Date: //
Name: Stephen Jensen, Fleet 1, Seattle
email: charmedjuan@comcast.net
subject:
Common Thread


The last several messages have had some common threads.

1. Get involved, People make the Class
2. The National Assn needs to get involved, They need to help.
3. Adherence to the rules.

In my 9 years of owning Charmed Juan and a member of both Fleet 1 and the National Assn, I have been the Race Chairman for Fleet 1 for 6 years. I show up to EVERY (well almost) race an hour early to get the marks set, Take score after every race, and then collect the marks. I have been the Vice President for Fleet 1 for 2 years, President for 2 years. Vice President for the National Assn for 1 year and National Commodore for 1 year, and Former Commodore for 1 year. During this time Fleet 1 has hosted Nationals in 2005 & 2009.

To Date, the only thing I have ever received from the National Assn. was the class handbook (second year of membership) and the Financial report at the 2009 Nationals. The Fleet 1 Membership requested this from the Western VP.

The National Assn has a scale to weigh boats. When I was the Western VP, I could not get it unless I jumped through a bunch of hoops and paid $$$. As National Commodore, I couldn't even get my emails answered.

I have asked this before by why not again. Why doesn't the National Assn supply the Hosting Fleet with all the stuff/info they need to put on a National event?

As to the though of inspecting boats for compliance. When we put on the 2005 and 2009 nationals, we did so with a skeleton crew of one. That person was busy with measuring sails. Finding (and training) volunteers is not easy. Also we didn't want to reduce the number of boats participating. I saw a couple of boats that didn't have the required backstay safety cable. More than a couple without the black bands on the mast and boom. We wanted boats (and people) to come to our Nationals and have fun. Not be hassled by rules. We talked about weighing the boats, however we didn't have the manpower and the potential liability had us worried. We talked about measuring the top three boats in each class after the event, but again, Manpower and resources.

Do we really want to go down the road of the big time racers? Do we want to put anti tamper devices on the Keel lockdown bolts on every boat before the races start and inspect them at the end of every race day?


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