An attempt to get sailors to... sail
Since a small group of us have been going out for an evening sail on each others boats in the late summer...
We talked it over and I generated a general email to all of our membership to encourage them to put some evening sailing time into their schedules.
The first week there were about 7 boats out on the Tuesday and less on Thursday. This week we had very light air, but a warm evening... and three boats took 3 to 6 members on each one. Great spinnaker run for me up the river and the others did almost as well with light weight genoas. Everyone was smiling. Dark when I put the last cover on the last winch, and I just got home.
The common comment was that we will all be happy to have been out there, looking back on this in a couple more months.
Strictly in the "for what it's worth" vein, here is the text of what I emailed to the whole membership (about 150 boats) on August 26.
____________________________________
An
Open Invitation to all RCYC members:
"Take the Boat Out"
When: Each Tuesday and Thursday evening, until daylight savings time ends.
Meet at the Clubhouse at Six PM, bring your life jacket, deck shoes, and a smile.
Very Informal.
No special rules or procedures. No expectations other than going out a sail or drifting around for a while. Really.
(Um, well, if you are taking your boat out, be sure ahead of time that the engine starts and runs.)
I guess that anyone with a boat that wants crew could perhaps raise their hand. Those slow to raise their hand could talk it over quickly and choose up a boat and...
Just...
Go...
Out...
and go Sailing !
Whether for 30 minutes or over an hour, just go out. Raise one sail or two. Share tiller and sheeting duties. Help with docking and un-docking, well, as much as the skipper asks for.
Whether two show up and have a nice short sail on one boat or twenty show up and choose to take out six or eight boats, this will be considered a success.
As someone once observed: "90% of life is just showing up."
A little background:
Lots of members have said that they would like to spend some time on the water, but do not feel comfortable entering the evening race series. Racing is good in that it makes you really focus on boat speed and provides a quick learning path to sailing skills. The downside is that some sailors are not comfortable with having to mingle at close range with a gaggle of other boats, some driven by "overly-intense" sailors.
A small group of us RCYC sailors have spent Tuesday or Thursday evenings over that last couple late summers going for a sail on each others' boats "just for fun." It seems like more members might enjoy some informal sailing, so here's hoping for more "Tiller Time."
Weekends tend to be way over-planned with other activities, so sometimes the week nights work better for an idea like this.
Finally, what the heck, evening TV is boring anyway... and you can always grab a sub sandwich on the way home...
Regards,
Loren
_____________________________
And that's the whole scheme. So far, so good.
LB