US Snipe Sailor I LOVE this time of year. Sailing season is well under way - at least for us northerners. I look forward to each weekend like a kid waiting for the neighborhood ice cream truck. In early June, I met with close to 70 teams for eight grueling, blinkand-you-lose-five-boats races at the 2016 North Americans hosted by SSA in Annapolis where we all had the opportunity to sail and party with the best of both categories. The next weekend, Art Rousmaniere Jennifer and I were fleet racing incoming US National Secretary with five other local teams on the Mystic Lakes outside Boston. And just two weeks later, my family sailed, partied and camped at one of our favorite sailing spots (admittedly not for the wind conditions ~~) on Lake Quassapaug in central Connecticut.You couldn’t imagine a wider variety of experiences while doing the same past time in as few weeks. I have been enjoying this roll of National Secretary in that I am finding myself looking out for feedback from folks from around our class. One example was the attendance at the NA’s of new-to-Snipers and selfproclaimed surfer dudes Ed Machado and Jon Robertson from Mission Bay, California. They may have finished out of the top half of the regatta, yet they made a point of telling me how much fun they had, how much they appreciated regatta-winner Doug Hart’s encouragement for them to come and how Joel Zackin of Quassapaug welcomed them to a spontaneous practice session on Thursday. They also had a suggestion that ALL regatta organizers should heed: be sure to watch out for the newbies and consider organizing a buddy system with an experienced Snipe sailor to help make them feel at home. The energy that came from a lively discussion I had (also at the NA’s) with Nick Voss, Nicole Popp, David Hernandez and Christine DeSilva could have powered the beer truck’s cooler for weeks. They made a passionate case for minimizing the barrier to entry, especially to teens
SCIRA USA 2812 Canon Street San Diego, CA 92106 619-222-0252 Danielle Richards, Executive Administrator danielle@odmsail.com Sherri Campbell, SCIRA Finances sherri@odmsail.com Jerelyn Biehl, SCIRA Executive Director jerelyn@odmsail.com or jerelyn@odmsail.com
and 20-somethings by having more affordable Snipes available and reducing travel costs by having more multi-Snipe trailers. Looking slightly differently at this same “removing barriers” angle, NA’s regatta chairman Chris Ryan leaked to me his secret to such a great turnout: “I kept removing the excuses. For example, when I heard ‘I don’t have a Snipe’, I found a loaner FAST. When I heard ‘I can’t afford it’, I found housing. Simply put, I wore down all those with excuses until they HAD to sign up.” Conniving but effective guy, Chris is. Many times, the definition of “success” for a good regatta can be elusive. You may be challenged to convince anyone to race a regatta on a small lake such as Lake Altoona outside Atlanta or Lake Quassapaug based upon descriptions of hyper-shifty winds or short courses.Yet, Atlanta YC’s annual Halloween Regatta remains a legendary event that Jennifer and I FINALLY made last year. Trust me - that particular legend is real. Also, I queried first-time Quassy-ers Zach Kelchner and Lauren Schoene from Annapolis about what made Lake Quassapaug and their regatta different. They both beamed “It is SOOOOO easy and fun. The boats stay in the water a few feet from the shore and we camp out lakeside and are fed all weekend. This is awesome!”. To add to this, for many the cherry on the top for this edition of the Whittemore St John regatta was Saturday night’s spontaneous multi-generational jam and sing-along session in front of “tent row” a mere few steps from the lake led by Arthur Blodgett, Kevin Hetherington-Young and Dorothy Waskow on guitars, 9-year-old Ryann O’Hare and myself on percussion (on a plastic beer cooler that served as bongos), Kerry O’Brian also on percussion (screw driver whacked on plyers) and an assortment of singers. Magnificent. And then there’s family: Jennifer and I have brought our own kids, 28 year old Adam and 24 year old Kelly, to Quassy for years, In fact, Kelly took her first steps on the club’s porch/dance floor. This year we welcomed their significant others Annie and Andrew that crewed for them so we had four Snipes with Rousmanieres in them. My guess is that most of the 22 teams this year were either parent/offspring, husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend. Wonderful. We all have stories. Every regatta has a story. But neither happen on their own. We need to learn from the energy business: it takes energy to make energy. Reach out to a friend. Make your boat available. Let’s make all this happen more regularly. Lastly, we still need hosts for major regattas for the next two years. We have no bids to date but have received general interest from Miami, Winchester, North Cape and Atlanta for either Nationals, Junior Nationals, NA’s, Masters Nationals or Womens Nationals. Bids need to be submitted by August 15th. Cheers,
Art Rousmaniere “Sailing is a long lesson in patience” – Bernard Moitessier (1925-1994), long distance ocean racer
Summer 2016