Getting Started
Roadmap — Five
 You
have sailed a lot in the past, would like to get back into it, and
are thinking about purchasing a boat sometime soon. You are interested
in the idea of racing for some or all of your sailing, but have
no racing experience. You have several goals: to build up some skill
in sailboat racing, to confirm your interest in buying a boat, to
figure out what type of boat to buy, and, later, to get help in
the selection of the actual boat. (Once you have the boat, then
you have another set of goals, covered by one of two other sections,
depending upon whether you learned a lot about
racing before you bought, or were still a
racing novice.)
Building up some skill in racing before you have a boat involves
this challenge: you need to get other people to take you racing
to teach you. (Once you are an experience racing crew, it is much
easier to get "rides".)
a) Join CSC as an Associate Member.
Being an associate member is a low-cost alternative for non-boat
owners, which will give you access to all Club services and events,
including the newsletter and members-only portions of CSC's Web
site. (When you buy a boat you can upgrade to a full membership.)
At your skill level, membership does not guarantee rides - but they
are easier to get if you are a member.
b) Participate in Club events.
Club events offer a great opportunity to get to know other area
sailors. So attend Club meetings, come to the social events, help
out on a committee.
c) Register on the crew
finder. (The list of people looking to crew is visible only
on the members-only section of the web site. You also can
do your registration there if you are a member) A great way to learn
about racing is to crew on other people's boats in races. As an
experienced sailor, you have something to offer, even if you do
not know anything about racing.
d) Crawl though the web site (carolinasailingclub.org) to
get a feel for club activities. (For later use, note that in the
members-only side there is a Rogues Gallery of names and pictures
of all members to help you put faces with names and vice versa.)
e) Go to the next Third Thursdays
Social to start meeting members and get the lay of the land.
f) Read about racing.
Most racing crew are long on skills built up from experience, but
short on understanding of the underlying theories and ideas. You
can learn the theories and ideas from a book - not completely, but
more than most crew know. Read. Not just the sailing magazines,
but books.
g) Serve on a Race Committee (You must be at least an associate
member to serve on a race committee.) Race Committees run the races.
By assisting an experienced Principal Race Officer to run the races,
you can observe the other boats - their strategy, tactics, and boat
handling. You can become familiar with how the races are run, and
begin to learn the essentials of the racing rules. See the Events
page for dates and information on the various racing series.
When you joined the club you were asked for preferences about dates
for your obligatory race committee duty. Contact the Chairman of
the Regatta Operations Committee, Dave
Batchelor, and tell him you are willing to do more RC duty.
h) Learn about the CSC Fleets.
Discussions with members will tell you what boats are actively raced
in the area. The CSC fleets include one-design classes that race
with crews of one, two, or three. They include both catamarans and
monohulls. Some are better suited to family racing, others to single
competition. Some are physically demanding and built for speed,
others are more forgiving. Each fleet has its own personality. The
fleet captains are listed in CSC Fleets.
i) Identify with a CSC Fleet. You
are not only picking a boat type and fleet that will be fun to crew
on / sail with, but you are also probably selecting the type of
boat you will eventually buy. As you build up racing experience
racer you will become attractive as crew, but you need to become
known among the skippers. A good way to do this is to focus on a
particular CSC fleet. Get to know the fleet members. Ask them to
tell you about their class. The Fleet Captain can be a helpful first
contact. (See About CSC Fleets.) The more fleet members you talk
to, the more they will recognize your experience and look for you
when they need crew. As you gain experience on that class of boat,
demand for you as crew will grow. Learn how best to rig and tune
that class of boat. Consider joining the fleet's national class
association as an associate or crew member. Many of these associations
have Web sites, newsletters, or other publications that provide
tips & techniques for rigging, tuning and sailing that class
of boat. (If the class association is not active, sometimes the
builder has a Web site.) The CSC Fleet Captain is likely to be able
to tell you how to find written or on-line resources for learning
special sailing techniques for that type of boat.
j) Purchase a boat. In this process, the fleet members can
be a lot of help. They know what's available, what to look for,
what you should look for. They also know how to fix up or make changes
to the boat.
(Once you have the boat, then you have another set of goals, covered
by one of two other sections, depending upon whether you learned
a lot about racing before you bought, or were still
a racing novice.)
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