Being a PRO

Back in the saddle? Not quite. I am saddled, instead, with the task of being Principal Racing Officer PRO for the Water Rats Spring WAR regatta. It is, I hasten to say, a saddle of my choosing. I thought it would be a learning experience to watch some racing up close, and get an idea of what PROs go through to put together a regatta.

It was a great learning experience. The front row seat of the race committee boat was exceptionally comfortable in the 30 degree-plus weather and three-to six-knot breeze under the sun. The conditions were tailor-made for a duffer race committee chairman like me.

The competition was very good. Ken Walton, Brad Biskaborn, Nigel Heath (finally in a boat this year), Joe Van Rossem, Rob Muru and Heinz Gebauer battled for the top spots. Walton came out of the gate hard, scoring 1, 1, 2 in the first three races. One win in particular was punishing, as he lead the fleet around the sausage by a ton. It looked like it was going to be a walk for him and that surprised me because, though I know him to be a very good sailor, I thought that Brad Biskaborn would challenge him. Brad traveled from London so he is very familiar with flat water and lighter conditions we were having. He is a great helmsman, and you could see from my venue that he was the equal of Ken on boat handling. I kept telling my race committee cohorts to watch the two of them tacking because it was a clinic in perfect boatwork.

And Joe Van Rossem was a clinic on great light air boat speed. It always amazes me to see him in light weather. The guy is-how do I say this-not small, so you would think he has no business being fast in light air, yet if I am racing and the wind gets light downwind, he is the first person I look for. I know he will be taking the right line, and he will be fast. While Brad was still figuring it out, Joe won the third race handily after a 2 and a 7 in the first two races. And Nigel, who barely knew where his boat was in the dingy park till this regatta, scored a very quiet 4, 2, 6. 

The next two races made the day interesting. It was not to be the rout that Ken had threatened, as Brad found his feet and fired two bullets. Ken choked a little with a 4,4, and Joe's pair of 8s in the last two races opened the door for his rival of many years, Heinz Gebauer (who has his own pair of 8s in the first two races) to close on him. By the afternoon, Ken and Brad were tied, with Nigel, Joe, Heinz and Rob Muru not far behind.

Being PRO (or RC, whatever) was a lesson in leadership. I had always believed, (but only in theory having not RC'd since the early 70's when I did it for TS&CC for about a week) that the RC has to have the courage of his convictions and the hide of a shamed politician's wife. I know my best racing experiences have been when the RC was nobody's friend on the water-he didn't talk to anyone, didn't take any competitor's advice, and ran his show by brooking no objection, complaint or dissonance. Now I believe it from experience. I made two mistakes, and both were the result of my listening to and accepting the advice of others when my gut was telling me otherwise.

First, at the introductory skipper's meeting Saturday morning, I wanted to eliminate the provision in the Sailing Instructions (SIs) that competitors could not cross the start-finish line unless they were starting or finishing. The provision is there to make the RC's job easier in big fleets, but we had only 20 boats, so was not necessary. Anyway, I hate the rule because it is an unnecessary obstruction to getting around the course. But Nigel, who is also the Race Chair for the club, was insistent that the rule remain. After putting up a bit of a fuss, I decided that he was the Race Chair and I was the rookie PRO and backed down. That would come back to haunt me.

The second decision was to allow a change to the SI's the next morning. I had a quick skipper's meeting to remind everyone that there were only to be two more races that day, as the SI's make the point that a maximum of seven races are allowed. The announcement was met with a collective groan, and a call to extend the number as long as the weather and timing held. For a moment I was the crusty PRO, but relented again, as the protests continued. That would come back to haunt me as well.

Sunday dawned as beautiful as Saturday, though thundershowers were threatening somewhere. I had my short skipper's meeting and dashed out to the lake to set the course. The wind's direction and strength were about the same as Saturday, but it was oscillating across about 40 degrees. I got the first race off on time-amazing for a Rat. The second also, went well, and it was then that I could have, if the race instructions were not changed, called it a day. We had a clear winner in Brad Biskaborn, with a second place going to Ken Walton, and it was only 1:00pm. The wind died, it was starting to get squirrely, and there were actually voices on the water that indicated that some were quite happy to call it a day.

But I let the devil in when I allowed the SIs to be overruled at that morning meeting and I was stuck with trying to run one more. I waited for wind, and got some, and the race went off after a half hour's delay. The wind remained shifty and it mattered a lot which side of the course you chose on the beat. It also mattered that the race committee shorten the start line into a finish line so that you didn't have to do a great circle course around the stupid thing to get to the next mark. But in my jubilation at getting this last race off, I forgot to instruct Jamie to shorten the line, and only remembered the line as I saw the first boats rounding the first mark and I couldn't change it. Then I couldn't change it till all the boats were off the downwind leg, which meant I couldn't shorten it on the upwind legs because not all the competitors had passed it before the first boat rounded the bottom leg.

The result was that on the second beat the long start line cut through the course like a brick wall, and forced everyone to pick a side virtually at the bottom mark rounding. Joe and Brad got caught on the wrong side, which happened to be the committee boat side, and I had to watch two of the justifiably sourest face I have seen pass with inches of my perch. It was then, as I watched Brad's well-earned win slip away at my hand, that I resolved that I was going to be one son of a bitch PRO if I ever had the chance to do it again.

However, everyone was gracious, we did have a worthy winner in Nigel Heath. He sailed consistently throughout the regatta, and just nipped Brad in overall points with a win in the last race. And, as a good friend of mine always says when minor things seem major, Hey, nobody died.

RK
Comments should be forwarded to Rob Koci at Robert.koci@rci.rogers.com