Post by Stephanie on Jul 28, 2014 21:51:37 GMT -8
I think it's safe to say that this was the best BLB in the past couple years! I say this based on the fact that we had only one capsize (with no serious injuries), minimal collisions, were only 10 minutes behind on Saturday, and thirty minutes behind on Sunday. I'm not sure about the record for time delays, but we've had two capsizes in each of our last two BLB, and we had a ton of collisions last BLB. This change is mostly because of our steers, and also because of our callers. Last year we had a lot of steers miscounting buoys (which happens), but they challenged other boats in "their" lane rather than checking the boat down. Officials this year reported steers preventing a lot of collisions by checking their boats early. I'm sure callers also better echoed steers' check commands this year. So great job to everyone on that! There were at least two crazy Ivans (as Mike called them at the captains' meeting), at least one of which caused collisions, but I think overall the steers were better at staying in their lanes this year. I think we just needed time to get used to the fewer buoys.
I spent minimal time at Marshaling, but I liked the PA system. I'm don't know how much it helped though, since I mostly checked the heat numbers on the yellow "flip" board, but I'm sure a PA system is better than a megaphone. I don't have any other comments about Marshaling since I spent almost no time there, but from the times I was there, they seemed very organized and we were able to get onto our boat quickly.
Starting had a lot of technical difficulties, none of which were fully resolved even by the end of the weekend, but we made do. Notes for next year: have a bullhorn on hand, have an airhorn, have an extra microphone! (preferably one with an off button). All in all, I think Starting did a great job; it was a lot of teamwork (it's impossible for one person to juggle a megaphone, an airhorn, a walkie-talkie, and push the cage drop button at the same time). The speaker system (when it works) is entirely fantastic, and I don't know how they got along before with only bullhorns. Jenn is apparently loud enough on a bullhorn but I still am not. Having a camera and tv there is also fantastic since we have zoomed in footage of dragon heads. It also makes protests a lot easier to handle since we've recorded everything.
Dr Chen had predicted that the gates would shave 1 minute off each race (we schedule races 8 minutes apart), and at first I was skeptical, but I'm starting to think it's possible. We didn't have any serious "traffic jams" at starting this year, only a couple from the capsize, when we checked the lines, and once when we had to wait for Judges. We did have a few messy starts, but overall the starts were very clean, and we were able to get boats out fairly quickly. I like having the orange flag there and I would like another flag a ways back from the course to mark the back boundary. Saturday morning boats were going pretty far back, but by midday nearly all boats stayed within a reasonable distance. The flag is also a great indicator of wind, for when Starters forget to remind steers.
Steers were mostly considerate to each other this race; we did have some steers hang back so other teams had to make big U-turns behind them, but Starters tried to move them forward. Other steers made turns in front of the boats, which is fine as well. Mid Sunday morning we had an Official's boat hang behind the starting grid to notify Starters if the wind pushed boats too far off center of their lane during before starting. This is a great idea since Starters can't see "horizontally" down the course. I think sending out our "Start Block System References" forum post to visiting teams made a difference, and I'm sure it helped local teams as well.
I wasn't on any chase boats this year, but from what I saw, the coordination between them was a great improvement. Partly it's because we had more chase boats in general, but I know they worked hard on following their plan from last year.
Another great thing, some of us officials were on a Google hangout together, which we all checked periodically throughout the weekend. I think it was CK's idea and it was the best idea *ever*. It meant that we didn't always have to wait for a heat grid to be delivered since Judges could photo "text" it over. It also meant that we could communicate delays to each other (Marshaling almost never uses the walkie-talkies since it's too loud over there). Marshaling also "texted" me on Sunday morning that the teams were saying the Starter wasn't loud enough, so we immediately turned up the mic. This in particular made the Google hangout worth it to me. At baby long beach, teams also could not hear me, but no one told me until after the races were all over!
One "major" complaint. I do wish we had the Twitter. If nothing else than to communicate delays to the teams (maybe we can do that next year). Sunday's "lunch break" is used to move the block system to the 200m line. It cannot be moved quickly. Even if we could speed that up, Starters need to test the system, and then we need to test it again with Judges. At one point, Marshaling "texted" asking how long it would be since teams were already lined up. We "texted" back saying it would be at least another 30 minutes. I wish we could have told teams earlier so they didn't have to marshal so early.
But overall, I think everyone did a great job! Conditions were good (never too hot or too windy), a lot of the changes the Staff made were very effective, and teams cooperated as well. There's always room for improvement though, so what did you think?
I spent minimal time at Marshaling, but I liked the PA system. I'm don't know how much it helped though, since I mostly checked the heat numbers on the yellow "flip" board, but I'm sure a PA system is better than a megaphone. I don't have any other comments about Marshaling since I spent almost no time there, but from the times I was there, they seemed very organized and we were able to get onto our boat quickly.
Starting had a lot of technical difficulties, none of which were fully resolved even by the end of the weekend, but we made do. Notes for next year: have a bullhorn on hand, have an airhorn, have an extra microphone! (preferably one with an off button). All in all, I think Starting did a great job; it was a lot of teamwork (it's impossible for one person to juggle a megaphone, an airhorn, a walkie-talkie, and push the cage drop button at the same time). The speaker system (when it works) is entirely fantastic, and I don't know how they got along before with only bullhorns. Jenn is apparently loud enough on a bullhorn but I still am not. Having a camera and tv there is also fantastic since we have zoomed in footage of dragon heads. It also makes protests a lot easier to handle since we've recorded everything.
Dr Chen had predicted that the gates would shave 1 minute off each race (we schedule races 8 minutes apart), and at first I was skeptical, but I'm starting to think it's possible. We didn't have any serious "traffic jams" at starting this year, only a couple from the capsize, when we checked the lines, and once when we had to wait for Judges. We did have a few messy starts, but overall the starts were very clean, and we were able to get boats out fairly quickly. I like having the orange flag there and I would like another flag a ways back from the course to mark the back boundary. Saturday morning boats were going pretty far back, but by midday nearly all boats stayed within a reasonable distance. The flag is also a great indicator of wind, for when Starters forget to remind steers.
Steers were mostly considerate to each other this race; we did have some steers hang back so other teams had to make big U-turns behind them, but Starters tried to move them forward. Other steers made turns in front of the boats, which is fine as well. Mid Sunday morning we had an Official's boat hang behind the starting grid to notify Starters if the wind pushed boats too far off center of their lane during before starting. This is a great idea since Starters can't see "horizontally" down the course. I think sending out our "Start Block System References" forum post to visiting teams made a difference, and I'm sure it helped local teams as well.
I wasn't on any chase boats this year, but from what I saw, the coordination between them was a great improvement. Partly it's because we had more chase boats in general, but I know they worked hard on following their plan from last year.
Another great thing, some of us officials were on a Google hangout together, which we all checked periodically throughout the weekend. I think it was CK's idea and it was the best idea *ever*. It meant that we didn't always have to wait for a heat grid to be delivered since Judges could photo "text" it over. It also meant that we could communicate delays to each other (Marshaling almost never uses the walkie-talkies since it's too loud over there). Marshaling also "texted" me on Sunday morning that the teams were saying the Starter wasn't loud enough, so we immediately turned up the mic. This in particular made the Google hangout worth it to me. At baby long beach, teams also could not hear me, but no one told me until after the races were all over!
One "major" complaint. I do wish we had the Twitter. If nothing else than to communicate delays to the teams (maybe we can do that next year). Sunday's "lunch break" is used to move the block system to the 200m line. It cannot be moved quickly. Even if we could speed that up, Starters need to test the system, and then we need to test it again with Judges. At one point, Marshaling "texted" asking how long it would be since teams were already lined up. We "texted" back saying it would be at least another 30 minutes. I wish we could have told teams earlier so they didn't have to marshal so early.
But overall, I think everyone did a great job! Conditions were good (never too hot or too windy), a lot of the changes the Staff made were very effective, and teams cooperated as well. There's always room for improvement though, so what did you think?
