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Race Management 101

A one-day seminar for introducing race management skills for conducting sailboat races to interested people with little or no experience.

Presented
by

Henry Moore
Davis Island Yacht Club
Tampa, Florida

The textbook for the seminar is Join the Race Committee Team.

Study questions in MS Excel format can be found here. Try these questions before the seminar. Most of them can be answered from the Racing Rules of Sailing 2005-07. Make sure that you put in the rules designation. If you would like them scored, fill in your answers on the spreadsheet and email it to me at the address found on my home page.

Many resources for race committees can be found here.

Course Description and Content

(Items underlined are links to sections of the US Sailing website that provide additional information)

1. US Sailing Race Officer Programs

a. Expectations of Club Race Officers

b. Expectations of Regional Race Officers

c. Expectations of National Race Officers

d. Qualifications – All Levels

2. Sailors’ Expectations of the RC

3. Primary Elements of Success

4. RC Responsibilities

5. Sailing Instruction Principles and Requirements

6. Race Committee Jobs

a. Desirable Characteristics:

b. Recorder/Spotter

c. Sounder

d. Race Committee Jobs - 2

e. Signaler

f. Line Sighter

g. Timer

h. Boat Operator

i. Scorer

j. Wind Reader

k. Mark Setter

l. Principal Race Officer (PRO)

7. Race Committee Equipment

a. Signal Boat

b. Mark boats

c. Rescue or safety boats

d. Separate finish boat

e. Other support boats as needed

f. Marks

g. Visual Signals (flags)

h. Course Designations (How the course will be designated should be described in Si’s)

i. Sound signals

j. VHF radios

k. Cell phones

l. RC documents, forms and checklists

m. Personal race management equipment

8. Setting The Course

a. Setting the Starting Line

b. Setting the Bearing to the Windward Mark

c. Setting Marks

i. Knowing the angles

ii. Getting the distances correct

iii. Mark-setting techniques

iv. Setting leeward gates

v. Mark boat expertise

9. Starting System

a. RRS 26

b. Starting Penalties

i. Flag I (RRS 30.1)

ii. Flag Z (RRS 30.2)

iii. Black Flag (RRS 30.3)

c. Tasks Before The Start

i. Postponement

ii. When to Postpone

iii. When Not to Postpone

d. Tasks Prior to or At the Warning

e. At the Warning Signal (-5 minutes)

f. After the Warning Signal

g. At the Preparatory Signal (-4 minutes)

h. At One Minute Before the Start

i. Before the Starting Signal

j. At the Starting Signal

10. Recalls

a. Individual Recall - RRS 29.2

b. General Recall RRS 29.3

c. After a General Recall

11. During The Race

12. Changing the Course (RRS 33)

13. Reasons and procedures to Shorten or Abandon (RRS 32.1)

14. Sailing the course (RRS 28.1)

15. Touching a mark (RRS 31.1)

16. Outside help (RRS 41)

17. Missing or out of place marks (RRS 34)

18. Finishing

19. After Finishing - Postings

a. Protest time limits

b. Preliminary results, if necessary

c. RC Actions report

20. Scoring (Complete the scoring, then enjoy the party...)