Fleet Captain - Introduction

[STuma]

For those who may not know who I am, my name is Scott Tuma; I will be the Fleet Captain for 2018. I believe I know about 80% of the fleet by first name basis, but I apologize if I have not met you. I wanted to give a brief summary of who I am, my background and what my plans for 2018 and beyond are.

I grew up in GBCA. As a very small kid, I played among the rocks of the old yellow clubhouse that was in Seabrook Shipyard. My family was heavily involved in GBCA for decades, since the 60's. My dad, Frank, ran Veracruz for 26 years, back when races were never canceled because of weather. Unfortunately, this is where I get my attitude and belief of racing - race committee ALWAYS goes out and it is up to the racers to go or not go. Yes, things were different. I keep that in mind these days. At five years old, I was finally allowed to go racing with dad. We owned a 32' trimaran, "Genesis". We lost count of how many thousands of ocean miles we put on that boat; Veracruz every year, Progresso, Tuxpan, Florida, etc... for about 20 years. In 1988, we upgraded to a Condor 40 and I got into beach catamarans. In the 90s, I raced beach cats, Ensigns, Express 27, Condor 40 and bought a J-80. Since 1992, I have been racing with the Texas Blind Sailing teams and won a world gold medal in '97 and a few nationals since. Somewhere in the 90s, I was in charge of membership for GBCA. I ran the Spring/Summer/Fall series races for a couple of years, bringing HYC and GBCA together in a shared effort. I took about a 10 year break from sailing to focus on the family. With my family's involvement in Veracruz and GBCA racing, I have been part of running events and races for quite some time. I was the Race and Regatta Chairman for HYC for 2015 & 2016. This brings us to present day...

My ultimate goal is to build participation and make racing fun. I have seen many people invest 100% in and get very frustrated and bail out; while I have also seen many give 20%, get frustrated and bail out. Sailing is a tough deal, and sailboat racing just adds several more challenges to it. How do we encourage people to bring their boat out, put themselves in a competitive setting and eventually spend more money? That's the jist of it. I have been to some very poorly run events, but the people were fantastic and vise versa. I want to run some good events, encourage people to socialize with some fantastic people; and have a really good time. Should every event be treated like it's a world level event, no. Know your audience and run the event accordingly. I think we should be able to provide different level options for people to chose to attend. I do realize we (GBCA) has the most popular event on the gulf coast; Rum Races. When I talk to people around the country, many are wishing they had half our fleet. I don't want to make any major changes, just tweek the course about 30 degree to the right- the whole course. Running counter-clockwise we will start as normal between #1 & #2 and sail to M55. Make a left hand turn and proceed to the High Range marker (not the low range); while then proceeding to the finish. The course length will be about the same as current course. I have run this course several times and it makes the beat more square (M54 would be perfect, but....) and it makes the "reach leg" a bit broader where it is not just a power beat. People are always telling me "... you can't pass on a reach, it's useless". They have gone into cruise mode instead of race mode. You will see some big difference on this leg. People will relearn how to trim a jib on a reach leg. We also have two more fantastic events that will offer some different racing than what has been done in the past; Performance Cup and Texas Race Week. I will not go into details of TRW, that is for Kevin to do; but we are going to have some fun with Performance Cup Regatta. Handicap boats (PHRF, ORC, Yardstick, what ever) will sail triangle windward/leewards with 2-3nm legs. The one design boats will have their .5-1.0nm leg windward/leeward races (depending on wind/fleet size).

Great racing does not come from one person with some ideas, it comes from the fleet. We have a great, ambitious fleet and a spectacular board. We need each class, Non-Spinnaker, 120 raters, 140 raters, J-24s, etc... to push each other and make the calls to each other to get everyone on the water. Each fleet needs a fleet captain to ram-rod people. Look at the classes that are doing very well. They are organized. They organize socials. They help each other. This is what builds fleets. We all know of "so and so" down the dock that hasn't been out in years. Go find out why. Maybe it's crew. Ok, let's help them find crew, or run the boat short handed. Maybe some of us need to offer our time and talents to help them get comfortable with their boat. Maybe the new guy down the dock is interested in racing, but they are watching Youtube videos of the extreme stuff and it scares them to death because they think that is what it is like... or they had a real bad experience in the past. I plan to reach out to some people for their help in becoming a fleet captain in the fleet they race in. Think about it, if you are on the fence about racing and you look at the register and see 12-15 non-spinnaker boat racing, you may be more inclined to join in because there is a big class. THAT would be a kick. I do understand the challenges of getting the boat out (I have owned several), but if we can make it fun and easy, "we" will be more willing to come out more. And, that is what it's all about, right?

Speaking of fun outings... I have Redfish Raft-up on the schedule. My plan is to have a HUGE GBCA raft up at Redfish and listen to Kelly McGuire while we are at it. Think of the scuttlebutt, everyone else will be wondering who we are and how can they be a part of it...

I apologize for this long thread. I believe in an open-door policy. If you have an idea, complaint, or compliment, give me a shout  and let's sit down and discuss it; I don't want to have a long misunderstood discussion on  social media about something that can be resolved with a 15 minute conversation.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to seeing each of you this year....

[gadangit]

Hold on, Kelly McGuire from TopGun is going to be at Redfish!?!?  Best Fleet Captain ever!

[Hamburger No 1]

What's the lat/long of M55, Scott? My nifty Navionics calls all of them 'PA'.

[STuma]

What's the lat/long of M55, Scott? My nifty Navionics calls all of them 'PA'.

I have 29°30.324'N  94°54.641'W, but it has been a couple of years since I've checked.  I plan to run out personally and acquire refreshed coordinates for both, M55 and the High Range. I have a plan to make M55 easier to see, but I will expose it after I have made it work (just incase it doesn't work as I plan).

The course length will go from 11.32nm to 12.81nm. I have a picture, but it would not allow me to attach it.

[Hamburger No 1]

I like the new course a lot!! Only question I have relates to water depth. My Navionics says it's 6'-9" there. Of course, that's a bit conservative, but we do have boats that draw quite a bit more than that! Would hate to have to waive at all those boats going by as I'm wallowing in the mud.........

[STuma]

I do understand your point. We used 55 a few years ago and I did not hear of any issues. For something in the winter with lower tides, it may pose a problem. When I check coordinates, I will check depth around it as well.

[shawn]

Level 120

I like the idea of being in the same air as the other competition.  A boat starting 45 minutes ahead of me and winning the race because the wind died is not fair at all.  That has nothing to do with racing.  All boats should be in the same air to have a fair race.  Who is level 120 and how many are racing already? 

[STuma]

Level 120

I like the idea of being in the same air as the other competition.  A boat starting 45 minutes ahead of me and winning the race because the wind died is not fair at all.  That has nothing to do with racing.  All boats should be in the same air to have a fair race.  Who is level 120 and how many are racing already?

I appreciate the enthusiasm. The Level 120 class were boats that rated 120-130; J-80, Soverel 27, J-27, J-70, J-29 - all these boats are racing now. It could even be 125-135 to include the J-30, Express 27, etc... A race committee's best friend is a huge pool of boats to choose from. When we had 100-120 boats racing in the Spring Series, it was very easy to group boats in tight rating bands. Now, it is a challenge to keep boats within 30-60 seconds a mile ratings. This comes down to the racers talking up events (which ever and whom ever) to other sailors. You guys are at the marinas all the time, race committee isn't. We will do our best to group boats in the best manner that makes sense. We either need a lot more boats to race, or everyone buy boats that are closer in rating to each other.

[WalterH]

With all due respect I do not want to compete against boats that my boat can not compete aginst to place or win.  How about J's race against J's, there are enough of them' Then the dispacement boats can race against each other. I think that would be more fun.

[STuma]

With all due respect I do not want to compete against boats that my boat can not compete aginst to place or win.  How about J's race against J's, there are enough of them' Then the dispacement boats can race against each other. I think that would be more fun.

I fully agree and understand. This brings my point about quantity. If we have enough boats, we can easily split the fleets as they should be. This is where I need everyone's help. I need the displacement boats to get together and agree to show up for "x" events. Unfortunately, what happens is a couple of boats show up for one event, a few different ones show up for the next event, and a couple more show up for a third event. My thought process is that the bigger racer/cruiser boats (C&Cs for example) would want a course with longer legs with some reach legs. And the end result is a race that everyone enjoys. If we have the numbers, we can group like boats.

[Bee]

This is what I have for M55 as well.

What's the lat/long of M55, Scott? My nifty Navionics calls all of them 'PA'.

I have 29°30.324'N  94°54.641'W, but it has been a couple of years since I've checked.  I plan to run out personally and acquire refreshed coordinates for both, M55 and the High Range. I have a plan to make M55 easier to see, but I will expose it after I have made it work (just incase it doesn't work as I plan).

The course length will go from 11.32nm to 12.81nm. I have a picture, but it would not allow me to attach it.

[shawn]

With all due respect I do not want to compete against boats that my boat can not compete aginst to place or win.  How about J's race against J's, there are enough of them' Then the dispacement boats can race against each other. I think that would be more fun.

I fully agree and understand. This brings my point about quantity. If we have enough boats, we can easily split the fleets as they should be. This is where I need everyone's help. I need the displacement boats to get together and agree to show up for "x" events. Unfortunately, what happens is a couple of boats show up for one event, a few different ones show up for the next event, and a couple more show up for a third event. My thought process is that the bigger racer/cruiser boats (C&Cs for example) would want a course with longer legs with some reach legs. And the end result is a race that everyone enjoys. If we have the numbers, we can group like boats.

So I agree with the displacement boats getting together and show up so we can get a class together.  It may be short notice for this race but not the rest of this series or the rest of the year.  Crew problems and boat problems can be fixed.

I'm ready to race its 3 degrees and snowing right now.  They dont get to race here all year on Lake Chautauqua.  Unless you cout Ice boats.

[Terry Young]

I like the idea of grouping the J boats in there own fleet. And look forward to another fun year racing in the GBCA, I am sure there will be great changes for more fun sailing together.

[STuma]

I like the idea of grouping the J boats in there own fleet. And look forward to another fun year racing in the GBCA, I am sure there will be great changes for more fun sailing together.

My feeling is we will not form another class for Icicle or Rum Races.

This can be a simple request to the R/C of the event, with enough boats. But, it is not always guaranteed. It is up to the PRO of the event on how classes are to be divided. I would suggest having a conversation with the PRO and express your desire. A class should not be formed from a group of boats that if forming that class makes the remaining boat eligible to form a class. For example, if we have 5 boats with 3 displacement 120-ish raters; these 3 should not be broken out into their class because it would leave the remaining 2 on their own. Given, it takes 3 for a class.

Give me a call after the weekend, I'd like to talk about what the issue is with racing against J boats. If there is a rating issue, that should have been addressed with PHRF-GB in the fleet review. In the reviews, we do take in consideration sail age and condition, boat bottom condition, and mechanics of the boat itself.

The goal is to build the fleets where everyone is having fun. That is usually a result from fair equitable racing. I need someone in each fleet to be the fleet captain that is the voice for the fleet. This will make organizing classes much easier and keep everyone on the same page.

Thanks for your input...

[ShakenNotStirred]

... In the reviews, we do take in consideration sail age and condition, boat bottom condition, and mechanics of the boat itself.

Do you mean "we do not take in consideration sail age and condition, boat bottom condition, and mechanics of the boat itself." ?
Nor do you take into consideration the skill level of the crew.