CYC Educational Programs in the past

Past Talks

2008

CYC Rookie Rally

The CYC Rookie Rally is a FREE series of classroom sessions and informal on-the-water activities focused on new racers and crews looking to either hone their knowledge or move up to the skipper's role. The 2008 Rookie Rally starts Monday, May 19th, at CYC Shilshole at 7:00, with a kickoff session introducing sailboat racing, organization, and basic rules applied to starting, courses, how to read a Sailing Instructions, and a general plan for the following sessions based on participant needs and interests.

Three additional sessions are scheduled as follows:

June 2 : Starting & upwind legs : Rules during starting. Finding the favored end. Standard starting tactics. The advantaged side of the course vs. advantaged side of starting line. Rules when sailing to windward, and at the weather mark.
June 9 Downwind angles, gybing on wind shifts. Rules when sailing downwind. Leeward mark rounding rules and tactics. Favored end of the finish line. Rules when finishing.
June 16: Boatspeed Basics: Foils above and below water. Balance. Main, jib, and rig controls. Windward sail trim in light, medium, and heavy air. Downwind trim. How to read a tuning guide. Basic tuning for keelboats.

The recommended textbooks are "Getting Started in Sailboat Racing" by Adam Court and Richard Stearns and "Paul Elvstrom Explains the Racing Rules of Sailing"

2008 Rookie Rally Flyer (right click to save as...)

2007: Brian Watkins Tactics for Possession and Pully Point - Brian's presentation; Lake Tactics, Wayne Balsiger (Rainbow) leads the discussion, with Keith Whittemore ( Tundra Rose) and Sandy Pratt (Falcon) Presentation Notes
June 1: Discussion, video & photos of the 2007 505 Worlds from PNW sailors who were there
2006
October 28-29: 505 Clinic - report and pictures
September 8: "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Racing (But Were Afraid to Ask)"Frank Flannery and Kurt Hoehne
June 2: Rookie Rally 1
June 9: Rookie Rally 2
June 16: Rookie Rally 3
June 23: Rookie Rally 4
This year the Rookie Rally consists of a series of four class sessions by Bruce Vandeventer, based on the textbook "Getting Started in Sailboat Racing," by Adam Cort and Richard Stearns. The book costs under $10 at Amazon. If there is sufficient interest, we may supplement this with an on-the-water coaching event. All sessions are Fridays in June at Shilshole at 7:30 pm.
May 19 - Winning Swiftsure:: Tactics and Preparation. Shilshole Clubhouse. Speaker is Bruce Hedrick, Northwest Yachting Magazine.
March 10: Center Sound Tactics: Focusing on Possession and Pulley Point races. Shilshole clubhouse. Speaker is Jack Christiansen of North Sails.
April 7 - Shilshole:: Shilshole Bay and PSSR Tactics. Speakers: Mike Johnson from the laser fleet (Fish).
Mike will discuss Shilshole Bay local knowledge and the role that current plays. We plan to augment this with a second speaker from the keelboat fleets for North Course PSSR.
April 14 - Moved to May 5
April 28 - Leschi:: Team Racing. Speaker: Joe Petrucci, former sailing coach at Stanford University.
Joe gave an excellent introductory talk on this subject to the CYC J24 Team Racing teams a few years ago. If the J24s, Thistles, and other fleets get interested in team racing this season, we can supplement this with other talks.
May 5 - Leschi:: Winning on theLake: The Right Program, The Right Tactics. Speaker is Harry Dursch, J24 Self Abuse.
Harry celebrated 20 years of successful J24 racing recently, and no one knows the lake better.

Talks on foil design, sail trim and rig tuning, big fleet tactics, fleet racing rules, weather, communications, and other subjects are in planning stages; watch this space. Your ideas are welcome.