Bart Senior wrote:
The US Power Squadron at the upper levels is just as much
as mess as US Sailing. However at the Squadron level
they do a fabulous job of training people at minimum cost.


IMHO a lot of that has to do with personalities. The people
who are attracted to the upper levels of these types of
groups are either service driven (and their idea of
"service" may not be the same as yours or mine) or ego driven.

Another factor is that you can't fire volunteers. I think
that was part of Jean P's point- that USSA is better than
nothing at all, which is what would be in place if we
"fired" them.



Don't get me wrong on this, the U.S. Olympic sailors are great athletes
and very skilled... but I would describe USSA's role in the selection
process as interfering, money-laundering, and playing favorites.


If this is true, it should be documented and hammered
home until the lose their "Governing Body" assignment.


That will never happen, or at least not until the New
England Sailing Mafia has grown more distant from the Int'l
Olympic Committee. And when that happens (unless some other
sailors jump into the breach) sailing will probably cease to
be an Olympic sport. It simply doesn't command the numbers
or the money that is expected in the Olympics nowadays.

But the US Olympic sailing selection process should
absolutely be open, ie the process & the priorities of the
selection committee should be known to the competitors. This
"secret probation" malarkey is right out of Animal House.
They claim they don't want competitors to 'game the system'
but it's obviously (IMHO) being gamed from the inside.

It's not like there would be an unmanageable stampede of
people trying to get into the Olympics. And imagine what
would happen if participation at high level sailing
competition increased!

Don't get me started. It's been bungled from long ago, for
one thing the Hobie Cat and the Laser should have been
selected as Olympic classes long ago.


Don't get me started on that. I struggled on correcting their race
committee training for years. USSA has a habit of producing inflexible
big-headed tyrants for PROs.


Tell us more Doug. I'd love to hear about it.


It's a question of goal oriented management. I'm sure that
the USSA Race Officer training intends to produce PROs who
keep in mind fairness of competition & enjoyability for the
competitors; however when we attend a race and the Race
Committee signals delay after delay while the PRO screams
into his radio trying to get the mark boat to adjust the
starting line so it is ultra-perfect, I know exactly where
he learned this procedure.

Again, it's a question of personalities... I think that some
people probably would refuse to serve on Race Committees if
they didn't get the chance to tyrannize the racers with
their majestic authority. But USSA certification magnifies
this tendency when it should minimize it, IMHO.




.... I'd like to know more about how US Sailing
spend their money.


A lot of people would. The dinghy classes are sure that
their dues & fees are subsiding the keelboats & offshore
racing, the big boat guys are complaining that they are
****ing away money on the little boats.


I'd like to see them publisize report with content in them instead of
fluff. What do they actually do? Why won't they put it down
in writing?

Where do they spend all the money?


I bet they do have an annual treasurer's report, but I don't
know where it's published.

As I said before, my solution was to pretty much shrug off
involvement... except when pulled into it by the clubs where
we sail.

Fresh Breezes- Doug