Report from ISAF Match Racing Umpiring Seminar, Long Beach, California, USA, June 10-14, 2009
US Sailing and Long Beach Yacht Club hosted an IU seminar in conjunction with the Ficker Cup 2009 Grade 3 match racing event. The seminar included two days of classroom sessions, June 10-11, and three days of on the water umpiring at the event, June 12-14. ISAF thanks both organizations for organizing the seminar.
The match racing event was sailed in boats provided by Long Beach Yacht Club, the well-known Catalina 37s. The race committee included Pete Ives as PRO, Douglas Sloan and several others. ISAF thanks them for making the event possible and for running it very competently.
There were 10 delegates from China, Japan, New Zealand and USA. Their efforts and contribution made the seminar a great success. They worked hard in the classroom part and did a great job as umpires in the match racing event. There is good reason to believe that ISAF will soon have several new IUs as a result of the seminar.
Kirk Brown was the coordinator of the seminar, he participated in the seminar and was chief umpire of the match racing event. He and the employees and volunteers of the Long Beach Yacht Club are owed many tanks for their work which made the seminar possible. The instructors were Shane Borrell (NZL) and Jan Stage (DEN), with competent support from David Pyron (USA) as the local instructor.
Shane Borrell and Jan Stage
