Carissa --
This will be my last emaii on this topic, having spent way too much time
already. But, apparently, you have missed some points.
-- you asked for feedback, if you don't really want it, then don't bother to
ask and don't dismiss it as "ranting."
-- the reason that we did this split of racing saturday with YRA and Sunday
with TISC was because several expresses had signed-up for the YRA party
circuit, which we were led to believe included your event. Further
confirmation of this theory was obtained when your own website linked to the
YRA SIs... this point you still do not seem to get.
You have heard from 3 expresses who did the event, I would encourage others
who did it to give you feedback, if you really want it. I have cc'd the
other boats who raced, so they can comment also.
Finally, your goals with the Sailstice are admirable and you are to be
commended; I never intended my comments to detract from your contributions
to the Sailstice. However, it may well be that the goals of the sailstice
are incongruent with the racing goals of the express fleet. However, as I
mentioned earlier, in an effort to be constructive (which you chose to
ignore): perhaps you could develop some sort of "fun race" that the
expresses could particpate in to involve some of the kids --you could
imagine some sort of team racing format, or something.
I will leave any further feedback to others...
Mark Lowry
e27 Poobah
-----Original Message-----
From: carisa_harris at yahoo.com [mailto:carisa_harris at yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 7:16 AM
To: MarkLowry; '#46BrendanBusch'; Specforc12 at aol.com;
jnadamson at yahoo.com; robbie.dean at tisailing.org; john at summersailstice.com
Cc: 'RobbieDean'; 'JohnArndt'
Subject: RE: Summer Sailstice
Mark & Tibor,
You both obviously have strong feelings about this given the length of time
you have spent ranting about how terrible the event was. I might point out
that we had a nice keelboat course run by Matt Jones all set up for you on
Saturday and that it was your fleet leadership that requested to sail half
YRA party circuit and half on the TI course- that was no picnic for us at
the 11th hour either. You both have some good feedback which we will take
into account for next year.
However, at this point if the majority in your fleet have the same approach
to the summer sailstice as you both do, then perhaps this is not a good
match and the fleet should not put it on its schedule. If there are others
in the fleet who would like to work with us on making it a better event for
the fleet, while keeping in mind the purpose of the event, then we can talk
about including the Express 27 fleet next year. At this point I think it
would be more constructive if others communicated about that possibility.
Our rep will be Nick Adamson as he will be coordinating the fleets for next
year, and I am hoping that he can connect with someone else from your fleet
who can be involved in a more constructive hands on manner.
If you have someone in mind please let Nick know. Despite these recent
interactions, I am very appreciative of many people in your fleet who have
supported TISC in many ways and hope that we can move forward in a positive
direction with one of them representing your fleet.
Enjoy the rest of your summer.
Carisa
-----Original Message-----
From: "Mark Lowry" <MarkELowry at comcast.net>
Subj: RE: Summer Sailstice
Date: Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:39 pm
Size: 39K
To: "Carisa_Harris" <carisa_harris at yahoo.com>,"'#46 Brendan Busch'"
<brendanb at sfsail.com>,<Specforc12 at aol.com>
cc: "'Robbie Dean'" <robbie.dean at tisailing.org>,"'John Arndt'"
<john at summersailstice.com>
Carissa --
Sorry, I was a tad too direct. I am consumed with my own "community
service commitments" at the moment, having nothing to do with sailing....
so, I didn't take the time to be diplomatic. But let me be a little more
precise and constructive (hopefully) this time.
-- The SI issue was a real pain. Even on your own website you were linked
to the YRA SIs and not your own. Why weren't you linked to John Super's
SIs... I'm guessing they were the official TISC SIs.... but, I'm still not
certain. This whole linkage with YRA is still not clear to me. These kinds
of things need to be very crisply spelled out way in advance. Usually, the
club hosting the regatta will email the fleet reps a couple of weeks in
advance of the event with a NOR (notice of race) and entry form. If you
want to see examples of those I can send you some.
-- In the NOR, usually is where you will find details about dockage space
and protocols, etc. This was never spelled out clearly anywhere that I
could find.
-- If you want to get the fleet engaged in your youth outreach activities
and get kids on the boats, etc. I would recommend a separate "fun race" or
something. Most of the expresses take their racing pretty seriously and go
out practicing with their dedicated crew. Bringing some kids along as
"passengers" on a race that counted is not something folks would go for...
though I did see Buzz on Saturday with a bunch of kids on his boat-- not
sure if that is what he was doing or not. On the other hand, I don;t think
Buzz is on a trajectory to have done enough races to qualify for the
season.... so, he likely wasn't taking the Saturday races very seriously.
-- The only food left when we got there (~6:30, since we sailed back to
RYC and drove over) was chicken which I waited for in line for 30 minutes
to get. They were cooking one batch at a time rather than staggering
batches... which it appeared they had the capacity to do; which would have
made the wait much less. Eating whole chicken on the carcass with plastic
cutlery doesn't work well either. You need something that is a little
easier to handle at these kinds of events. Personally, I don't like whole
chicken its too greasy, I only eat white meat chicken... I think that is a
majority opinion these days. And there were no longer any side dishes
left.
-- The bar choices were not adequate... cmon I won't restrain myself here.
They were pathetic. I am more than willing to pay more at a cash bar,
rather than the all you drink thing. Life is too damn short to drink bad
wine. My suggestion is have a separate cash bar, you can make some $$$ on
it and you will likely come up with something that a picky bastard like
myself is willing to drink.
-- The class president (that would be me, but hopefully I can find a
replacement at our national meeting) usually is the one who puts the
express schedule together and is the point of contact. You will be able to
find that unlucky stuckee, whoever that may be for next year, from our
website... www.express27.org This year, Brendan volunteered to take on the
responsibility for putting the schedule together (because my pleas for
somebody else to take over my position went unanswered at the last fleet
meeting and Brendan agreed to help takesome of the load in that way)and
Brendan became the POC by default in some cases, I guess this one in
particular.
-- I doubt if the Express fleet's desires for regatta management are any
different than any other competitive keel-boat class on the bay. So, If you
want to attract that kind of fleet to this event--which by the way, I'm not
sure thats the right thing for what you are trying to accomplish--you will
need to make the sort of adjustments we are trying to recommend.
Tibor just called me with some "feedback" on how this event was handled. I
encouraged him to contact you with a rundown on his experiences. Bare in
mind, the express fleet is a democracy, my opinion only counts as one of
many. I just try to hurd the cats as best I can. My point is that if the
fleet decides they want to have this on the schedule then it will be on the
schedule. So, what other people in the fleet have to say, you should listen
to... if you have the bandwidth.
Cheers,
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: Carisa_Harris [mailto:carisa_harris at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 12:09 PM
To: 'Mark Lowry'; '#46 Brendan Busch'; Specforc12 at aol.com
Cc: 'Robbie Dean'; 'John Arndt'
Subject: Summer Sailstice
Mark & Brendan,
I would really like to chat with you both when you have a chance. I have
spoken with Buzz and understand the issues that he encountered.
Mark, Yes- your email is incredibly harsh for someone who has spent a lot
of volunteer hours this year trying to make that event happen, much less
the organization exist. I am very sorry if you felt the weekend was a waste
of your time but frankly, the lack of constructive criticism on how we can
make the event better for the Express 27’s is discouraging- especially with
the amount of sailing and work time I and others on the committee have
forgone to get you others out on the water and provide a fun event.
The goal of this event is to celebrate sailing and encourage participation
in sailing. This event is unique in the bay area because it is a
multi-age, multi class event. It is important that kids interact with
adults in sailing and see what sailing has to offer as they get older, and
I hope it is fun for adults to see kids out there in their optis and other
dinghies- and encourage the kids as they certainly are the future class
members, racers, and crew. To take this a step further, we are talking to
the J24 fleet to see if we can pair up a kid from our program on each of
their boats for this event next year. It would be a great opportunity for
our kids from TISC to experience keelboat racing. And finally, this event
does help support hundreds of kids through summer camp. In fact about 150
kids will enjoy summer sailing camp this year because of this event. These
are the main reasons that I hope the Express 27 fleet will want to be
involved in this event, and involved in the planning stages of the event as
it pertains to the Express 27 fleet.
In regards to your comments, we have had the same beer sponsor for the
past 5 years and we have decided to make it primarily a beer and wine event
due to it being a multiage event. We had some disgruntled parents 2 years
ago and have compromised with minimal liquor- the only one being Mt Gay, a
long time sponsor of Summer Sailstice. I am sorry that the wine was not
your liking- that was a new sponsor. I am wondering if you did not like the
food or if they had run out of it Again, I thought the rotisserie chicken
was great but it is not clear to me if it was the menu or the lack of food
when you got there that was dissatisfying. I don’t believe the Express 27
group asked for a meeting space this year- of course that is something we
would accommodate if requested before the event.
From what I gather from Buzz, the TI One design race course had good
racing on Sunday. If the fleet was not happy with the Saturday racing that
YRA put on, I might suggest to sail on the TI Small Keelboat Course both
days next year should the fleet want to participate in the event. We have
no authority or say as to what the YRA and their race committee does for
their course on Saturday.
The most disturbing comment that I heard was from Buzz regarding the TI
Marina pushing him away. I feel terrible about that since it was our
agreement with TI Marina that the Exp 27 fleet and the J24 fleet would have
room. Next year we will take dock space reservations via our website so we
can avoid confusion. We will also work on land and water shuttles from 4
corners of the bay (Alameda, Marin, Marina district and South Beach).
We would like to make this event a success and something that everyone at
TISC and in San Francisco is proud of. Obviously we are not there yet. It
is clear that if the Express 27 fleet is going to have a positive
experience with this event in the future, we need one representative who
can be a part of the race management planning to keep us thinking about the
potential issues that will come up with the inclusion of your fleet before
they are a problem. This would be minimal as far as time commitment goes
(phone conversations & 2-3 meetings over the next year)- unfortunately we
are not very savvy at anticipating the issues when it comes to the Exp 27
fleet.
As I mentioned, I am happy to chat with you and Brendan or anyone else
from the Express 27 fleet regarding other comments from this year as well
as steps to take for next year should the fleet want to participate. I can
be reached at 415.640.0563.
Carisa
From: Mark Lowry [mailto:MarkELowry at comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 11:40 PM
To: Carisa_Harris; '#46 Brendan Busch'; Specforc12 at aol.com
Cc: 'Robbie Dean'; info at tisailing.org
Subject: RE: Info for Sunday's race?
Carisa, et. al.
I received the email below from Buzz Blackett..sent to
info at tisailing.org. his input pretty well sums up my thoughts as well. But,
I won't be as polite as Buzz--Unless you do some major revamping, I
wouldn't recommend putting it on the Express schedule again. You guys just
don't have the facilities, frankly, to do a sail in regatta. I did go to
the party andwhat little food you had left was below average for regattas
(and that's not a very high standard)and the all you can drink booze thing
would have been nice, but you didn't have anything that I cared to drink
(really one choice of beer, some totally disgusting wine and rum, but the
only thing to mix with was soda water or coke, eh? whats up with
that?)....sorry, if I'm being overly direct, but I find it gets the point
across a lot more clearly--I know you had many volunteers working hard to
pull this off, so I'm sorry that I have to give you such a bad grade. 2
years ago, the party was much better... you had good booze and lots of
it... and as I recall the food was better, and you also kindly accomodated
an express meeting for us. So, I was a little surprised at the quality of
the event this time.
Oh, and you also owe me (and I think 3 other expresses a refund on the
rego fee, since we paid YRA). Let me know if you need contact info for the
expresses need a refund.
I have also bcc'd the express27 email reflector so any express can give
you feedback directly.
Buzz, sorry about all the confusion, at the eleventh-hour last week, I
begain getting conflicting emails and SIs from the TISC folks and tried to
unravel the mess, but there wasn't enough time to get word out. I didsend
an email out to the fleet list, butit got stuck in the server for a day, so
you proably didn't get it till late Friday. I don't think the Saturday
course had anything to do with TISC, that was YRA and RegattaPro... so not
even sure that they had any access to TISC equipment...the whole thing was
very confusing. Good job on Sunday by the way...
Mark Lowry
e27 Poobah
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Hi. We sailed this weekend in the Sailstice Regatta in our Express 27,
New Wave. We enjoyed the racing and appreciated all the work the TI Sailing
Association did this year and in past years hosting the regatta. I do have
some suggestions, however.
First, either make some arrangements with the people in charge of the
marina at the western edge of the TI basin to offer limited overnight
berthing or warn keel-boat competitors in the NOR or SIs that you can't
plan to stay in the basin overnight (or even for the party). We planned to
stay on Saturday night and goto the party. But when I brought our boat over
from Richmond on Saturday morning to pick up crew at the guest dock, within
5 minutes the harbor master came over to tell us there was no room and that
we had to leave. (Luckily, the crew were already on the dock.) Similarly,
when we came back in after racing and tied up at the end of the dock at the
marina to use the head and drop off the crew, we had another visit from a
different harbor master telling us the same thing. As a result of all this,
I decided to take the boat back to the docks at Richmond for Saturday night
and none of us attended the party. The harbor masters weren't rude, but
they clearly didn't care at all about the visiting sailors or the Sailstice
regatta.
Second, give the race committee for the Charlie Course more chase boats
and man-power. We wasted at least one and a half hours on Saturday between
races while the committee finished all fleets on the race course before
starting the next race. Because of the adjacent start and finish lines, the
committee had the ability to runstarts while boates in other classes are
finishing. But they didn't use that ability, apparently because they didn't
have enough people on the committee boat and they didn't have the ability
to respond to the shifty breeze and move the weather mark. It was
frustrating for the competitors and, I'm sure, for the committee as well.
In any event, at least three boats in our fleet went home early, before the
third race.
Anyway, thanks again. And let me know if there's some solution to the
berthing problem thatI don't know about.
Hill Blackett, III | Friedman Dumas & Springwater LLP
150 Spear Street, Suite 1600 | San Francisco, CA 94105
O 415.834.3807 M 510.917.0165
F 415.834.1044
hblackett at friedumspring.com | www.friedumspring.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Carisa_Harris [mailto:carisa_harris at yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 11:14 PM
To: 'Mark Lowry'; '#46 Brendan Busch'; Specforc12 at aol.com
Cc: 'Robbie Dean'
Subject: RE: Info for Sunday's race?
Mark, Tibor and Brendan,
There will be raft up space at TI Marina for racing boats and there will
be a watershuttle throughout the night. The TISC docks will need to be used
for Race Committee boats, water shuttle access, and boat rides by J Boats.
Anchoring is an option that is already being used by many cruisers who
pulled in tonight.
You’ll have to tell me over a beer why anchoring is so disliked by racing
boats. I grew up anchoring everything from a blue jay to a swan in various
harbors during large regattas but I must be missing something! In any case,
Almar (the TI Marina) is a sponsor of the event and will do everything they
can to accommodate boats who want to raft up on the dock.
See you soonJ I have to get back to work!
Carisa
From: Mark Lowry [mailto:MarkELowry at comcast.net]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 9:36 PM
To: #46 Brendan Busch; carisa_harris at yahoo.com; Specforc12 at aol.com
Subject: RE: Info for Sunday's race?
Importance: High
Carisa, Brendan --
Please note Tibor's question below. I have heard nothing definitive about
whether or not there will be a place for the expresses to tie-up for the
night. If there is, please let Tibor know. At this point, I would expect
that most of the fleet intends to sail back to their own docks for the
night. Anyway, that is my plan. If we go to the party, we will drive.
I'm sure that anchoring for the night, as I saw suggested at one point
was a non-starter with everybody.
Thanks,
Mark Lowry
-----Original Message-----
From: Specforc12 at aol.com [mailto:Specforc12 at aol.com]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 8:13 PM
To: MarkELowry at comcast.net
Subject: Info for Sunday's race?
Hey Mark,
Thanks in advance, for sending me info regarding Sunday's itinerary for
the SUMMER SAILSTICE.
By the way, did Brendan Busch secure us rights for rafting at TISC's
docks? I saw him in the store a few days ago and he said he was working on
that. Any, info regarding that would be much obliged.
Regards,
Tibor
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