A Regatta With A Concierge Service?

We had an organizational meeting last Friday evening for the 2014 Lightning North American Championships to be held August 7-15 next Summer (You are already planning on attending.)
Our group has divided itself into working groups largely organized by whether the activity will be enjoyed on or off the water. We're working out budgeting and the events calendar so that we can soon broadcast a regatta price, please watch this space as the weeks go by.

One thing we are not short on at this point, is ideas. And one thing we all agree upon and have a lot of respect for was the way the 2013 NAs organizational team culture was so strongly focused in its commitment to customer service. It's been very clear that the competitors felt like the quality of their experience was thee top priority of the folks from Cedar Point. Our team feels precisely the same way. In fact we may just make the uniform shirts idea our own so sailors can find a volunteer whenever they need one.

Then we learned about an idea we hadn't heard of before: A Regatta Concierge Service.
This will be a desk probably adjacent to where you register staffed full-time throughout the regatta where you can get personal attention to any 'challenge' you have during your time in Sheboygan.
• Need your van's transmission repaired? Go to the Concierge and they will recommend the best alternative.
• Need a ride back to the transmission repair shop? The Concierge will drive you.
• Need a restaurant recommendation? That is right in the center of the enormous Concierge sweet spot.
• Want to know where to locate the best brat buns in the area?
• Want to know when the Farmer's Market is next open?
• Want to know how to get a day pass for the water park?
• Need a replacement preferred parking pass?
C O N C I E R G E...You get the idea.

Here's the best part:
The Concierge desk will be manned (personed?) by the people who thought it up: Fred and Gail Tyszka or people they deputize. For anyone who doesn't recognize the name, perhaps this will help:

Gail is Dr. Kristine Wake's mom and Fred is Gail's husband. They're even nicer than Kristine! They know everything about Sheboygan. Gail is a nurse. AND, they understand what it's like to travel a long way from home to a Lightning event. They've attended three Lightning World Championships in Vermont, Greece and (pictured here) at the last one in Italy. They have oodles of empathy and mad organizational skills.

The organizing committee is convinced that this idea is going to have real positive impact on our guests' regatta experience. We're SO convinced, that we're even considering asking Fred and Gail if they'll go on duty immediately after the first of January 2013, staffing a virtual Concierge desk on our website (which isn't live yet, but will be soon and would be already if I got the NOR finished and approved internally and by the ILCA!!) Can you imagine how much of their time we could burn up all Spring if sailors could pepper them with questions about where to stay or how to get to Sheboygan from the Milwaukee airport? Mind boggling!

Ok, that's all for now.  Repeat after me...Fred and Gail....Fred and Gail... Who you gonna call at 2:20AM during the NAs next August? Fred and Gail!!

Learning, Learning, Over The Bounding Sea

Greetings All.
Today is the third consecutive day of 90 degree weather here on the western shore of Lake Michigan. It's one of those days when it would be perfect to take a walk out the the end of the Sheboygan breakwater and dive in off the base of the lighthouse. Now, the organizing committee of the 2014 Lightning North American Championships does not officially recommend anyone do this ( But we, ourselves take advantage, being the responsible adults that we are) but it certainly is refreshing. And it gives me an opportunity to point something out about where we're going to be sailing. It takes MONTHS to heat a great lake from its winter temp...

...to it's peak of warmth. As this is true, Lake Michigan hits its warmest temperature anywhere between the middle of August and the middle of September or just about the time you will be here at the 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! Great how we planned it that way isn't it? Yep, there are hardly any excuses left for not coming...and we've got only about 10 months to chip away at those.

Ok, why am I wasting pixels today? Just to bring to light some ideas we have as an organizing committee aimed at augmenting the sailing experience that will be our core business. Todd Wake and I actively soliciting ideas and thoughts from people who have both recently attended a Lightning North American Championship regatta and who haven't. The idea is to try and avoid pitfalls and blatantly build upon the great ideas others have developed (steal is a word SO loaded with negative connotations don't you think?) Anyway, we've gotten lots of great ideas already. Here's one and here's what we're going to do in response.

In Sheboygan, we are very fortunate to have Sheboygan Youth Sailing. It's a very nice facility right on the grounds where the 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! will be held. It offers sailing instruction for interested kids in Optis, 420s, Lightnings, Lasers, Sonars, J-24s and more. In fact, earlier this week,  Sheboygan Youth Sailing was named an official Community Sailing Center by US Sailing. Here's that press-release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

September 4, 2013

Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club named official Community Sailing Center

Sheboygan, Wisconsin — The Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club, the area’s premiere sailing education organization, has been named a US Sailing-sanctioned Community Sailing Center. The center is just the second organization in Wisconsin and one of about two dozen in the entire country to achieve the designation.

The designation is reserved for programs that offer the highest level of sailing education and public access. US Sailing Community Sailing Centers must be open to the general public without discrimination and all instructors must be US Sailing certified among other criteria.

US Sailing is the governing body of the sport of sailing in the United States.

“We are honored to be designated a Community Sailing Center by US Sailing,” said Denise Cornell, president of the SYSC Board of Directors. “In conjunction with other Sheboygan lakefront organizations including the Sailing Education Association of Sheboygan, Sail Sheboygan, the Sea Scouts and the Sheboygan Yacht Club, Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club is working toward our goal of making sure that every member of this community can experience the beauty of our lakefront and the excitement of sailing, and this designation helps us do that. We want Sheboygan to be synonymous with sailing.”

The Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club offers seasonal instruction for both youths and adults in a variety of boats including Optimist prams for the youngest students, Club 420s for advanced youths, singlehanded Laser dinghies, Lightnings, windsurfers, 23-foot Sonar keel boats and two J/24 keel boats. Classes are taught by a staff of 11 instructors.

In addition to classes for children and adults, the club regularly works with other organizations to ensure that every youth can experience sailing. In the past, SYSC has worked with CampYKoda, YMCA Child Care and the Sheboygan Area School District and US Sailing’s Reach Program to provide summer school learning through sailing as part of the STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

Next year the organization will also work with Big Brothers/Big Sisters to provide sailing opportunities.

The Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2014. It is located on the Sheboygan waterfront where it has a classroom and boatyard along with launching facilities.

The media and public are invited to a ribbon-cutting ceremony to designate the facility as an official US Sailing Community Sailing Center at 5:15 p.m. October 1. The event will be held at the center, 619 Broughton Drive, Sheboygan.

For more information, contact the club at 920-459-0755 or info@youthsailingclub.us. The Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club’s website is www.youthsailingclub.us.

The idea was that Sheboygan Youth Sailing offer a special sailing program created especially for children of Lightning sailors for the 5 days of the 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! We think this can become reality! Sheboygan Youth Sailing is working to offer an experience that would take into account the sailing level of each student and build a 'semi-custom' sailing week for them. Its daily start could correspond to the hour gun for the regatta and end each day at the official dock time for the RC boat. Opti kids can sail Optis. Laser kids or kids who want to spend the days doing tacks in 420s can do that. The Youth Sailing Lightnings will be sailing in the 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! but there are J-24s and Sonars as additional options. Oh, did I mention that Sheboygan Youth Sailing has just been named an Official Community Sailing Center by US Sailing? Oh, I guess I did. Anyway, that was a great idea we got from one of our conversations and we're implementing it.

Youth sailing camp available at a very reasonable price during 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! now THAT is value for your hard-earned sailing dollar. Don't you agree? Really, how could you consider not attending? Ok, I gotta ash my Salem now. Bye.

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.