The Publisher
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Oct 6, 2009, 11:56 AM
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Re: [The Publisher] 2009 Laser No Coast Masters Championship
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When I received the Laser race report from the 2009 Laser No Coast Masters Championship in Park City, UT, I was really curious what was going on there. You see, I have gone to PC several times to ski, have friends with homes there, and the conversation has never turned to sailing.
So I contacted the leaders of the organization, and in that I think there might be something to be learned here, I have posted their information:
Geoff Hurwitch, Founder and President of the PCSA:
History of sailing in PC: The Jordanelle is a relatively new reservoir, created in the mid-to-late nineties. Before then, there was a Laser fleet in the area but they sailed on the Deer Creek Reservoir down in Midway and mostly on weekends, contending with the waterskiers and Personal Watercraft. Having a body of water less than half the distance away from Park City has made a huge difference in the success of our fleet.
The PCSA was formed in March of '08 between myself and a neighbor who had a Laser. I had recently sold my Laser to a friend in Park City so I volunteered to run the races and organize the start up of the fleet. I've focused my energy in this way for the two seasons of the fleet, borrowing boats to race from time to time until just yesterday when I received my new boat.
We marketed the program through local flyers in key establishments like Starbucks, grocery stores, local restaurants...etc. I also ran a classified in the local online news source, ksl.com for the two early parts of the first two seasons, that also helped to get the word out. Right at the beginning I created a Yahoo group that enabled the members to communicate and for me to post Laser specific files and results for the series. We also reached out to the local newspaper, the Park Record, and after that article ran on us, we had a huge upsurge in membership.
When we started up the group we counted about 2 or 3 Lasers. Our goals in the first year were 3-5 Lasers and year two was 6-10 Lasers with year three's goals being about 15 Lasers. Our year end count after the first season was about 20 boats and at the end of year two we're at 58. I wouldn't say this is normal by any means but clearly there was a need for this sailing community in this area.
The Park City area has many transplants, people from all over the United States, who in their own way contribute to the success of the program and the level of the racing. We have many from the Northeast, Midwest, Texas, California and even France. Among those people we have a Collegiate All-American, top-level Snipe sailor and class officer, former pro-sailors from Newport...the list goes on.
Currently we only race Lasers on the Jordanelle on Tuesday nights. For 2010, we're in the process of developing a Junior Program using the Optimist as our key boat. We haven't even had a single class for sailing and we already have 16 Optimists in our fleet. We're excited for that development and we are also considering plans for developing a two-person racing class, ideally a husband/wife sailing team fleet for 2011 possibly.
We don't race on the weekends because of a few reasons, first of all, I didn't want the series to interfere with people's precious weekend time with their families or with other activities, also we'd have the exact same problem as the previous Laser racing group had, we'd have to compete for parking spaces and water space with the Personal Watercraft. We share the parking lot and ramp with the PWCs. Also, the park has a maximum capacity and sometimes on the weekends that's reached which means some racers could get turned away or forced to wait for entry to the park.
Our fleet size is 58 Lasers as I write, we just took delivery of three new boats yesterday (including mine, finally). We expect to be over sixty before sailing resumes in the Spring. Our highest turnout of the season was 25 boats for a night of racing but for next year we also expect to be averaging closer to 30.
There were a surprising number of Lasers lurking in the Salt Lake City area and through our advertisement in the local free classifieds I received emails and phone calls from a number of people both looking to sell or buy a Laser. At this point we've pretty much tapped out the area for used Lasers so we've started to look further afield having picked up a few boats from Colorado, Arizona, California...etc. We also struck up a good relationship with George Yioulus from West Coast Sailing in Portland, OR. His excellent customer service and quick turn-around on parts and accessories has been great for our fleet. We've bought nearly 20 new or used Lasers from him in just over a year.
Our actual sailing season is every Tuesday night in June, July, August and September. We do start sailing/practicing in May and hold an early season demo and opportunity to dial one's boat in preseason. We are also looking to hold an event later in October for fun, just an afternoon of racing with a BBQ at the end. The lake does freeze and the water is awfully cold in May but bearable, we're limited more by the Park's schedule which is May 1st to October 31st. However, in October we can suffer from cold days with snow so sailing past October isn't always a good idea anyways. Last week we held the Masters No Coast and District 23 Championships in sunny and 70+ degree weather, two days later it snowed 4" so to the say the least, we were lucky.
I believe there are a few key elements to the success of a fleet at this point and I think the world's level of technology has a lot to do with that. We communicate a lot with the Yahoo group and that allows everybody to find others to sail with on weekends, post gear for sale, throw their two cents in on technique, rules, etc. It also allows us in the leadership of the fleet to communicate quickly with everybody and to share our enthusiasm. That enthusiasm is another key element of the fleet. All of our officers are experienced sailors who combine their knowledge and experience to teach and lead all new sailors in the fleet. We've hosted clinics on weekends, rules discussions at night during the pre-season and kangaroo courts after racing to continually improve the skills of all of the sailors in the fleet. I used to live near Burlington, VT and I sailed in the Tuesday night Laser racing at the Mallett's Bay Boat Club and I modeled my energy and involvement in the leadership of the fleet from Al Russell who leads that fleet. I believe having that sparkplug of a person is key to the success of the fleet as well as having a depth in the additional leaders in the group.
Our further growth will of course be increased by our Junior Program, creating a feeder system to the Laser series. We've been fortunate that clearly there is a need for a sailing program in our area. A lot of people moved here for the lifestyle that Park City offers and the great skiing in the Winter but had given up their sailing careers for the time being. We've now been able to offer a return to sailing for those people and it given our area a more complete offering of sports in the outdoor life that we all live here.
Ken Block, VP of PCSA, adds a few points of his own:
1. Having someone as dedicated as Geoff driving this 24/7 has been key.
2. His decision to use the Yahoo Sports group as our primary point of contact is critical. (Craig you should take a look at the site). Geoff can get you signed up as a member. Instead of seeing everyone weekly, the Yahoo Group keep us connected every day and the banter is lots of fun .
3. We use a 15 minute chalk talk before racing to work on areas that the fleet can use improvements on. Starts, roundings, particular rules.. This has kept a spirit of continuous improvement and has really helped the overall caliber of racing. We also do informal rules discussions post racing called, "kangaroo court". Additionally we ran 3 racing seminars during the season to help get more of the fleet up to speed.
4. EVERY Aspect of our planning is based on long term sustainability. The leadership team has watched fleets come and go and since we live in a small market we keep our focus on what will keep us growing over the long term as opposed to what may get us a few more boats next year.
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