Over the winter the Royal Lymington Yacht Club runs a variety of sessions for members involved, or wishing to be involved, in the provision of racing and race events at the club. Members new to race management are particularly welcome.
The sessions are also designed to be a useful update to existing race team members, support boat drivers, marklayers, committee boat skippers and shore-based support. The sessions are provided free to members.
Course dates
6 week course starting Tuesday 11th January 2022 at 18:30 at the Club. The sessions will also be recorded for those who cannot attend.
(11th, 18th, 25th January, 1st, 8th, 15th February)
Please note: these talks are for Members-only. To book Members must log-in to their account at Member Central & MyClubAccount. We also need to make it plain that there are two separate talks on some evenings: members need to choose which one to attend: the talks are simultaneous.
Course details
Tuesday 11th January
Legal and Safety - Roger Wilson
- This will be a refresher/revalidation for Safety Managers, OODs and Race Officer who already have experience of the legal and safety requirements for running racing. Roger will be doing a separate Dinghy Safety Management course for those new to the race team.
Introduction to Race Team Roles - Malcom McKeag
- Detail on the whole race team, giving a description of who does what and when and the importance of each role. It is aimed at those new to volunteering and those on the race teams interested in expanding their knowledge and possibly trying a different role.
- Race management is as much a part of sailboat racing as is competing. You can’t, as that song says, have one without the other. Indeed for some of us race management is now our primary hobby.
Malcolm’s session will primarily be of interest to those who have yet to do much in the way of race team support here in Lymington be they long-standing members used to competing and now thinking they might give running the race a go, recently-joined members who in their applications expressed an interest in joining our race management team or members involved in one of our many individual race teams who would like to spread their wings and try a different role. He will outline our own extensive racing programme, from Monday Evening Dinghies through XOD and Nordic racing, Thursday Evening Keelboats and Friday Juniors to Youth Week, our many Open meetings and occasional National Championships. He will explain the differing structure of the race team required for different events – an XOD & Nordic race can be run by only three people, Youth Week involves a team of almost 100 people. He’ll speak of the many roles that must be filled and the differing opportunities they provide: from setting the course and keeping the times to crewing the RIBs to noting the mark-rounding orders to shortening the course when needed to recording the finishers. All tasks are important and sometimes vital. As you will hear Malcolm say, possibly more than once: “if we don’t get a result all we have run is a cruise in company” and “not for nothing is it called race management”.
Tuesday 18th January
Course setting – Dinghy laid courses with inflatable marks - Roger Wilson
- The basics of course setting where laid marks are available.
All About the Start – Mary McGough, Jane Clegg and Malcolm McKeag.
- Primarily intended for new or recently-joined members of the race team and those existing members who fancy trying new positions: flags, time-keeping, recording. All you need to know about how races are started and who does what. We shall begin with a quick run-through of the rules about starting that affect the race team, the flags and signals we use and the paperwork we keep, including video of starting teams in action. Take a look at the types of start we run – for Monday Evening dinghies, for keelboats, for Open meetings, for Thursday evening. Followed by some hands-on practice using the equipment.
Tuesday 25th January
Course setting - Steve Green
- Dinghy Courses for Monday and Friday racing from the Club. Steve will cover Tides and weather, Boat Speeds, Course options including Starts and Finishes and the briefing.
Keelboat Finishes – Malcolm McKeag.
- The finish. It concerns and involves every member of the race team. Conventional finishes, shorten course finishes, go-straight-home finishes: this evening’s session will cover them all, from where to finish to setting a fair line to calling the line to recording sail numbers and times to awarding the correct scores. There will be aspects to involve every member of the team, from race officer to timekeeper to signaller to scribe to RIB driver and crew. Put quite simply: if we don’t get a finish we haven’t run a race.
Tuesday 1st February
Timekeeping - Jane Clegg, Roger Wilson and Mary McGough
- Jane will go through Timekeeping before and at the start, using “traditional “ methods, and timing at the finishes. Jane will also describe the other aspects of timekeeping which give such valuable information to the Race Officer. We will present Roger’s brief video on the use of the i-start machine. We will have 2 i-starts available for practice, plus stop watches. We can then practice using both methods.
Tuesday 8th February
Safe and Fun, Safeguarding of Children & Vulnerable Adults - Jane Corden, Vicky Leen & Kristy Powell
- A evening aimed at volunteers, and anyone else involved in working with children and/or vulnerable adults at an RYA club or training centre such at the RLymYC.
Tuesday 15th February
Club Race Officer - Malcolm McKeag
- A one-hour overview of the course ( as most of it will have been covered elsewhere) plus the test. Aimed at those who need a CRO certificate to run races in the Club. They will need to both pass the test and be assessed in practice to get the certificate.
Tuesday 22nd February
Course-setting for one design keelboats - Malcolm McKeag
- Course setting in our waters for X-boats and Folkboats. Will NOT include course setting for Thursday evenings.