GBCA Discussion Forum

Yacht Racing Topics to Kick Off  the 2010 Season

The Clear Lake Racing Association will host a series of Yacht Racing Topics at the Club Classic in Seabrook. This sharing of information will occur every Wednesday until the series ends. The currently scheduled topics are listed below, although more topics may be added.

Topics include:

• Jan. 6          Starting Techniques                      Presenter:       Buddy Brown, CLRA


• Jan. 13         Yacht Racing Tactics                    Presenter:      Jay Lutz, Yachtsman


• Jan 20          Small Scale Weather Effects           Presenter:      Brian Kyle, Nat. Weather Svc


• Jan. 27         Team Racing                                Presenter:      Gerard Coleman, TAMUG


• Feb. 3          Racing Rules of Sailing                   Presenter:      John Butler, CLRA


• Feb. 10        Sail Shape for Speed                     Presenter        Buddy Brown, CLRA

Let?s get the year started with a dose of yachting in the warmth and comfort of the Club Classic! The club will be closed to the public, but open for sailors attending the topics.

All topics begin at 6:30 pm   Bar open at 6:00   

More information at www.clearlakeracing.com

Many thanks for the great turnout last night!

Speaking for myself and the entire Race Committee (Rick Hasler, John Butler, Scott Tuma, Christina Johnson, Andrea Todaro, Jim Crate, Dwight Bengston, Gerhardt Wittich), we appreciate your kind words...and beyond that, your efforts to grow and compete in this incredible sport. Wednesday Night competitors have improved much over the past decade and a half: boat positioning, weather prediction, tactics, wind shifts, strategy, the rules, sail shape, teamwork, sportsmanship...and watching it happen makes our effort very worthwhile.

However, watching yacht racing grow on Galveston Bay would be the ultimate reward for us all. I realize that every boat on the race course represents an impressive investment in time, effort, and money. To lose a single one is a terrible loss. To gain another is cause for celebration. One of the most effective ways to grow our sport is for those who have been crewing for awhile to purchase a boat of their own. Doing so opens a position on their previous boat and creates positions on a new one. A Wednesday Night boat can be as inexpensive as a Sunfish, Laser, or V15, and I'll bet there are a number of small keelboats available for a small cash outlay (Hint: Go One Design!). Perhaps you can charter a boat for next season. There are about six months to put a new campaign together. Now is the time to get started!

How about you? Is it time to take the leap?

Find a boat and grow the sport!

Call me if I can help...

Buddy

Hi All!

The CLRA End of Year Party is tomorrow night at the Club Classic. The night will have:

Live Entertainment
Slide show of this year's action
Cash Bar
A (sit down) dinner buffet
Awards and Door Prizes
Preview of 2010

The format is pretty much the same as its been in years past:

6:00 Cocktail Hour with a performance by David Swope
7:00 Buffet Dinner (Brad has arranged for us to be able to sit down together and share a meal)
7:45 (or so...) Trophy Presentation begins:

Shirts to Race Committee members
Shirts to 2008 Class Champions and crews (Ike delayed)
2009 Class End of Year Awards
Most Improved Perpetual Trophy
Best Crew Perpetual Trophy
Boat of the Year Perpeual Trophy
Sportsmanship Perpetual Trophy
Fleet Champion Perpetual Trophy

Afterwards, a few words about next year... preparation has already begun...

Cost is $15 if you register online today at http://www.clearlakeracing.com/index.php?pageID=115, and $20 if you wait to pay at the door. So far not very many have registered, and that has me a little worried that the Club Classic is going to prepare too much food...

Let's get together to share one last evening together in 2009!

The Texas Challenge Cup is a competition to determine the top yacht racing club in Texas. The format is one where participating clubs field teams to race in a number of selected classes, where each club's scores in those classes are totalled to determine a club's final score. Clubs consistently participating over the last few years are GBCA, LYC, HYC, and TCYC, although not too long ago, the Fort Worth Boat Club also participated. The 2009 version of this event is currently being organized with the date being the weekend of November 7th. The boats scheduled to be used are Sonar, J80, and PHRF boats rated between 68 and 78. The event is a great concept, but it typically runs into a few problems:

1.) Finding an acceptable weekend on which to run the event.
2.) Participating clubs tend to be those based on Galveston Bay, even though it is titled the Texas Challenge Cup.
3.) Selecting and finding boats to be used. Currently, each club is expected to provide its own boats, one each of the chosen designs. This, even though not every club has access to all the designs chosen.

The easiest of these problems to solve is probably the scheduling. The date should be announced early in the year to allow clubs sufficent time to prepare their teams and boats. A Fall event would allow sufficient preparation, and sailors would be in their best form. Perhaps it should be held annually on a set weekend in early November before HYC's Turkey Day Regatta.

Ideally, this event would attract teams from across the state, involving more than just the Galveston Bay clubs. In addition, the selection of boats should give every club a fair shot at winning. Getting wider statewide participation and solving the boat issue might be resolved using the following principles:

Set a deadline in the Spring, say March 31st, before which every club must announce its intention to participate. Along with a club's intent to participate, each would announce its own chosen design. Each club would then be obligated to provide enough boats for itself and every other participating club. Maintaining a round robin format would ensure equal boat performance. In this way, the burden of finding boats and ensuring fairness is dispersed across all the participating clubs.

A typical scenario might be:

TCYC - Sonars
LYC - J80's
HYC - Ensigns
GBCA - J105's
White Rock YC - Flying Scots
Fort Worth Boat Club - J22's
Austin Yacht Club - J24's

In this scenario, each club would provide seven boats of its chosen design, and would also field teams to race the other classes.

This is a great event. We should do everything possible to make it easier to facilitate, enhance fairness, and build it into a true Texas Championship. Texas has a lot of great sailors. We should be spending more time racing against them, getting to know them, and the boats they race.

Your thoughts?

Best regards,

Bud

Oops... Wrong url pasted for the Finals scorecard in the previous post...

Download the Finals Scorecard and Team Rotation here:

http://www.clearlakeracing.com//index.php?pageID=397

...and Dwight Bengston helped last night too!!

He has run the bay line all year!

Best regards,

BB

Hi All!

Great weather and breeze combined for a great night of racing for the J-Boat Class Champions:

Steve Press - J24
Brant Koepke - J22
Dave Hinrichsen - J80
Burns Brown - J27


View the Semi-Final 2 results here:

http://www.clearlakeracing.com//index.php?pageID=415


Download the Finals Scorecard and Team Rotation here:

http://www.clearlakeracing.com//index.php?pageID=415


Just an FYI:

Upon scoring the boats to evaluate the fairness of using one design boats in a round robin rotation, last week's racing resulted in 2 boats with a score of 9 and the other two with a score of 11.

Last night resulted in the boats having the following spread of scores: 8, 9, 11, and 12.

Minimum score would be 4 points for a superior boat and maximum score of 16 for a slow boat.


Many thanks to John Butler, Cherie Le Compte, Rick Hasler, and Gary Trinklein for their help and support during the 2009 Championship racing.

Hope to see you next Wednesday!

Best regards,

Buddy Brown

 

He probably should be required to steer with his teeth, while sitting on both hands!

Seriously though, all the sailors that make it to the Finals are good enough to win. The races are short, and they seriously reward getting a good start and hitting the first windshift. Downwind, I have seen some remarkable position changes achieved by those that stay in higher velocity breeze.

Since the course is just one upwind and downwind, I believe Brandt will be challenged by the excellent sailors from the other classes. But then, Brandt is a pretty good sailor too!

It should be fun... Hope it draws a bit of a crowd anyway...You can download the boat rotation from the link on my previous post. That will help you to know who rounds the weather mark first. I will announce the results on VHF Channel 68 after each race, with maybe some commentary during...

Best regards,

Bud

Hi All!

Corrie Clement and Tom Johnson move on to the Finals (October 14th). See the results of last night's racing at http://www.clearlakeracing.com//index.php?pageID=414

Next Wednesday's competitors are:
Steve Press
Uzi Ozeri
Burns Brown and
Brandt Koepke

They are scheduled to be at the Seabrook Shipyard crane area at 3:00 pm to board their first J22 in the round robin event. The rotation can be downloaded from http://www.clearlakeracing.com//index.php?pageID=397.


Best regards,

Buddy Brown