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Check
List for Skipper's Meeting
- Announce
that you have membership applications for skippers
AND crew who have
forgotten to renew and prefer paper to the web.
- Number of starts? Find out how
many boats will be racing in each class. If there are classes
with fewer than 5 boats, you have the option of combining them with
another class.
- Postpone ashore? If there is no
wind, you may want to announce that you will be postponing on land
right after the meeting. The downside is that you cannot start
a race for 45 minutes after the flag comes down.
- Where to sail? On rare occasions
the sailors may prefer to sail by the power plant instead of Hains
point in order to be close to home if a storm comes through, for
example.
- Go
over tide and wind forecast. If it is a heavy wind day,
you might remind the skippers that wearing PFDs is a good idea and
what the flag looks like that REQUIRES PFDs. If it is a
light wind day, you might suggest they get started early. You
might also discuss under what circumstances you would or would not
shorten course.
- Checking in:
Remind skippers to check in on the water
by sailing by the RC boat and hailing their
name and hull number -- you will see their sail number. Skippers should also let you know
when they are going home early. For safety try to keep track
of who is on the course.
- Towing
Boats
-- If it is a light wind day decide whether to offer to tow
boats and what the time deadlines are.
For example, announce that you’ll tow those in the water
and ready to go at 10:30 but then wait until 10:40.
- Fourth
race? – get the sense of whether sailors would be interested
in a fourth race.
I
recommend this for beautiful days or days when the races end up
being 30 minutes or less for the lead boat.
- Starting
on time – you are not allowed to wait for late boats to get
there.
Let skippers
know that you intend to start on time.
- Key
items from the sailing instructions – I consider them to be
fairly standard but you might mention that …
The start line has red flag on pin.
Finish line has blue flag on pin.
Tell skippers that the Sailing Instructions don't require you to
hail the sail numbers of over early boats and that the RC will focus
on their primary responsibilities first and may not get to calling
sail numbers. So, if sailors hear a blast after the start and
look back to see the X-ray flag go up, they need to make their own judgment
of whether they were over early or not.
Announce that you have a few copies of the sailing instructions
for new or guest boats (Most skippers should get them from the
website.)
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