Hello everyone, Yesterday's conference call was very interesting. Thank you. Mike Gehrling

Steve Houston - Shelter Island Yacht Club

Alim Gafar at JSA and DYS

Emily Jane Waechter - Port Washington Yacht Club

Mike Ances - Junior Program Director at Indian Harbor Yacht Club

Peg Jackson- JSA board member

Hello all, Luke Salditt tuning in from Manhasset Bay YC

Good evening from Beach Point YC.

Mark!

John Pearce, US Sailing - hope everyone is doing well!

Kevin Gunn - Sachem’s Head Yacht Club

Janet Grapengeter - JSA C0-chair

Hope everyone will cheer on The Cowles Twins tomorrow as they try to qualify in the 470 for the US Olympic team.

Sam Patterson - The Boat Locker

Mike Demarco - The Dinghy Shop

Giulia Arencibia - Orienta Beach Club

Hi everyone, Tricia Alcamo, American Yacht Club (& co-chair, Jr American Yacht Club program)

Hello. Manuel Cadarso - American Yacht Club

Hi all. Katie Sparkman- Junior Sailing Chair at Norwalk Yacht Club

Sal Russo - Port Washington Yacht Club

Hi Everyone! Sam - Beach Point Club

Thanks Henry, so important!! We need to include your Kill-Chord recommendations in our Instructor Training clinics!

No worries John! Glad it was appreciated. Always happy to discuss further.

Any questions for the panel? Write in chat or unmute your mic to talk when they prompt for questions.

If you're interested in a full walk through of Skill Up, please sign up for an upcoming Zoom Call (Friday's at 3pm) to get all of the details: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkcOuvrDwsG9RW9GXbUwj2q-sHdriPlRDZ

How would it work with Irish instructors who are coming over? They will not be US Sailing certified, but are, of course, ISA certified? Is there any way to give them access?

How does Skill Up maintain data privacy with data stored in the cloud?

Marianna- Right now, Skill Up would not work well for instructors who are not US Sailing certified.

Alim- I probably misused "the cloud" in that example. All of the sailor's information is associated with their US Sailing member id, which is in our secure database.

One laser with three rigs can serve the entire family

How many clubs are embracing the 4.7 this year?

@Manuel, we have 2 sailors at least at MYC that will be sailing the 4.7 this year.

if you are promoting the 4.7 - let us know

will there be a 4.7 class for JSA regattas this summer and going forward?

NYAC is

Don't get me wrong here. My laser was 2820, and I enjoyed it immensely. Where I have a problem is that I want our sailors to be learning team skills, and working together. I don't want to push the JSA in this, but for our program I'd rather see a 2 or 3 person boat. (Yes, I am a BJ fan.)

Huguenot YC is promoting the Laser 4.7

Most of our 12, 13 & 14 year olds in that weight range tend to focus on the Fevas. Do you think the 4.7 is a better path?

Will the JSA be lowering the minimum age for Laser racing from 14 for 4.7 sailors?

Yes - the age is 12

the rules have been updated for age as well as weight

The Laser (4.7 Rig) is Inexpensive -- making it easy to star with this rig for a nominal cost -- then sail the Radial Rig when the kids size up, then finally, full size teens that grow to 160lbs plus can graduate to the full rig (used at the Olympics) -- so a long life span with (3) rig options using the same hull!

And dad can sail the radial or full rig if the junior will let him

Problem is that the laser hull is disposable for top-caliber racers. Hard to compete against people who buy a fresh hull for each regatta.

For a 12 year old in a a4.7?

No, but the thought that the hull will last for the career of a junior racer may not be realistic.

great let those top level racers pay premium for new hulls and then sell to everyone else

Kevin - true.

MY Laser is a 2006 and still competitive

Wouldn’t this complete for sailors with the open Bic? is the JSALIS still embracing the the open Bic?

open bic does still have racing opportunities but has been really popular with Adventure/Recreational sailors

Hi Kai, I'm so glad you are having a great time sailing. A question to you - Do you prefer to sail single-handed or with a team of friends?

To Kevin’s point: The O’pen Skiff North Americans is marketed as a, “fungatta,” the boat is awesome and the class is great but it’s really more geared towards adv sail slash retaining sailors more than anything

Thanks Kai!

ell done Kai, thanks for plugging my boat!

Will any club have open doors for 4.7 sailors?

Nicely done Kai! Thanks for sharing your experiences

Why do we want to promote the 4.7 class? Don't get me wrong, but I think it is a question we should ask.

different boats teach different things

At Huguenot we offer both Lasers and Fevas and kids chose what they prefer coming out of the Opti

Great job Kai! Thanks for helping us understand the 4.7 and it’s ability!

I think the strongest rational is to keep young sailors interest in the sport. we lose kids to other sports. 4.7 puts them in a good performance boat that may retain there interest in the sport.

cross training is powerful and an important thing for any sport. we have our own cross training mediums available inside our sport. most olympic sailing coaches recommend sailing the focus boat only 80% of the time unless right before an event.

This is a great way to keep kids sailing. Not everyone in their early teen years does well sailing with a partner and this would give them a way to keep sailing after the opti. On LIS , heavier kids have a tough time. even at age 11

You know as a fun fact, a lot of Olympic rowers do not even start rowing until they get to late high school or college!

boats with multiple sailors do encourage sailors to learn teamwork and other skills. Big plug for multiple crewed boats is that it allows people to get pulled into the sport easier. Buying a boat in the cards for eve is everyone for one reason or another.

*isn’t in the cards

There are many girls in particular who have aged out of the Optis but are too light for the Radial and don’t want to doublehand. The 4.7 is a great option for them.

American, has had great success with the OPEN SKIFF, it is a quality boat that opens up the age range for single handed sailing past optis! We love them

Interesting that the "pop-up" format was the main format back in the late 60's, early 70's. A return to towing to regattas?

Quick note on the 4.7s topic (sorry for backtracking but had to confirm this): For those wondering about regattas Indian Harbor YC will have a 4.7 start at Law Trophy contingent upon a minimum number of entries

I've actually been a fan of towing to regattas for a while.

Like … since 1967

Towing has its own risks though. Running into inclement weather being the number one risk. At MYC we are a full hour+ tow from the closest club. What happens with pop up storms? There’s no place to shelter.

Agreed. Same basic problem I lived with from PWYC as a kid.. We had procedures for problems, and we had to use them several times.

What we did to mitigate was to remove ALL the kids from the boats to the towboat. (Mom would serve hot dogs.) If there was a serious problem, we would anchor, wait it out and get the whalers to fix up the tow and then proceed. Everyone was always save.

There was a COVID outbreak at a sailing club in New Orleans

There was a large safety incident regarding Covid happening in Florida!

Agreed on the national survey. It would be a great marketing tool for some of us.

A relief to parents? A RELIEF to the KIDS.

The numbers in FL were much higher overall than in our area over the summer. Additionally there is no mask mandate there. Masking has been shown to be the number 1 way to prevent spread.

Key Biscayne run midwinters east with 200 boats (a50 launching out of KBYC)

Bucaneer Blast in Key Largo had over 150 Optis 2 weeks ago

all Norwalk YC had a very safe, successful summer

We shut down the program. No problems.

@Manuel: Yep. I coached that. It was a pretty remarkable number of people in one place from all over the country (was more like 200-300 kids plus family members) and no report of spread from that

facemarks, limit indoor activities, spread out sailors… outdoor sport is pretty safe but every club needs to decide their own acceptable level of risk

our high school team has been getting more people joining that don’t want to do their normal indoor sports.

A question - why would anyone in their right mind volunteer to host Opti-Champs! (JUST KIDDING)

its more manageable than other events. opti kids tend to get into less trouble after hours than the older kids.

thank you for hosting!

Thank you Peg!!

I will be preparing the recording and the slides for publishing on the web during this weekend ands will send out the link to all who have attended, as well as all who were unable to attend.

I have to check out because the first UConn Big East Tournament basketball game in years is now underway. Thanks all.

Thanks warren

Gotta hop off now, thanks guys!

Thanks all! Lots of fun and lessons learned.