This Week

OPTIS are Returning to Edgewood - Thursday Aug 4

A note of Greetings to OPTI SAILORS, Parents and Relatives,

What an awesome sailing season so far! We have had our biggest group of Opti Sailors in four years this summer !

If your Opti sailor is interested in experiencing an Opti regatta. please consider the following:

August 4 is NBYA’s Opti Regatta hosted by your very own Edgewood Yacht Club.
In order to participate, please:

1. Register your sailor. Go to the NBYA (Narragansett Bay Yachting Association) website and join the NBYA. Then scroll to the bottom of the website and register for “Optimist Regatta #3, Edgewood YC”. Note that membership and registration both require a minor fee.

2. Reserve a boat to use. Edgewood has 10 available boats. Don’t delay – reserve now, as the boats will be available first come first serve. To reserve a boat, please send the Head Instructor (Chris Crane) an email.

3. Prepare your sailor. The Sailing School will provide three half-day Opti regatta training (for a minimal fee) from Aug 1-Aug 3. While this prep is not required, participation will introduce your sailor to the world of regattas before the anticipated 80 Opti’s show up for the race.

4. Volunteer to help. A lot of adult volunteers are needed to make this regatta successful. There are three shifts we need to fill:

- 7:30am to 10:30am (on shore)
- 2pm to 5pm (on shore)
- 8am to 4pm (on the water and a great vantage point)

The half-day, shore-based time slots do not require regatta or sailing knowledge. You can volunteer for setup, snacks/food, beach patrol, greeter, clean up, and registration assistant. We will assign you to a job if you do not indicate a preference, or may ask you to work specific jobs as needed.

We will have a volunteer training session with each group the morning of Aug 4. Training will be quick and painless.

To volunteer, please email me and indicate the timeslot(s) you can work, and which job(s) you’d prefer to do.

In addition to the snack and hydration stations we will provide, all sailors need come to the regatta with a water bottle and lunch from home. At the end of the race, we will provide pizza or the equivalent (and more hydration stations) under the tent during a brief awards ceremony.

General Information:

There are four levels of Opti racing: Green fleet, White fleet, Blue fleet and Red fleet. The Green fleet is for starters and that is where our group will sail. It is limited by age and experience. Coaching is allowed during the race for Green Fleet sailors – this helps build their confidence as they get used to sailing with 35-40 other boats. This regatta is all about participation, not about competition.

The White, Blue and Red fleets sail together on a different course and are divided by age and experience.

The NOR or notice of race on the NBYA website lays out the schedule for sailors.

SCHEDULE FOR JUNIOR DAY REGATTAS:

0800 hours: Check-in and late registration at the host yacht club 0900 hours: Skippers’ Meeting

0930 hours: Harbor Start 1000 hours: Warning Signal for the first race at each circle 1600 hours: No race will be started after this time

Thanks for any and all help. Please feel free to email me, stop by with any questions during sailing school, or leave me a voicemail message at 401-785-3317 (I will return calls in the evening).

Sincerely,

Chris Crane
Head Instructor
EDGEWOOD SAILING SCHOOL

HELPFUL LINKS:

What is an Opti?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimist_(dinghy)

What is a regatta?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regatta

http://nbya.org/blog/?page_id=170%29

Chris Crane’s email: chriscrane@edgewoodsailing.org.

http://www.edgewoodsailing.org/youth/classes#course-55