Avast! Its your old friend “The Barnacle” with some more info that will hopefully navigate you to that paradise of an Island they call a “Stress Free Regatta”. The first regatta of the year for the Opti class will be held on July 8th at the Ida Lewis Yacht Club in Newport. To get to Ida Lewis YC go south on Thames Street, then take a right on Wellington Ave. (like your going to The New York Yacht Club, or Fort Adams) on the right hand side you come to a park, and then a stretch of beach that is just before the club and a long cement dock. You want to park your car along that stretch of beach, which is where you will actually launch your child’s Opti. You do not launch the boats from the club itself, but from the beach just before it. If you have never been to this club you are in for quite a treat. The Barnacle has caroused and plundered in many a club on the high seas and this one is a favorite!

When you park, unload the Opti and have your child rig the boat. The goal is to get the boat all set and rigged prior to check in, and the skippers meeting. This is a critical component for getting to a stress free regatta, getting the boat ready nice and early. You must check in wether you have pre-registered or not; check in starts at 8;00 a.m. The check in and skippers meeting will be held in the Ida Lewis Yacht Club itself. To get to the club, the entrance is right on Wellington Ave. just past the beach and the big cement dock: you go through an entrance and then walk up the very long dock to the main club house.

Now, if you foolishly did not take the Barnacles advice to register online well in advance, you can register at Ida Lewis the day of the regatta. However you will need to register your child for the race, and also register them to be a member of NBYA if your child is not already a member.

After you have checked your child in, their will be a skippers meeting at 9;00 a.m. where the race committee chair will go over the sailing instructions and location of the fleets. After the conclusion of the skippers meeting all racers should set sail from the beach to their fleets racing location by 9;30 a.m. with racing scheduled to commence at 10;00 a.m. with no races scheduled to start after 4;00 p.m.

Your child is responsible to bring their own lunch and drink. The lunch should be given to the coach of the program that your child is in. At some point in the racing their will be a break for lunch and your child should find their coach boat to tie up and get their lunch.

Yacht Racing can be a challenging sport relative to spectating! Once your child has departed, and if you do not have a means to get on the water to follow them your options for watching are a bit limited. Every year is different but one year The Barnacle was able to watch the green fleet from the ferry dock at Fort Adams.  If you really want to try and watch from land, your best bet would be to listen at the skippers meeting for the location of the fleets. If they utilize the area between Rose Island and Goat Island you can watch from Goat Island. If they will be racing out further, you will be hard pressed to find a spot to be able to actually see the racing. If you do have a boat, and plan to watch the racing please be mindful to stay well clear of the racers, and keep your wake to a minimum during racing. A pair of binoculars would come in mighty handy for spectating from land or sea; ever look at an Opti from 200 yards away? Oh, and if its not committed to memory jot down your child’s sail number, because they all look the same from that distance and a sail number is the best way to spot them!

Here is the schedule:

7:00 – 7:30 Arrive, unload and rig

8:00 Check in and late registration in the club

9:00 Skippers meeting

9:30 Harbor start

10:00 Warning signal for first race

4;00 No race started after

4:30 to 5:30 Pack up and pick up

If you have any questions please feel free to ask one of the instructors. Or, we have been trying to get our discussion board active, so if you post a question here: http://www.gbsa.info/board/  The Barnacle will try his best to respond. This discussion board can be found under the “News Dock” tab. To post you will have to register but that is quick and painless. Just remember you need to enter the VIP code: 7945 which can also be found on this page: http://www.gbsa.info/about/ This is just a way to keep out automated spam vermin!!

Oh, and remember all of The Barnacles posts can be accessed from this page: http://www.gbsa.info/blog/

P.S.! There is an Opti Green Fleet clinic on Friday, July 2nd at the Conanicut Yacht Club. Details are a little sketchy on the NBYA web site, and the Conanicut YC web at this time, but if The Barnacle gets any more details about this event he will pass them along.

“The Barnacle”

As many parents are new to the “racing” portion of having a child enrolled at GBSA, your old ship mate, “The Barnacle” is going to post some information and helpful hints regarding attending regattas. This may be old news, for the old salts, but attending regattas can be a confusing experience if you are new to it. There will be more information coming, but we wanted to weigh anchor and set sail with some very basic info.

Over the summer there are 3 regattas plus Junior Race Week for; Opti Green, Opti Racer, Laser and 420 classes. There are other events we will cover at a later date, but I wanted to go over these first. These events are administered by Narragansett Bay Yachting Association, NBYA (yes! your child gets to tell their teachers and classmates in the fall they spent their summer YACHTING!) and each event is hosted by an individual yacht club.

In this episode of,  ”How to Have a Stress Free Regatta” we are going to cover your entry point to getting a good start on sorting out the needed paperwork to enter your child in these regattas:

If you go to this link:

http://nbya.org/shop/

The two sections you want to visit are “Junior Regatta Registration” and “Dues and Membership” (why dues and membership you say? well you cant go YACHTING if your not a member of the YACHTING Association of course!)

If you click on the “Junior Regatta Registration” link you will see an online shopping cart type experience where you can select the regattas you wish to enter, and pay for them online.

If you click on the “Dues and Membership” link you will see a link for “NBYA Junior Dues” where you can register your child with NBYA. Your child must be registered with NBYA to enter the regattas.

Done you think? No! you still need to fill out the “Waiver of Liability” form (what if your child should ram some guys Hinckley with their Opti and plunder their grey poupon? NBYA wants no part of being keel hauled for that!) and the “Consent to Treat” form. Here is the link for those: http://www.nbya.org/junior_sailing/forms/NBYAWaive_ConsentWeb090315.pdf

Oh, theres one more thing you must register and pay for,  (yes everyone gets a cut, and people think pirates are greedy!) If you are going to attend Junior Race Week you will need to be a member of US Sailing, you cannot participate in Junior Race Week if you are not a member of US Sailing. To do that go here: http://membership.ussailing.org/

Helpfull Tips! (yes “The Barnacle” said he would give more than just scuttlebutt here!)

# 1 Yes, you can register for the regattas day of the event, BUT do not fall into this trap! You don’t need to be worrying about getting your child registered when your already stressing out about the fact you just discovered they lost their wind indicator last week and forgot to tell you, or that their life vest was last seen somewhere in the GBSA parking lot and your in Bristol!

# 2 After you have registered your child on-line for the regatta and with NBYA well in advance of these events, make copies of the e-mail receipts you will get and bring them with you just in case theres some sort of snafu.

# 3 As far as The Barnacle knows, this is the schedule for the three regattas and Race Week;

Opti; July 8 – Ida Lewis, July 27 – EGYC, August 10 – Bristol

420; June 27 – Saunderstown, July 15 – Barrington, August 3 – Bristol

Laser; June 27 – Saunderstown, July 13 – Wickford, August 10 – Sakonnet

NBYA Junior Race Week; August 13 through 15

Heres a good link for some more info, downloads if you want to register and pay by mail, and some important cut off dates; http://nbya.org/blog/?page_id=170

Well thats it for this weeks class, stay tuned as there will be plenty more coming. BUT the first step to having a stress free regatta is to register well in advance so get off your arse and do it!

The Barnacle

The GBSA auction starts tomorrow night at 6;00 p.m. with a cash bar and Hors d’oeuvres!

• Come and show your support for the valuable mission that is GBSA!
• Great Items to bid on in both silent and live auction format.
• Here is a small sampling of the tremendous selection to bid on;

12 Meter Sail!

A North Sail

Florida Get Away

Block Island Fall Weekend

Kirkbrae Foursome

Plus lots more AND you can still buy raffle tickets for the sail on Puma!

Come to the auction! For more info go to GBSA.info