USSCA President's Corner

Greetings Sailors!

It’s been an eventful summer with many great regattas and clinics going on as well as very generous grants to the USSCA foundation. I hope everyone has been enjoying it whether you are racing, cruising around, sailing single handed or doubles. There is still a lot of sailing coming up and many regattas still to come this year. 

USSCA is pleased to announce that thanks to an anonymous donor, grants are available for Women age 19 to 25 to cover the full entry fee for the USSCA Women's North American Championship in Charleston, SC at Hobcaw YC on October 9-11. The Young Adult age group includes individuals who will turn 19 by the end of 2026 through age 25 and who will not turn 26 by the end of 2026 and are part of the USA.  A grant application form is available on line at GRANT FORM. Applications will be reviewed to determine the grant recipients.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the donor who is making this possible. This will help raise awareness and interest in young adults, some of whom are currently or have recently enjoyed college sailing and are looking for accessible sailing after college. Our hope is to grow participation among this age group and share with them the joy of sailing in the USSCA class.

The WNA’s is always a very special event with a close camaraderie among the sailors.  CLICK HERE to register for Women's NAs. 

Dan Hesse led a clinic on Boat Trim in light air at the recent Saratoga Lake Megabowl. This was very informative especially as the conditions were classic Saratoga; we did get in 2 days of racing with a total of 7 races!  The on-land portion of Dan’s clinic can be accessed HERE (need to be logged in). Dan also kindly provided an on the water coaching session on Friday as well as over the weekend rather than racing himself. This was very generous. Thank you, Dan! The video is on the website under Member Only Content > Clinics and you will need to sign in to view it.

The USSCA Board has been hard at work this year. One of the items we have been working on is establishing and refining guidelines for USSCA regattas. Two new guidance’s were recently developed.

Wind Limits: 

These are guidelines and deviations are not grounds for redress.

Low:  Races will not be started in less than an average of 4 knots of wind established over the entire course area. This limit may be higher if there is strong current in the racing area.

High: Races will not be started in more than an average of 25 knots. No races should continue if the sustained wind speeds are 25+ knots for longer than 10-minutes. Any decisions will be made by the OA and Class Liaison after considering the safety and fairness for all competitors.

Video/Audio Recording: 

ISCA Class Rule 3.1.9 is hereby changed by these Sailing Instructions to ALLOW the use of video and/or audio recording devices and their associated peripherals (for example a GoPro action camera and its corresponding remote control). Any recording, video and/or audio, cannot be used in support of a protest or redress and cannot be accessible while racing.

We have also developed a guidance on TLE scoring based on the RRS.

Please take a look at the USSCA guidelines when developing NOR’s/SI’s for regattas. They can be found on the Sunfish Class Website under “Resource and Links at Event Host Resources USSCA Championship NOR/SI Recommendations” > CLICK HERE.

US Masters is quickly approaching, late fee start after August 28th, I look forward to seeing many of you at this event. Registration just hit 50 and will be a fun event at Brant Beach Yacht Club,REGISTER CLICK HERE. 

I hope all of you have a great summer of sailing - as always please feel free to reach out with any suggestions. I am always happy to hear from you. 

Susan Mallows

President USSCA

ussca.president@sunfishclass.org