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As Spring
Newsletters go, this one is a tad on the late side.
Blame it on
the fact that I’ve been thinking long and hard about where keel boat racing
is going in the GTA, this against the background of the efforts LORC has
made in that direction over the past 2-3 years, the reaction of Clubs and
Fleets to those efforts and what, in July, 2006, I see as the result of that
mix.
Permit me
to summarize the direction that LORC took after I became Chair somewhere
around October, 2003.
Against the
background of a continuing decline in participation in the Clubs’ Open
Regattas and in the Offshore Events, LORC took the following steps:
1.
We decided to involve the Clubs more in the management of each Club’s
own Open Regatta and to this end passed the on-the-water race management
back to the Clubs. Hitherto this had been handled by LORC using the paid
services of Ted Chisholm.
2.
That enabled LORC to pass the bulk (90 percent) of Registration Fees
to the Clubs to give them funds with which to run a good event. In 2004 and
2005, the average passed to the Clubs was $4,500 each towards their regatta
expenses.
3.
LORC found funding to enable it to set up two courses – one for the
Handicap Fleets and another for the One Design Fleets. The objective was to
have all boats racing in company as compatible with them as possible.
4.
Recognizing that for some sailors spending five days at work and then
two days on the Lake might present domestic problems, we amended the regatta
format so that the Saturday became the Open Regatta day with prizes being
awarded that evening and the Sunday was simply a second day of racing for
those who wanted such a thing. This meant that those who wished to race
just on the Saturday and have Sunday left for other activities could do so
while those who wanted two days of racing had that choice as well.
5.
Along the same lines, we created an Under-30 course to provide
Saturday-only racing for such boats as Sharks, Thunderbirds, J24s and other
boats that might reasonably fit into such a course. We were aiming directly
at people sailing the Mid-Week Series within their own Clubs who might want
to mix it up with boats from other Clubs but were deterred firstly by the
2-day regatta format and, secondly, by the lack of a slot for them. Each
Club has far more mid-week racers than show up on weekends.
This course
presently attracts 10-12 Sharks and T-Birds each weekend – not a large
turnout but the first time these boats have been seen on a LORC course in 20
years and still but a beginning.
6.
We opened up more space between events by moving the five Offshore
events to the two ends of the season so as to have the summer open for our
six regattas which we then spread out as much as possible. This was to some
extent an exercise in frustration as we tried to fit the supposed major
events of yacht racing in the GTA into whatever space could be found for
them. We achieved something, I think.
7.
We began to promote the objective of a Club’s Open Regatta being the
signature event of its season and began talking of the 200 Plus Boat Regatta
created by persuading the Fleets – and Clubs – to focus their racing
activity on the Open Regatta Series rather than creating numerous smaller
single Fleet events. We held the NOOD and Youngstown up as examples of what
could be done by any Club in the GTA given the right combination of guts and
energy.
That was
the LORC program as it had developed and stood at the end of 2005, beginning
of 2006 and I asked the LORC Executive if they could put up with me as Chair
for one more year because I’d like to see the thing to fruition. They were
kind enough not to express any reservations in the matter. At least not to
me.
Just about
here would be a good point to review LORC – what it is, who created it and
what it is for.
LORC IS A
CREATION OF THE CLUBS AND ITS EXECUTIVE IS COMPOSED OF REPRESENTATIVES
APPOINTED BY THOSE CLUBS TO DO LORC’S WORK WHICH, PER ITS CONSTITUTION, IS
“TO PROMOTE COMPETITIVE SAILING IN THE GREATER TORONTO AREA OF LAKE ONTARIO
AND TO CO-ORDINATE RACING FOR MEMBER CLUBS”.
I believe
that in the steps outlined above, the LORC Executive was doing precisely
what it was created to do and that it deserved the support of the Clubs who
had created and appointed it and should have received support from the
Fleets whose own interests the LORC program was designed to promote. Fewer
but better and bigger events has been the cry from sailors and that was
exactly the direction in which LORC was aimed. We felt we were on a path
that the Clubs and Fleets should approve.
They
didn’t. The One Design Fleets (J105s, Beneteau First 36.7s and C&C99s)
broke away from LORC to deal directly with the Clubs - specifically PCYC,
RCYC and EYC – and said that they would not be present at the QCYC, NYC and
ABYC Regattas.
This was
something they were perfectly entitled to do just as other fleets such as
Sharks and J24s have done before them but the step is not one that will lead
to the growth of yacht racing in the GTA, nor is it likely to lead to growth
in the numbers in their own fleets. Witness the effects so far in 2006.
The path to
the rebirth – or perhaps even the survival – of yacht racing in the GTA does
not lie in the continued division of our Fleets and the events in which they
take part into smaller and smaller pieces which have little impact in the
Clubs where they take place. The path to the rebirth of yacht racing in the
GTA lies in bringing together the several hundred boats that are racing
regularly hereabouts into events that will have impact within the clubs
where they take place, will attract boats from clubs outside the GTA and may
also cause other boat owners and non-boat owners to observe that ours is an
activity and a group worthy of participation.
The problem
that LORC has in achieving its objectives is that the Clubs who created it,
and whose representative it is supposed to be, give it no backing whatever.
I have yet to hear of any Club saying to a Fleet that approaches it to put
on an event that it should go through LORC which, again according to its
Constitution, has the duty on behalf of the Clubs to “co-ordinate and
promote yacht racing” in the GTA.
Should LORC
have that kind of power? Well, co-ordination and promotion are both
certainly very much needed and they won’t happen without somebody having
some authority. If the existing structure of LORC does not have the
confidence of the Clubs to do the job, then it should be replaced perhaps by
a committee at the Vice/Rear Commodore level from each of the Clubs to
perform this function with the authority of the Clubs to do so and to bind
them to its decisions. This won’t, I think, produce a better LORC Executive
than exists now but it might produce one that will be listened to.
There is no
sense whatever in the existence of a LORC with its supposed mandate existing
within a structure wherein any Club, any Fleet can make arrangements outside
the supposed organizing / co-ordinating / promoting body without any regard
for what that same body has been established to accomplish on behalf of
those Clubs, those Fleets.
I would
propose the following steps:
1.
If there is to be any organization to local racing, then there must
be one organizing body. If LORC, as presently structured, does not have the
confidence of the Clubs, then they should restructure it so that it does.
For example, each Club make its Vice/Rear Commodore Fleet its LORC
Representative with power to bind the Club to LORC decisions or at least
bring them as recommendations to the Club Executive.
An
organizing body must have the power to organize.
2.
Each Club should form a Committee / Sub-Committee to organize its
Open Regatta – just as they do at Youngstown, just as we did at RCYC and NYC
for the NOOD and just, I think, as PCYC did for the excellent Regatta that
it put on just a few weeks ago.
That
Committee should engage with the Fleets and find out what it takes to
attract most especially the competitive fleets to the regatta – what they’re
looking for in the way of courses, course management, etc. The social event
also has its importance and should be properly planned for. The same
examples apply.
Clubs
should not just wait for LORC to come up with a schedule and rely on the
fact that their Open Regatta has one line therein to produce a good event.
It takes a lot more than that to do it properly. Let’s wake up to that
fact.
3.
Arrange for the Clubs to combine resources for the on-the-water
running of each Open Regatta, meaning thereby equipment and personnel. As
the numbers at regattas increase, a good quality of racing will require the
establishment of more courses. At 200 boats, each Open Regatta would need
four courses and the equipment and personnel to run them.
A matrix is
attached which gives an idea of how such a thing could be accomplished
without placing undue strain on the resources of any one Club or indeed of
any of the Clubs. Less a proposal than a “for instance”.
4.
Vital to improve the number and calibre of Race Officers so that a
good quality of management will be available on each course and no one Fleet
or group of Fleets gets stuck with poor race management. The LORC Committee
or a sub-committee thereof should regulate and govern this or, better
expressed, see that it happens.
To attract
volunteer PROs, recognition is essential. Trophies for the PROs at the
Annual Banquet might feature in the scheme as would well made jackets
proclaiming their status to the world to be worn around the yacht clubs.
Additionally, a Club running a 200-boat regatta would have enough income
from it (about $8,000 at present LORC rates) to allow it, if necessary, to
hire PROs from outside of the GTA, typically at a cost of $300 per day plus
expenses.
Quality
race management is absolutely essential if the Fleets are to be content with
the structure being proposed here. If it’s done right, Fleets should be
more than content – they should be enthusiastic about the results that are
being achieved. It is for the race organizers to see that they have reason
to be so. It doesn’t just happen – planning and effort are needed. A
program created by LORC – or whatever may replace it – and in cooperation
with the Clubs to recruit personnel to this task and to ensure that they
receive recognition is needed.
After
nearly three years as Chair of LORC, I’d have to say that the Executive of
LORC is as good and enthusiastic a group as I’ve encountered but all of that
goes for nothing if the Clubs we are supposed to represent are unaware of
the issues that LORC has to deal with and its lack of effective means to do
so.
Every
single one of our Clubs was founded by people who were enthusiastic about
yachting and yacht racing and they were founded to develop and promote that
sport, something that is expressed in the Constitution and By-Laws of my own
Club and doubtless in those of the other Clubs to whom this is in fact
addressed. Yacht Racing has been in decline in this area for the past
twenty years (Decline? RCYC’s 2006 Regatta mustered 60 boats. Twenty years
ago, it mustered 490) and it is past time that the Executives of those Clubs
took note of this and put a little energy into repaying some of the debt
that is owed to those from whom we inherited our Clubs.
It is the
Clubs who provide the premises, the equipment and the personnel to run every
regatta or other sailing event in the waters off the GTA. It is the Clubs
whose entire raison d’être is the pastime of sailing and the sport of yacht
racing.
It is for
the Executive of those Clubs to decide the basis on which keel boat racing
will be conducted and promoted in the GTA and to do so on a basis that
pursues the larger agenda rather than a proliferation of many smaller ones.
Consider
this an appeal to the Executive of each of our Open Regatta Clubs (whether
composed of cruisers or of racers) to recognize what their Clubs are really
FOR. With perhaps one or two exceptions – and I was at the PCYC Regatta
this past weekend and you need look no further for an example to follow to
better regattas – there is little evidence that any Club has an actual
agenda for the promotion of keel boat racing within the Cub itself or in the
GTA. I know that each Executive has many other cares but Yacht Racing is at
the very core of what your Club is all about and for far too long you’ve
been watching it slide down the toilet and doing precisely nothing about it.
This is my
last year as Chair of LORC and this is my last Newsletter. The Executive of
LORC has put in a great effort to revive our sport in the GTA but, again,
without any backing from the Clubs which is why this Newsletter is not just
being posted on the LORC website but is also being Fedexed to the Commodore
of each of LORC’s 20 Member Clubs. That way it might be read by people who
can and will take needed action.
Chris
Steer,
LORC Chair.
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