LORC SPRING NEWSLETTER
By Christopher J. Steer
April, 2004

This past Winter has been a time for taking stock within LORC

There are several things that we have had to take into consideration, the first of which is the ongoing decline of participation in LORC events and the perceived - and actually quite real - decline in the importance of yacht racing in the lives of our Clubs.

The LORC Executive has concluded that it is time to address these issues and to take steps aimed at reversing our decline in numbers and ultimately aimed at making each Club's Open Regatta the premier event of the summer season just as it used to be.

We've all been complaining that the Clubs are placing far too much emphasis on social activities and, in one deathless phrase, are turning themselves into banquet facilities with a good water view but shall we face the fact that it isn't up to the Clubs or anybody else on God's earth to see to the health of our sport. That task is in our hands and if we don't do it, then nobody owes it to us to step into the breach.

The LORC Executive has, therefore, decided to reduce its own role in our local regattas and hand the on-the-water race management back to the Clubs and, the real point, the bulk of the registration fees in order that the Clubs will have a decent budget with which to run a quality event.

As you may or may not know, hitherto LORC has collected and kept the registration fees for both the Regatta and Offshore Series. LORC has used these funds to provide the equipment and personnel to run the LORC races and the Clubs themselves have paid LORC a fee of $300 per day for this service. In addition, the Clubs have provided the award flags for their regattas and that has typically added a cost of $1,000 to the weekend event.

The only place that the Clubs have had to recoup this outlay has been in the Food and Beverage portion of the regatta and, as you all know, very few yachts go into the Host Club after one of our events.

It is scarcely a surprise that the Club's Open Regatta has ceased to be regarded as an asset to the Club particularly when one recalls that the majority of the Clubs' Executives are typically not racing sailors and may perhaps be forgiven if they do not see the point of the Clubs making a significant outlay on a sport that does not seem inclined to support itself.

We want to reverse that. We want the Clubs to see the annual regatta - ultimately - as a jewel in their crown and, from that, to encourage their own members to participate in the regatta and thereafter to provide a good on-shore social event to follow.

We want the people who aren't currently racing to join us on the Lake. They will do that if they see racing as both an enjoyable and potentially prestigious pastime and, in short, something in which they may wish to participate and from which they may even acquire a little bit of status. They are not going to get that impression from what we do on the Lake because very few of them ever see that and when they are in the vicinity of the race course, they're usually being told less than politely to get the hell out of the way. The best place for them to be exposed to racing is the social side of the thing - in their own Clubs where they will see people who've just been racing socializing, having a good time and rather clearly being the sort of group that one would like to join.

Another objective of the LORC Executive is to reverse the fragmentation of yacht racing that has taken place over the years and try to bring all Fleets together in order to make a Club's Open Regatta a truly great event.

Those of us who have been around long enough remember regattas of 300-400 boats, many/most of which would go into the Host Club afterwards, dress ship and, quite simply, create a spectacle that could not other than impress all who saw it.

You can still see the same thing at Youngstown every year. We still have well over 300 boats racing within reach of Toronto but the effect of those numbers is lost because they're doing it on different schedules and in different places. Could we but bring them together under one umbrella - and it can be LORC or it can be any other name because it's the result that counts - then each of our main regattas on the North Shore could be a duplicate of Youngstown and that would be no bad thing for our sport.

We have more Yacht Clubs and many more yachts than we had twenty years ago - 10,000 yachts between RHYC and CBYC - and there is absolutely no reason save lack of will, lack of effort that we cannot recreate the truly great regattas.

Your LORC Regattas this season will generally comprise two race courses. One is being sponsored by North Sails and hence will be known as the North Sails Course. It is a One Design course presently intended for the J35's and J105's and any One Design Fleet that those two feel would be compatible with them. All other yachts will sail on what we'll term the Handicap Course (no reference to the occupants) and John Crawley has produced an ingenious solution - more about it later - to bring the finishing times of all Fleets on this course much closer together so that more time can be spent racing and much less waiting for other boats to finish.

It's a beginning only. Ultimately - and perhaps for some Clubs in this season - we will have four courses of which two will be One Design and two will be Handicap and obviously they'll each be divided as between larger boats and smaller boats so that all are racing in the most compatible divisions possible.

The Clubs have reacted to the fact that they will be receiving the bulk of the registration fees by agreeing that they will enhance the post-race activities. ABYC, for example, has promised to have a band and to provide drinks prepaid via your registration fees which, by the way, are exactly the same as last season. RCYC is doing a similar thing, EYC was already doing it last season and the season before and, to make a long story short, we believe that that will be the scene at each of our Clubs.

You will not be seeing the LORC Handbook this year. With LORC's new slimmed down approach to life, the contents of the Handbook will henceforth be found on the LORC Website (www.lorc.orq) and those of you who do not know how to access that should talk to the younger members of your crew - it's easy enough once you know how.

While in the LORC Website, take note of the names of our sponsors. They pay for their place and in doing so they contribute very significantly to LORC's budget. Please bear that in mind when you are shopping for the goods and services that these LORC supporters provide.

You are doubtless aware that the very first NOOD Regatta ever to take place out of the U.S.A. is coming to Toronto on the weekend of June 25^th/26^th/27^th 2004 and will be hosted jointly by RCYC and NYC.  ABYC has kindly agreed to run one course for us. Strong interest is being shown in this event both locally and from afar and it promises to be perhaps the greatest regatta event that has been seen on Lake Ontario in many years.

Mentioned here because the bringing of the NOOD Regatta to Lake Ontario is part of a program to restore yacht racing on Lake Ontario to the pre-eminence that it once had. True, some of us are getting older but others are being born, by and large we're all richer than we were twenty years ago and I have seen no sign that the idea of having fun has gone out of fashion so the message is let's stop talking about irreversible decline and get on with enjoying our sport, letting others see what a great sport it is and, most especially, let each of our regattas be the greatest thing that has happened in the yacht club for the year.

That's where the LORC Executive would like to go. You are each and every one invited - urged - to come with us.