1. I am in the process of listing on the web everyone racing with SSSS who won something this summer. That led me to question what we are doing with the Stars. I seem to be turning out volumes of paper that no one wants. Maybe I miss something, but I see Bill has to find the people to give them their awards; they do not seem to want it enough to stop by his truck, let alone ask after it. So why are we doing it? Should we stop handing out certificates? Should we do something else? Should we even worry about awards? I do not have answers. But we should find some. At present it seems like the awards are a waste of time.
2. Our “gate course,” is not working as planned. The starting line makes a gate way too long. It does not function like a gate one would experience at a well run regatta. It is not good practice for sailing a gate at, say the Worlds. I was one who said the start/finish would work; I was wrong.
A gate is suppose to cut down on crowding at the leeward mark by offering an alternative way to round. Our course does not succeed in doing so. The marks are so far apart that the difference in course sailed to round the other mark is too far to count on getting it back with a clear rounding. So most everyone goes the same way and the mark is crowded.
Your choice as to which side of the gate to round should be more tactical, made closer to the time you want to round. Our marks are far enough apart the decision is more strategic: you often choose your side as you round the windward mark. That changes the game and does not give us experience with a gate as one will see it else where.
Again I am better at raising questions than at supplying solutions. A gate set mid line, downwind of the line? Would it get in the way of the start?
3. I think we talked about this already and agree, the offset mark at the regattas was too far from the windward mark. The courses became triangles; not Olympic triangles, but triangles still. This time the answer is obvious.
Steve
