Report by Bill Burbidge
Background
Following a request from Perth 2011 and Yachting WA to form a Race Management Team to run the Laser Course during the ISAF World Championships a steering Committee of the Commodore, Vice Commodore, General Manager together with Selwyn Castles, Robin Olsen and Bill Burbidge was formed in May 2010. The Committee has gradually been expanded to include the Harbour Master and the key members of the Shore Team who will manage the boat park. The first major task was to set up a team to conduct the Laser events at the Perth International Regatta, a six day event, in November 2010.
Most courses were to be trapezoids, set by the use of GPS, rangefinders and tables. This method was new to WA and an expert from RYA in the UK was sent out to train the initial team of mark layers. Selwyn Castles qualified as an instructor and has since trained a number of FSC members and others in the art of laying and moving trapezoid courses quickly and accurately. Robin Olsen was appointed Course Race Officer and Bill Burbidge was given the task of assembling a team of people and boats. While many of the members came from FSC and mostly from the dinghy area, there are some from other clubs and several who volunteered directly to Perth 2011. The first outing was the 2010 Ronstan Indian Ocean Classic.
Perth International Regatta
This was originally intended as a practice regatta to train the race management teams but as a number of visitors from overseas and interstate saw the occasion as an opportunity to race on the waters that were to be used in the 2011 World Sailing Championships, it became a full blown international regatta raced over 6 days in November 2010. With a number of international race officers present, some non typical weather (what’s new when visitors come?) and the pressure caused by racing 6 days straight, much was learnt by the on water teams, the shore teams and Perth 2011 themselves. While we thought we did a good job (with few hiccups) the verdict from the PRO Charlie Cook (who will also be PRO in December and at the 2012 Olympics) was that we were well below international standard and had much to learn. Effectively we were too slow in getting races away for a number of reasons, several of the boats that we had sourced were considered unsuitable, and some techniques and equipment used needed improvement.
More Regattas
It was quickly decided that the team needed a lot more practice and further training.
We volunteered our services to run one of the courses at the RPYC Mini Regatta in Crawley Bay on February 13th and 14th.
Next came the three day Mandurah Easter Regatta. This was a really testing time for the team as the weather on the Saturday was not good and on Sunday was even worse. We got all our races away between squalls in very difficult conditions for both the sailors and the race team. On Sunday there was a 1.5metre swell with the wind wave on top of it. Much was learnt in positioning and working the boats. As it turned out Easter Monday was a beautiful light and sunny day but the wind backed steadily keeping the team on its toes with course changes. The final practice for the winter was running one course during the last of the Huck Scott Invitation Series run by the FSC Dinghy Section.
More Training
One of the outcomes of the PIR was that all the WA Race Officers were sent to work on other major regattas to gain top level experience. Robin Olsen went to the Dragon Worlds in Melbourne and the Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth on the south coast of the UK, the venue for the 2012 Olympic Regatta. Further, the WA Race Officers attended a three day International Race Officers Seminar at RFBYC conducted by Charlie Cook (USA), Kevin Wilson (AUS) and John Parish (NZL). John is the ISAF appointed race officer on our course during the Championships in December. While here he took the opportunity of inspecting the key boats that will be in use during the Championships.
On the following Monday a race management seminar was held. Kevin Wilson supported by Skip Lissiman from Perth 2011 addressed members from all the clubs’ race teams at Notre Dames University lecture theatre. In late September and early October there were a number of specialist training evenings for different sections of the race teams run by Perth 2011 and several organized by FSC. As well, a number of team members have done a First Aid course. The aim is to have two of the crew on each of our boats with a current First Aid Certificate.
What’s Next
The Ronstan Indian Ocean Dinghy Classic at the end of October will be a full dress rehearsal for both FSC and for HYC who are bringing their team to run one of the two courses. Hillarys will be running the course for the sailboards during the World Championships. The Shore Team will also get some practice at managing the boat park (dinghy lawn) and launching areas.
FSC is hosting the 470 National Championships from Sunday November 20th to Thursday 24th. As most of this is during the week many of our team will not have sufficient holidays to take part so we will have some members of the SoPYC team to assist. SoPYC are running the 470 course during the World Championships. It will be a good exercise in working with combined teams.
The final preparation will be on Saturday 3rd December when we are joined by a number of ISAF appointed IROs who will be embedded in our team during the Championships. A number of races will be run during the day and it is expected that some of the visiting sailors will take the opportunity to practise with the team on the championship course.
The ISAF World Championship is a much bigger and more complicated regatta than the Olympics where a country must qualify and is then only allowed one boat in each of the ten classes. Three quarters of the places in the Olympic Regatta will be decided in December and the race team is expected to work at the same standard that is required of the team that runs the Olympic events. With the assistance from club members who are lending boats, equipment and their time, we are all working hard to achieve the standard expected of us by the sailors who have been training hard to try to gain a place in the Olympics.
Extract from BWB
