Criticising race management

I feel i have to reply to this, i am not the person getting slated here, but the event was   badly run from a racing point of view, not Findhorn which has a great sailing club and normally great place to sail and have a holiday. I came of water on both days feeling really pxxxxx off, as did alot of the competitors in the skiff class, and didnt enjoy the sailing at all, which i was disappointed about as was really looking forward to Findhorn as sailed there once before and thought waves were great ie BIG! .

saturday...We had to sail in a sand bar area to close to shore, where water was totally confused, not that windy, but we could hardly hold our feet in boat, one boat broke mast by capsizing and hitting bottom on bar, could hardly get over start line or seperate finish line on starboard in both races. Beats were heavily biased with hardly anytime on starboard. We went further out to firth after racing and there was great waves that werent confused and regular, this area would have been alot better area to sail in.

Sunday...3 out of four races we didnt have to tack to get to windward mark from start line and again heavily biased up beats on one tack ie windward mark not in right place, starts heavily biased and long lines, and on both days just 3,2,1 go starts, this was probably the most annoying, as most people have a procedure for starting, and we, any sailing really never get 3,2,1 starts , not even in club races, so this totally throws your start procedure.

having gates halfway up beats isnt great aswell i feel, as this takes away the tactical element of the saling , especially when beat is heavily biased on one tack anyway, it basically makes it a procession and boring. much bettewr if could have start at bottom mark, and finish on run, this is for skiff boats. I know there was convential class on course aswell, so maybe finish at top would have been compromise?? This is something the class association should have gone over with you before event.

I spoke to other members of race committee at findhorn, and they agreed with me on alot of points, so maybe this will change for next event??

Most people i think werent very happy about the event, so this makes race committee and ourselves.

Lessons to be learnt

Race officer to learn to set start lines and courses, and normal starting practises..

Skiff Class to provide info/SI to club of what we would like from our race course, procedures etc, and is this okay with club to do??

LESSONS FOR ALL OF US IN FUTURE I THINK.

I think that broccoli has made some interesting points but has failed to understand the purpose of this thread

My original post was about the way one individual has published his thoughts on the racing on a forum without talking to the club during the event.  It is a real shame if so many of the skiffs came of the water feeling pxxxxx off as Findhorn is keen to expand its open calender as we feel it is a great place to sail.  This reinforces my point even more, if people don't come and tell the race officer how skiffs want their sailing then nothing will change.  The start sequence was written in the SI's by someone else but I agree 3,2,1,Go is not good.

I believe that sailing is a social sport; thrash round the cans and then discuss it over a few beers after.  There are many clubs in Scotland that are new to the skiff concept and therefore many RO's who are new to it.  If the associations or competitors don't tell them what they want then they will run the event how they see fit.  If a competeitor came up to me during an class event where I was RO and discussed how their class needs are different then I would welcome their input, evey days a school day etc.  It is just disappointing that no-one said anything to the RO who was actually running the event for the skiffs during the weekend.  Then an unofficial report pops up on a forum saying how rubbish the event was.  Findhorn got a copy of the post after it had gone up.  It is very unlikely now that the skiffs will be back at Findhorn due to the effect of that post.  Findhorn would love them to come back and would welcome any specific requirements that they might have but we need to know before the event!!!

As broccoli said there are lessons for us all and it would appear that the scottish skiffs are trying to put togeather their preferred course, course lengths etc so that any club holding an event for them can accomodate their requests.  This has to be good news.

This whole episode comes from a break down in effective communication, nothing more

I am not sure if he does or doesn't but would guess that broccoli will have told him by now.  I have nothing against this person but it is disappointing the way he chose to give his feedback.

Agreed and apologises for this dragging on and almost getting personnal...not my intention.

This was an isolated occurance and it should not detract from the great opens held north of the border.  Once again sorry.

Edited by Barty