Welcome to Swiftsure 2010

My name is John and I have been chosen to be your blogmaster for the upcoming 2010 Swiftsure International Yacht Race. I am so new to this that I had to look it up in Wikipedia to see what a blog is supposed to do. I have decided I will present news and ideas on this sight and ask that you, the readers respond and contribute your thoughts and ideas.

If you choose to reply with words, photos, or videos, we will welcome them all.

Swiftsure is first and foremost a sailboat race. There are a lot of on-shore activities in the preceding week: music, dancing and food in the Bimini, and shopping in downtown Victoria, but without boats on the water and sailors to race them, there would not be the Swiftsure weekend.

The Steering Committee hopes to attract an ever increasing number of boats to Victoria. We have the short, medium, and long distance events and the multihull event. We have added in-shore races for older “classic” boats, and others who do not want to spend a night on the water. Last year, we added an optional Sunday race for the inshore fleet and had good reviews form those who did it.

If you, the reader, sailed in any of the Swiftsure events last year or are planning to do it this year, please feel welcome to jump in on this format and give us your views. Are there improvements we can make to ensure all racers and their families and friends feel welcome, improve the pre-race experience, or make certain the race is the best possible? Should we work on better weather, more wind, less current at Race Passage? Let us know and we will see what we can do.

In coming weeks, we will discuss on this blog news about the race including communication, technical data such as yacht tracking, and weather availability for the participants.

That’s it for now. I look forward to your input.

John Green