The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

The future for sloop sailing looks bleak. Well, maybe not bleak, but it certainly doesn’t look any brighter.

This past weekend at the Sir Durward 100 Regatta displayed a very telling truth: sloop sailors simply cannot work together for a common goal.

The talk can turn towards race committees and organisers as much as we want but the truth is: race committees are in charge of running races, and you can’t run races without sailors.

In what other sporting world are officials running after athletes begging them to come out and participate? Assisting them with rigging? Assisting them with towing? Trying to find out if they are even competing in the first place?

The race committee’s job is to run the races and enforce the rules, not run after sailors for hours on end long past the proposed start time.

Yes, the organisation was poor this past weekend, communication was almost non-existent, but over 31 boats said they were going to sail and about half of those didn’t show up. Who is to blame? The boats that don’t show or the organisers?

If boats had no intention of sailing from the start but still told the committees in charge that they intended to sail, knowing in the back of their mind that they would not show up and in turn make the event look bad just because of personal issues with certain individuals in charge, then shame on them.

If we cannot come together and put our personal opinions aside even for Sir Durward, then there really isn’t much hope for the future of our sport.

Yes, the weather was bad, but it was sailable on Saturday. We’ve sailed in worse. The proposed start time was 9:30, the first race started at 12:30.

Sailors talk often of big changes that need to happen in sloop sailing in order for the sport to move forward, all of the changes spoken about refer to those in charge, but I think it’s time we face the facts: the changes MUST start with ourselves, the sailors.

It is the sailors’ job to make sure their boats are in the water and rigged well before the first race is supposed to start, not the race committee. It is the sailors job to know the start times of the races and make sure they are on the starting line on time, not the race committee.

Once all boats are consistently lined up on time and we spend hours waiting on the race committee to start the race, then we can begin pointing fingers, until then, get your house in order and get your boat to the line on time.

To the outside world we appear unprofessional, lazy, and disorganised.

While the sloops were slowly being towed to the starting line unrigged and unprepared hours past the proposed start time, wave after wave of small Optis with young kids streamed out of the Nassau Yacht Club, plowed through the chop, and proceeded to start and complete all of their races and return to port before the sloops even started one race.

Yet we as sloop sailors demand the respect of the sailing community because our boats are traditional and difficult to sail. The truth is that we lack many of the core principles that all sailors should possess:

Discipline

Teamwork

Respect for others

I brought my boats from Exuma to sail this weekend, to honour Sir Durward and his achievements. The date of this Regatta has been public knowledge for a long time, there is no excuse for not being prepared. When boats are put into the water the morning of the first race knowing full well that it takes hours to rig and prepare these boats, that shows those watching that we really didn’t give a rip about this Regatta. Once some found out the National Family Island Regatta Committee was in charge of this event coupled with the fact that there was no prize money involved minds were made up. Sure everyone will say how much they appreciate Sir Durward and how great this event is, but just not enough to actually come out and participate.

I want to personally thank and congratulate those that did make the effort to come out there and sail despite the difficult conditions. Many were prepared and worked extremely hard this weekend and because of the weather weren’t even given the opportunity to sail on Sunday. From a boat owner and captain point of view who understands the amount of work and time it takes to prepare these boats for sailing, that is hard to accept lightly and I completely understand the frustrations of those boat’s crews.

The efforts of preparing these boats and the safety of the men and women that sail them needs to be remembered by the organisers of these regattas. It is the duty of race committee officials to have the proper equipment onboard committee boats to test wind speeds, rescue boats in distress, and make official and final decisions about whether or not to race in a timely manner. Stringing along boat crews till the bitter end hoping the weather improves and then trying to make a race happen even in dangerous conditions so the people on shore have a boat race to watch is not a sound or safe way to operate. The sailors deserve better than that.

Trust me, I have my issues with the organisation of this Regatta and the race committee as well. Being one of the first on the line in the C class Saturday morning my crew and I waited almost 4 hours in our boat for the race to start with no sign of committee boats and no communication from official channels as to whether or not we were even sailing. Then later that afternoon the race committee started the first B class race without me. As of 3pm there wasn’t even an official decision on when and if we were sailing and when the decision was finally made and my crew was informed I was given less than a half hour before the race was started, and we were still heading towards the starting line.

The unfairness of waiting for four hours for others on one hand and then not being given a half hour on the other is not lost on me, it was frustrating.

Our club whaler that we brought from Exuma as a support boat for our team was constantly shuttling other sailors from shore to their boats and back, rescued an E class boat that was run over by a C class boat, and, along with another private yacht, was the only boat on the scene when a B class boat sank. No committee boats in sight, no thank you’s, because this is normal.

People in this sport are so afraid to be unpopular and unliked by their peers that they remain silent publicly but behind closed doors they undercut those trying to help the sport succeed and when it comes down to it, if someone else other than those currently in charge came along and attempted to aggressively enforce the rules and make serious changes they would ultimately be met with the same hostility and stubbornness facing those around The Bahamas currently organising regattas.

And that sad truth boils down to the fact that we really don’t want to take Sloop Sailing to the next level, we are satisfied with the way things are and always have been, because if we really did want things to change we would change them, we’ve always had the power to do so.

DALLAS KNOWLES,

Sailor

October 30, 2017