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The following is the late June
update on the Opti NE Championship Regatta from Ron Breault, Regatta Chair.
Ron wrote this to keep the regatta sub-committees and the Board of Governors
informed but we are sharing it with the entire club so that all our members
know what is happening with this major event. In our last report in May one of the nicer details I shared
with you was that we upgraded the volunteer shirt from a tee shirt to a nice embroidered
polo shirt! In this report one of the nicer details I want to share with you is
that we have had an incredible response from club members offering to help out
with this regatta. I wonder if these two incidents are related? Anyway, thanks
to the team leaders who have weathered the wilderness of the early months, and
thanks to all those volunteers, over 160, who are, with the help of a lot of
kids, going make this a great regatta. My favorite lead in for these reports is “The devil is
always in the details” and I apologize for saying it again. Here is the
detail as I understand it. If there is a devil here and you see her please let
me know. And as usual apologies to you who already know much of this – we
have people who are new to this project and this report helps bring them up to
speed. I will review this report with the NBYC Board on June 26 and then we
will email this to all club members who are on our list. 1. Race Committees – Chairs are Jim
Hall, Championship Fleet and Wick Haylon, Green Fleet. They are pretty much set
on their committees and boat needs. Jim went to the Opti Challenge Regatta in Newport
in mid June to work with their race committee, and especially with Ron Hopkins who
was their Principle Race Officer, and who will be our PRO as well. Steffie Hall,
who heads up our Registration Tent Team, also went to We have drafts of proposed Sailing Instructions which Jim
and Wick are working on to get the NBYC flavor we need to run a good regatta on
2. Judges – Means
Davis, our Chief Judge, has commitments from 9 of 10 judges we need for this
event. We will have a copy machine available for the judges, and a back up if
needed. And one thing we learned from the Bellport trip is that these judges
are cruising around all day at low speeds – conditions ripe for engine
troubles. We will have to get our arms around this to avoid a mad judge –
never a good thing! 3. Site – Dick
Morris. We have been getting great support from Dave Putnam and his EL Park
& Rec Dept to make this regatta special for the competitors and the town.
They have started their improvement efforts on the access road from
McCook’s Park to Hole in the Dick got the OK from Amtrak to run a fire hose under the
tracks and we will have a 5 station fresh water wash down area set up off the
egress path from the beach. We will have 2 tents, a 40’ x 100’ competitor
tent and a 45’ x 45’ tent for registration, administration,
communications and Judges’ Protest Rooms. They will be set up by Dusty
Staub and his people by August 4. The placement of our tents, the Charter Boat
trailers and Vender tents, and the western edges of the Opti parking spaces
create a large quadrangle edge in front of the registration tent where we can
hold our skippers’ and other general meetings. Our H&H design
engineering team (Hunt and Harlan) is working on our 2 Regatta Notice Boards,
determining the proper materials and exactly how much thumb pressure is
necessary etc, etc… 4. Traffic and Parking - Bruce
Moulthrop is heading up this team. We are expecting the backbone of our traffic
and parking team will be 10+ Police Explorers. He has met with EL authorities
and completed a review of the anticipated traffic and parking issues. We are
developing a list of parking traffic directing signs. 5. Opti Greet and Unload Team (OGUT)
– Don Landers leads this 14 person group who will meet and
help unload the competitor vehicles at Hole in the Wall on Registration
Day, Sunday, August 6. They will expedite the movement of the kids and
their boats through Hole in the Wall, and the vehicles down the right of way
into the back entrance of Rogers Field. 6. 7. Temporary Docks Hunt Foster. This
200’ long temporary dock system will be built from good condition used
docks, very similar to ours that we purchased from Chester Marina in For those coach and support boats that exceed the total of 60 +/- boats that we can handle at
the Temporary dock, and for visiting spectator yachts, NBYC will provide free launch service from the
Special Anchorage north of the club to the head of the temporary
dock. 8. Security Dick Morris. We will have security
provided by 2 9. Safety Jim Perkins. Jim
will have 3 NBYC safety boats and oversee the number flagged and ‘deputized’
coach and support boats who will supplement the on water safety team. We will
have EMT’s on the water and will have communications links with emergency
services. 10. Public Relations – Franz
Edson. We had an ad that appeared in the latest issue of OptiNews and Franz had
an article in the magazine as well. The May issue of Windcheck had a full
column article, and the ECSA Junior Yearbook coming out this week will also
have an ad. The Lyme Times had an article in their Briefs section last week. Info
regarding the event has been communicated to USSA, all NE, NY and NJ YRAs, and
of course USODA and their website. We have provided regatta posters to over 100
yacht clubs in 5 YRA’s. We are hopeful that The Day and the Lyme Times
will have in depth articles soon. Steve Knauth of Off Soundings has
promised an article. The efforts of the Niantic Merchants to promote their free
OPTI drawing should have a major impact on awareness in the community (see more
info below) 12. Banners and Signs Our first
banner went up at NBYC before Memorial Day. A 20’ banner is planned for
the town green and we will have several sponsor banners up in the Park as well.
We are working with Candy Shapiro and the Niantic Merchants so that we have a
coordinated sign presentation based on our event logo. We will have parking,
directions and participating merchant store signs. 13. Competitor Tee Shirts and Volunteer
shirts – As
soon as we get a few more entries we will be able to project a size mix and
order the silk screened regatta tee shirts for competitors – probably by
July 8. These will, of course, be awesome. I will place the order for our Volunteer shirts the week of
June 26. This is a light grey polo shirt with our regatta logo embroidered
above the left breast. We labored hard to get our volunteer names matched up to
their size. For those who did not get their size in on time your only hope is
we guessed right! Right now, our plan is to distribute nearly 180!!! Volunteer regatta shirts during the
week of July 24. This will be done by arrangement with Team leaders, and a final
distribution under the Registration tent starting at 10AM on Saturday, Aug 5
– a busy get-ready day for Volunteers. Steffie Hall and her
registration team will handle this process. We ask all volunteers to wear their Regatta shirt at least on
Sunday. 14. Other Regatta Staff Identification We continue
to struggle with this as we need
to be cost effective as well as cool. I
have been shot down on my straw hat idea, and received a mixed response to
baseball type hats, and the blue and orange pinnies are ahhhh… problematic.
My current favorite still is a wide brightly colored ribbon type lanyard,
perhaps silk screened “Regatta Official”, from which is hung in the
front a plastic enclosed ID card. A decision is expected shortly. 16. Pre-registration Matt Dowd. Matt
has completed the Access database programming from which we will generate the
info necessary from the Entry and Medical Forms for our internal reports, and for
the St Pete Scorer (the system we will use to do the fleet divisions and
scoring). We have 30 entrants as of June 25. Matt is preparing the
registration folders and has met with Steffie Hall to be sure the handoff goes
smoothly. 17. Registration desk Steffie
Hall. Steffie has her 20 person team together and is monitoring our activities
to date. As mentioned above she has spent time with the registration people at
the Opti Challenge in 18. Number of Boats Our planning number remains
350-400 boats with USODA and other Opti class people telling us that this will likely
be the largest Opti Regatta in the country in 2006, maybe ever – the
record is 427. 18. Food, etc – Debbie
and Dick Morris. Debbie has her team together to make 550 lunches a day, Aug 7,
8, 9. With well over 100 volunteers involved in setting up Sunday morning and
needing an energy fix for what will surely be a busy afternoon, the Commodore
will organize his grilling gang to provide hot dogs and hamburgers for a
kickoff brunch at 11:30AM. His team will be back in action big time to do
a barbeque on Tuesday, Aug 8 for 600+. We are still looking for a sponsor to
assist with supplies for these projects, and hope springs eternal. We do have a
sponsor, Dunkin Donuts, who is providing coffee, donuts and bagels. We will
sell Tuesday barbeque tickets for $10 to parents and coaches, and NBYC members.
Competitors and volunteers are free guests. Coca-Cola will supply water and
soda. During our barbeque we will be entertained by Ronnie Baker
Brooks, a Chicago Blues band, and soul music singer Lucy Bonilla who are the
featured entertainers that night for the East Lyme Tuesday Night Concert
series. 19. Trophies Merrill
Lynch and Adam Walsh are funding our Championship Fleet trophies. As mentioned
in the last report we will receive by July 10, 45 duffel bags silk screened
with our regatta logo that will be given to the top ten finishers in the red,
white and blue fleets (8-10, 11-12, 13-15 age groups,) top 10 overall and top 5
women. In addition we have ordered really cool laser engraved, acrylic
Opti Sail trophies for the top 3 in each of the same categories. We will have
these trophies by late July. Vanguard Sailboats is providing the participation awards for
Green Fleeters, plus awards for winners of individual races in the Championship
fleet. I will pick these up on July 12. 20. Budgets and Finance – Harlan
Fredericksen. – This is a nervous time as we spend money and wait for the
entries to come it. Based on 360 entries we expect to come in we are planning
for a breakeven - and we still have some sponsor potential. Please review
any planned expenditures with me prior to committing. 21. Niantic Merchants – Candy
Shapiro. Candy and her fellow merchants have hired an event planner, Ron
Loomis, to help organize their efforts to make this a winning experience for visitors
and merchants. They will provide welcome goodie/info bags to all competitors. Participating merchants are purchasing a race ready Optimist
and dolly to exhibit on the town green (under our new big banner!) and in front
of the police station. I am picking up the boat and dolly on July 12 and
current plans are to exhibit it starting around July 28. The promotional
materials, participating store signs, drawing boxes, etc. are all
coordinated with our regatta logo. The boat
will then be given away in a free drawing at our event barbeque on Tuesday
evening. All YOU have to do to win is visit one or more participating
stores, fill out the drawing form, cross your fingers. 22. Restaurants NianticMainStreet
has developed a listing of town restaurants that provides walking distances and
encourages competitors and visitors to eat locally. This is up on our website. Also
we will have hard copy handouts at registration along with a town map. Note: We
will correct the spelling of Diary Queen! 23. Charter Boats/On Site Suppliers – Charter
boats will be available on site, supplied by Mclaughlin Boat Works and Sturgis
Boat Works (Winner). The Boat Locker of Westport will have 2 vans on site with
small tents and sell Opti parts and supplies. All these suppliers have applied
for and received their Park permits. They will be located on the flat lawn area
just south of where we have the registration tent. 24. Scoring – Several of
us have purchased copies of the St Pete Scorer, the system we will use for the
complicated scoring. We are all getting familiar with this complicated system
and testing is already underway involving Matt Dowd, Barry Buehler, Jim Hall
and Tom Peck. We expect to have phone card equipped laptop computers on the
finish boats to enter preliminary results and communicate the results back to
the 25. Website – Our event website www.opti.2006 has
received many positive comments. We will have new and updated info going up
under a new tab called Need to Know that you should check out when you have a
chance. Who’s Coming is a tab showing registered competitors and that
list is growing. Please take a few minutes and cruise around the site. 26. Sponsors and Supporters Brian
Carey, Bill Healy, Dick Morris and others. Not much new to report here since
May but there may be in a week or two. Right now our sponsors are: Ø Coca Cola of
Ø Vanguard
Sailboats will provide an Opti and dolly at a deeply discounted price and also the
Green Fleet participation and the individual race winner awards Ø Henri Lloyd
has provided a valuable gift certificate for their clothing Ø The Boat Locker
of Westport, CT has donated a set of Black Gold Opti racing spars Ø North Sails
will donate an Opti Racing sail Ø Smith
Insurance gave us a major grant to cover our equipment and other costs Ø Merrill
Lynch will provide funding for the 45 trophies we need Ø Dunkin
Donuts will provide coffee, donuts and bagels every morning Ø Boats Inc
and Port Niantic will provide free power boat trailer parking Ø 28. Photos – We have a
very special and highly photogenic site for our Regatta, and we think
competitors, volunteers, town residents and both the sailing public and general
public will want a record of what went on Aug 6-9, 2006 in Niantic – not
only on the water but on shore. We have engaged Dave Fasulo of Essex Adventures
to take pictures all 4 days. Dave is a teacher at the And, we expect to have a slide show running on Tuesday and
Wednesday mornings of random racing shots from the prior day. |