Forum: The Racing Rules of Sailing
PRO Training Club Level
Bob Scott
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
- Judge In Training
0
This may not be the right forum but there is certainly considerable experience in the "room" so - I've recently been appointed to education chair for our club in Grapevine, TX. We have an existing PRO training which all skippers are required to attend annually. I'm interested in see what is out there being used by other clubs to train their volunteer PROs for "beer can racing". We have about 36 days of series racing each year so having a pool of trained and willing volunteer PROs is important to our racing program.
Thanks in advance if anyone can share resources or provide input.
Thanks in advance if anyone can share resources or provide input.
Comments
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https://www.ussailing.org/competition/rules-officiating/resources/find-a-seminar/race-officer-seminar-calendar/
Send me an email.
Keep your expectations in check if you want to certify. It is nearly impossible to certify at the club level without being PRO for multiple large events which means travel. I went through the entire process and had time as both a PRO and OA and have regularly written NOR and SI documents but it wasn't enough. Other PRO's at other clubs did offer to assist so there is a path but unlikely if you only PRO at your own club.
But the seminar is very useful & not too much for a small club race official. I'm not sure proper justice could be done with an abbreviated session. And I think it's important that even beer can races be run "by the book". It's a learning ground for both committees & racers as they progress toward more formal events so nothing good comes from cutting corners.
https://www.ussailing.org/competition/rules-officiating/race-officers/
Club Race Officer
A Club Race Officer is expected to be able to properly run any race normally conducted at his or her local sailing organization, including organizing the race committee, writing sailing instructions and scoring the event.
can you share your PRO training schedule ?
At this level, the mentoring system has proven itself: an experienced race officer transfers his experiences to his mentee. I know that doesn't work with 30 people in one hour. So a real PRO is responsible for a upcoming PRO. It takes time but it´s worth.
https://www.ussailing.org/competition/rules-officiating/race-officers/training-certification/
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and comments. Keep them coming.
What he describes is what is required to be certified at a regional level. You do not should not have to travel to become club certified.
What you do need to to is develop a relationship with your Area Race Officer, who is the one who does the initial application vetting. It's much easier to become certified when you get to know the initial gate-keeper.
And a hour is not nearly enough time for RO training. It's not even enough for mark boat operator training. At least a 1/2 day (4 hours) and preferably a whole day (which is what the USS Basic Race Management Course is.)
I'm happy to provide a PowerPoint version of this, plus the associated OOD Procedures Manual, if you think they could be helpful.
Regards
Julian
Small, non aggressive beer can fleets probably don't care too much about the line being perfectly square or the perfect length (although again it never hurts to ingrain the habit with your RC)
We have a somewhat similar situation at Corinthian Sailing Club. Our fleets take turns running our Sunday club races.
I agree with other comments about the US Sailing Club training being good, but also understand that a lot of people seem to think it is intimidating and/or overkill. We typically do a 2-3 hour training for PROs every year or two. The training is very similar to the US Sailing training, but we customize it to talk specifically about the equipment we use and the courses we run. The training is at the clubhouse and we bring out the signal boat to give live demos. I think the 2-3 hours works pretty well. I think it gives a good introduction that can then be reinforced with mentoring.
One thing we do to try to make sure we get quality races is to have what we call an ERC (Executive Race Committee) of 12 experienced PROs. Each of the 12 is assigned to be the ERC for one month. The ERC is responsible for making sure the PRO and race committee show up, have what they need, and hold the races. When I first started sailing at CSC, the ERCs were expected to race every Sunday during the month they were assigned and after the races they would have a debrief with the PRO to discuss how the races were run. This gave really good feedback and helped the newer PROs improve rapidly. Unfortunately we slowly stopped doing that over the years, but several of us are trying to get it resurrected.
RACE COMMITTEE 101 <---Link to Website
Here is another training option that you can modify to fit your specific needs https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XB5n9KbCKrbRXN-djn7nC30H1OmMY4lX?usp=drive_link
Use, share, modify as you wish.
1) Austrailia Sailing has their training online, and does not have a paywall --- you do not need to be a Australia Sailing member to access it. See https://www.sailing.org.au/courses/ and filter to "race officer." The "race officer committee and finish boat" course might be good for your needs.
2) Some people read faster than they can hear a speaker talk, or click through an online course, and you might make a "manual" or other standard operating proceedure. Here's one for a local YC, and you could create something similar for yourself with just the sections you need and the scoring system you use: https://www.iyc.org/uploads/1/3/3/0/133005617/island_yc_race_committee_manual_with_emphasis_on_island_nights-1.pdf
Good luck!
"Race Committee for RC and Sailors" (62 slides)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XB5n9KbCKrbRXN-djn7nC30H1OmMY4lX?usp=drive_link
How to do race committee for folks that just wanna get racing the right way, in plain language. It's good stuff
The Aim for US Sailing Club ROs is
In other words, a beginner RO needs to be given good SI, sound on-water operating and safety plans, and moderately capable race management people.
How a club produces these is a different, but not insoluble, problem.
I don't think it's a fair expectation for an inexperienced Club RO to be able to cope with conditions radically different from their home waters.
Comments?
Note 1
I think I see a US usage of 'race committee' to mean the on-water race management team, rather than the decision making body that is responsible for writing and publishing the SI. IMHO, these people getting their act together and producing good sound SI, with the assistance of a competent local RO is the key to making it possible for a beginner RO to conduct races properly.
Is this scenario such that each skipper/boat must do RC duty on a rotating basis during the season (basically sign-up and turns running the race)?
If so, I actually have some experience with that specific scenario. I was the RC Chair for many years for the Magothy River Sailing Assoc (the next river just north on the Chesapeake Bay shoreline of the Severn River/Annapolis).
In the MRSA, each competitor was required to take a turn as RC-boat and each skipper the PRO. Usually the next week’s boat would hang around until racing was complete and grab all the gear for next week’s race.
Getting people to come to training always proved difficult. To minimize errors, we implemented a few things that reduced errors drastically.
There were other items in there too like thinking about squaring the line for finishing after all the starts, and since our courses often included multiple laps, moving the RC to the other side of the pin when the starting pin was rounded to starboard for the 2nd laps (to make shortening/finishing more natural for competitors).
The general instructions for the PRO was 1 page 2-sided. The separate “speaking script” for the start was maybe 2 … all laminated and passed along from boat to boat each week.