Hello PCCSC,
First, please excuse me for "eavesdropping" on the PCCSC list. I need
to monitor your results for writing national rankings since there are
many excellent teams in your conference that cannot afford East Coast
intersectionals.
I am reading with interest your desire to retain the sloop nationals.
It seems some of the writers might be misinterpreting the proposal. It
does not call for the elimination of sloop racing; rather a drop in
status for the final event. Though I cannot speak for MAISA, I believe
they wish to change the final event to a national invitational similar
to the Kennedy Cup, except bigger (and hosted around the nation) since
intermediate sloops are more accessible than great big boats.
I should not remain secret about my personal opinion. I believe that
the sloop nationals should not hold the same status as the other
nationals since it represents a small portion of our sport. That said,
our sailors at Tufts love the sloop racing they do which includes:
Women's Olympians Trophy in Ynglings at S. Maine with match racing,
Annual Soling team race at Boston Sailing Center,
Phil Harman Cup in Colgates at Maine Maritime,
NEISA Sloop champs in a variety of boats and venues,
Local frostbiting in J-22s on Boston Harbor,
Spring Invites in Colgates at Coast Guard,
Rare but occasional trip to Sloop nationals, last time was 2004 in Gov
Cup 21's at Balboa,
And our one big boat foray, the Storm Trysail Club Intercollegiate Big
Boat regatta in J 105s.
For all the above except sloop nationals we send some dinghy crews to
ensure they are exposed to a form a sailing they may have never
experienced before.
My only problem with sloop nationals is too many national champions,
particularly if women's team racing or match racing becomes a nationals
some day. This reduction at the top has already happened with
All-Americans. Where there used to be 20 regular All-Americans and ten
Women's All-Americans, there are now only about 20 combined. This is
because the inclusion of All-American crews (deserved) made the total
list so big that its importance was diluted.
That said I respect the opinion of PCCSC and I also like Jay's idea to
consider match racing.
Ken Legler
Tufts Sailing Coach
__________________________________________________
pciyra mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=pciyra
