11 Months Before The First Race

This is the first posting in a new blog dedicated to the preparation for the 2014 Lightning North American Championships. We hope that at the end of next August we can look back at these posts and relive decisions we made and fun we had in putting together the regatta. Maybe a future organizing committee can look through the archived postings and figure out what they should do more and can afford doing at all.

But please understand this: 

This Blog Is Primarily Dedicated To Creating A Better Regatta Experience For All Different Types Of Lightning Sailors...And Making You Want To Attend Next Year. Everything else written and shown here is in service to that.

We're not pro bloggers. In my case it's been 6 years since I've written a blog post. But maybe we will become more adept as we go along. Here we go.

I was walking around down at the Sheboygan Harbor yesterday with my kids...Labor Day. It was gray outside and the breeze was blowing about 18 out of the north. There were about 3-5 footers banging against the breakwater. We were about to get into the car to drive home to Chicago when I saw something interesting. Powerboats. Lots of them. On trailers and in the water at the Sail Sheboygan dock. So I took some pictures of them. Here they are:

Now, the reason I'm showing you these pictures is that these are some of the boats that are going to be on the water helping out at the North Americans next summer. These, along with a large Protector and an even larger Edgewater that often serves as the RC boat are all the property of Sail Sheboygan. They have been added to the fleet, indeed some have even been purpose-designed to be on the water judges boats for all the match racing activity that goes on here. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN To YOU YOU ASK!!! We're very fortunate that they will all be here and ready to go...at least 8 of them. Beer boating...towing...standing by if you capsize...moving marks...helping all of us have fun. In regattas past we've been looking to borrow powerboats until a few days before the regatta. Not so this time. I'm a nervous person. That helps mellow me out...slightly.

As a regatta organizing committee we feel really lucky that Sail Sheboygan is here and hosting the NAs next Summer along with the Sheboygan Yacht Club and Lightning Fleet 187. It has INCREDIBLE facilities. If you weren't here in 2005, the last time Sheboygan hosted a North Americans, you should know that  Sail Sheboygan and SYC are contiguous...they share the same waterfront and there is no fence between them. Together, they offer 4 hoists and they are also right next to two very large launching ramps where we plan to launch and recover boats who choose to go in and out FAST. 

More about Sail Sheboygan and facilities throughout the frozen winter. That's all for now. In the mean time, if you have any thoughts about things we should make sure to do or make sure NOT to do while planning, please send them. We're trying to build a great time. We've got some advantages, and we've got some great recent examples to follow. But we're all volunteers and while we're experienced, we know we don't have all the answers.