With the weather warming up and the opening of the sailing season only a couple of weeks away, just a quick note to remind all members to go into Duty Man and select the two Sundays in the Season that they can do two Race Officer Duties.
If you are new to the Club, we use a web-based program called Duty Man. When you join/rejoin each year the Membership Secretary will give you a link. Each member has their own link so that any interaction; like volunteering for a duty; will relate directly to them.
I will describe how to activate your given link below.
We are bringing in a change regarding the level of cover for Duty Officers. Every Sunday and some Saturdays we will need three Race Officers ‘on parade’. This is a safety issue. If the support boat has to go out to deal with a capsized boat or some such, we now insist that it is crewed by two of the Race Officers.
If we don’t have three Race Officers by 10:30 then we will have to ask one of the racing sailors to step up, or the day’s racing will have to be abandoned. People can take turns on the day, thereby only forfeiting one race for the day.
The Duty team will consist of a Duty Officer who will be experienced at being a race officer and confident in handling the support boat. He will be helped by two Assistant Race Officers who can have little or no experience running a race. The Duty Officer will give advice and instruction on setting up the flags, organise the start sequence and do the recording of the race results. There is nothing difficult in these duties.
For those who would like some training Andrzej Bojarski and Mac Cleland will be doing some training between the between the first race and the second on the 14th and 21st April at 12:00. And hopefully some on the job experience on the next race.
There are also some comprehensive guidance notes on the procedure for starting and running races which can be accessed from the Racing page.
Something new is always strange at first, but we will endeavour to take away any doubts that you may have. We nearly always get told that being a race officer is the first step for many in wanting to get out there and race.
Moving on to how to use DutyMan. Click on this URL:-
This takes you to a potted version of how to access DutyMan and how to select your OD/AOD volunteering slots.
See you on the water,
Regards,
Mac Cleland, Rear Commodore
Aylesbury Sailing Club 