I give, hope I'm not breeding resentment! In the early stages of your racing, try to concentrate on one aspect of racing per series. Start with boat speed - concentrate the whole series on making the boat go fast. Next series, concentrate on sailing a good course, next series work on situational awareness, and so on. Soon you find yourself putting all the elements together, and can make good observations on your own performance. After each race/event, write up a little overview of your race to your crew and supporters, highlighting what went good as well as bad. Makes you think about it, and fills in your friends at the same time. Of course, this really works best in a format where you are racing every (or almost every) week.

Protest flags - our club's instructions require sailors to have a flag in order to protest. In essence - No Flag No Foul. We won't consider a protest that wasn't flagged on the water (giving a chance to resolve it on the water).

Loosing the last boats - very important. We race mostly on weeknights and the last boats can get stuck as the sun goes down taking the wind with it. Very frustrating. This is where it is imperattive to help - one way is to help improve their performance so it happens less often. In our open Fleet, it also means that people move up to faster boats in addition to trying to improve their performance. Having a group that can give advice with finding an appropriate boat is helpful too.

Late night blather mode off.

We race one-design, of course, and we have a weeknight series and a Sunday series.

With one-design, you keep from losing the last-place boat by having very short races (ours are 20 minutes long), so the last place boat is still finishing within a couple minutes of the first-place boat. And because we are able to get more races in, everybody keeps getting another chance to learn from their mistakes and try to correct them for the next one.

The after-races-group-debriefing-and-beer session gives everybody a chance to figure out what they did right or wrong and why.

In our case, the only boats that get stuck in the doldrums when the wind goes down at sunset are the boats that pick up the marks after the races.

I interpreted Stuart a bit more abstract. I read "Dont loose the last boat" as "Dont let the slowest crew quit the class".

Actually I was talking about both, because a lot of times it can be the same crew coming in last. It's great satisfaction when people start to make improvements and cease being constantly at the end.

Right, Rolf. That's why we make sure the last-place boat is not far from the first-place boat. If there is a newbie who can't figure anything out and is way back, you assign somebody to "mentor" that sailor and stay with them and coach them around the course. They need to be close enough to another boat to be able to emulate what they are doing in the way of sail trim and course direction.

That's the beauty of frequent, one-design series racing -- you can do things like that to get everybody in the fleet up to speed. And that ultimately helps the whole fleet to improve.

In our sailing seminars, we found that, especially with the Laser/Sunfish seminars, it is very beneficial to have the guest expert actually sailing with the group, and the expert can mentor and teach by example.

In most racing, if a boat is way back, they have no way of seeing what the faster sailors are doing, and they have no way of copying it. Very discouraging for them.

And, unfortunately, in a lot of fleets, the winners are happy being out in front and are not willing to give up points in the series by hanging at the end and helping the stragglers get better.

In my experience, and having done my share of 360 turns, I've noticed one thing that keeps me racing in my fleet (despite having the fastest boat out there

- Those rock stars at the top of the fleet are APPROACHABLE, and not condescending (that whole living in the tower thing). No, they do not have to drink beer with me, but my fleet's leaders have always been generous in responding to my questions about boat trim, tactics, etc.

In one case, I ended up in a tactical situation where the only way out was to create a foul or stop dead. I took the foul (and the 360) and continued on, knowing the rock star that I fouled would have clobbered me anyway, so it was best to let him out to compete with his primary competitors (the other rock stars).

What really impressed me was that after that day on the water, the rock star found me and explained how I could have turned the tables on him (by eliminating an overlap in that case), a strategy that I now employ occasionally.

I also agree with the previous post regarding sub-groups within a fleet. I know by looking at the pre-registrants who my "real" competition will be. In most cases it will be my regional sailors whom I compete with on a regular basis.

I know, for example, whom I should beat and whom I may have to lose to if I'm not sailing on my best game. Those that I do not sail with regularly are "wildcards" as I don't have any track record against them. So, even if I know that winning the regatta is out of the question, I still want to do well against my 'group'. Even if we all are in the back of the standings...

Do I resent losing to my competitors? heck yes.

Does it fuel my participation in future regattas? heck yes.

Do I hate them personally? No. Unless they are a smart butt.

Sorry, but I am having trouble understanding your whole post because of that first sentence. You DO or do NOT have the fastest boat out there?

I also don't understand what you mean by "fastest boat." What kind of fleet is it?

Just curious, because I didn't know there was a fleet in Naples.

Mary,

I'm not aware of any requirement to protest. The closest thing I see is the preamble to the rules which says competitors are expected to follow and enforce the rules (an expection, not a requirement). Under what rule could someone protest you for not protesting another boat? In other words, what rule do you break by not protesting?

I know you don't have to be affected by a Part 2 infraction to protest (you only have to witness it), but I don't see any rule that says you must protest.

Regards,
Eric

I've been to a few regattas where the Sailing Instructions require a protesting boat to fly a flag, regardless of size. The issue has never come to a head, but I believe that an appeal would most likely declare the instruction as invalid. In order to be valid, the requirement would have to be present in the Notice Of Race, and would have to be correctly constructed - neither of which has been the case as far as I've seen.

If the requirement is not in the NOR, then the SI's cannot require you to carry equipment that you were not told to bring (a protest flag).

If the instruction is not correctly worded (referencing the number of the rule and stating the change), then it is not valid. I've written SI's that add additional requirements for a protest, and you have to be very careful exactly what you say. I even invalidated one of my own SI's once, when I was judging a protest.

Regards,
Eric

Be aware that if you gain a significant advantage by committing a foul, you cannot exonerate yourself with turns. In that case, you must retire.

Regards,
Eric

Don't worry, it was just a poke at everyone out there who thinks their boat is "superior" to anyone else's...

As far as I know, there is no fleet in Naples, which is why I have to drive all over the place to race (much to the non-sailing spouse's chagrin). Most of this stems from the lack of launch areas. Up until recently, I could just wheel my N20 over the sand on to the beach at two or three different spots along the coast.

Now, the parking police have informed me I can no longer park my trailer anywhere within 2 miles of the beach. I have to use powerboat launching ramps (and pay the fee, of course), which can be difficult when the wind is not right (direction or speed).

(Somewhat related, I'm approaching a beachfront hotel with the idea of hosting a regatta in the area, as several sailors indicated it would be a nice venue (plenty of space) for a nationals event.)

It was nice, however, to take the boat out of Marco Island (boat ramp) yesterday. Clear skies, 78 degrees (F), 10-12 mph seabreeze, light chop. We sailed a bit heavy (3 up - total about 570 lbs), but still got the hull up. Average speed with the spin up was about 13.5 mph with the three of us.

Can't ask for much better days than those...

And in reference to the post about "gaining significant advantage", I don't think anyone gained an advantage. In that particular instance I believe I had three choices:
- touch the overtaking boat
- touch the committee boat
- touch the stalled boat in front of me

I ended up fouling the overtaking boat. He was pushing me up, and I drove down, and by doing so, he established overlap (which, I believe means his bow has to be at my stern, not my rudders, correct?). He got the protest (he had to alter course), I cleared the scene, did my turn and ended up last...

Not to hijack this thread, but I've seen two or three instances of skippers getting beaned in the head by snuffer/spinnaker poles while the overtaking boat jockeyed for overlap.

Just where does "overlap" start? The hull, or any part of the overtaking craft?

What about the Dead Stop? If he was forcing you up he had already established overlap and had every right to force you to stall. Assuming the Committee boat was involved must have been prior to start? Or am I missing something?

You are correct, it was prior to the start. With the crowd of boats at the committee end of the line, it was kind of messy. The air was already screwed up (and light), and there was enough chop to keep me guessing about boat speed...

I also think that the stalled boat in front of me may have been drifting backwards, but it was pretty confusing there in those 10 seconds before the start. I had to drop down (or slam on the brakes somehow - boatspeed was probably 2 kts) if I didn't want to get my bow in between the sterns of the font boat (and bean the skipper with my own snuffer)

In this example, if the lead boat were going backwards, does that still make me the overtaking boat? It would only be going backwards if it were in irons, so I think I would have to give it rights in that case. Am I off base on that?

I believe there is a story about Randy Smyth realizing he was about to - or had- gone over the line early so he basically stalled his boat and sailed backwards. The boats that were stalled behind him were still considered "overtaking" boats so he had the right of way.

I recall racing against two sailors way up in the National rankings. After finishing between the two in the first race I proceded to sail over and point out to the one we had beaten that tacking on the shifts was advantageous. It was like he was looking through me and not hearing my "advice". As we were only close to the eventual winner only once in four races and my targeted slow guy close to us only once, I only wanted some competition. In looking back on my early days of racing I took the fake it till you make it route. The only thing we knew were a few rules, and didn't know how to make our boat go fast in all conditions. I was too proud to admit to anyone that I had no clue what all these terms meant, just nodded in agreement and thanked them. But that is my story, and we are different.
In some respects racing is like golf, you can screw yourself by making knee jerk decisions and will either learn from them, or it will frustrate you to the point of building resentment.
The person or persons who want to organize, lead and maintain a fleet or club need to be like a sports coach in that it is more than your knowledge, it is how you impart the information to each "player" and who needs the coddeling or the swift kick in the butt. IMO. Excellent thread!

I am all for ANYONE giving me advice (provided they aren't condescending about it). I would be happy to help anyone else out before/after a race if it made the competition better and/or assured that they were having a good time and would return. But as it is.... I think I will be taking more advice than giving it for a while.
BTW what does IMO mean?

I'm not sure if that was Smyth or not - but that did happen. However, the rules have been changed such that if you are backing up you loose all rights.

Eric, I have no idea what the actual rule is. I just know that that has always been the case, as long as I can remember. Maybe Jamie Diamond or Mike Fahle can shed more light on it.