Report of the PYC Race Committee

To start, I would like to thank this year’s Race Committee members for their steadfast support of our mutual passion for racing. Most of you know who they were, but they deserve recognition for their oft times unsung efforts: Tom Ehman, who was my tiller when my rudder went astray (a lot); Fritz Wagner (Quartermaster) and his trusty sidekick Jim Meyer (QM aide), Bill O’Donnel (Briefer Captain) and his team of briefers: Tyler Cathey, Brian Hawkins, Jim Meyer, Todd Moore, Dan O’Haver, Bob Reed, Steve Schewe; Colleen Hughes, who so competently took the scoring reins from Brook Smith; Mike Ehnis, who spent many hours with the RM scheduling and website management; and Kirsten Petro (with Colleen) brings the year to a close with the awards. I sincerely appreciated their time and effort that they readily volunteered to the Club.

My recollection of this past racing season is one of few extremes; rarely having no wind or too much wind to race. For the first time in a long time, the air on Wednesdays was not better than that on Tuesdays! On the other hand, I also remember it for having many changes. Foremost in my mind, I was without my favorite crew for the bulk of the season, but I TRULY appreciated those who could crew with me in her stead. The pre-season racing rules seminar became partially computerized with Colleen’s dazzling PowerPoint presentation. The Race Fee was reduced from $30 to $25. We attempted to accommodate race day preferences by having Flying Scots race on Sundays and Interlakes on Saturdays, only to have our DNR permit for such a change languish, until we were forced to choose one day (Sunday), to the dismay of many of the Interlakers. We raced on Fathers’ and Mothers’ Days because our choice. A 45-minute delay between races was integrated into the weekend series. The “Mercy Rule” became part of our Sailing Instructions which made being the distant ‘caboose’ not as painful. We used code flag P instead of the blue shape for the Preparatory signal. All of the flags had identification tags attached to them for quick and easy identification. The No Sweat Regatta was the first of the post-season regattas (instead of the last), it was warm without rain, and it ended up not even being truly post-season. The Flying Scots split from the Hot-to-Trot for the first time in many years to have the Michigan Hot Scot Regatta facilitating reciprocal race management. And lastly, the term ‘yacht’ was replaced by ‘boat’ in our documents (OK, it’s a small thing, but it indicates the level of attention to detail that must be pursued).

Now that the season is behind us, I would ask ALL of the PYC racers to provide feedback to next year’s Race Committee (the earlier the better) regarding the above changes and what you would like to see in our program next year. Every year the RC wrestles with what YOU want, realizing that not all wishes can be accommodated, but the attempt is genuinely made. What changes did you like; what didn’t you like? How can we improve our program, allowing it to grow?

I anticipate that next year’s RC will discuss, besides the usual items, topics such as: Improving safety on and off of the water using technology, non-registered racers, critical crew shortages and how to address it, how the scoring program handles race management duties, and starting order and timing for the single-handed racers, to name a few.

Respectfully submitted,

Steve Wiseman, PYC Race Committee Chair