When I raced on a close friend's boat (he is still a very close friend). My friend owned/still does a successful computer store. Back in the good business days we had everything one could want. New sails (he did trade outs with the local North loft) and we had the electronics. We had the desire to win. And we had some degree of success. But our owner/skipper was a tyrant at times. And that didn't lead us to a path of success. At the time we were racing a Tartan 33R (6' draft, fairly big heavy boat). A couple times were notable. One was as we were beating in and healed over we were hit by a puff and one of the cabin ports was open and I recall water pouring in as if by a fire hose. Another time we were pinching to make a mark and he was shouting to get the genoa in, more, more, more and then BANG! as the turning block was ripped off the deck! The crew sat and laughed, but there was a large hole in the fiberglass where the block and it's properly installed backup plate had been (it is amazing how much you can pull with a large sheet and a big winch with just 2 guys). My point is that his business was successful and was certainly a technical field but the boat campaign wasn't so much... You need to look at the personality of the captain too. Today he still races only on a Melges 24. He does well (consistent 2nd place behind a captain with a lifetime of local knowledge and a cool demeanor).
Joe McCary Aeolus II, West River, MD #4795 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- On Behalf Of tim ford Funny, really, that this should come up!!! As the season comes to an end, I have been thinking (scary) about a bunch of things that may or may not have become apparent over the course of a long season or two. One of the things that had come to mind (like a gnat crawling thru 40 degree maple syrup) is the differences I see in racing programs BASED ON the what the owner does for a living! And, at the risk of over-generalizing, the best programs seem to be run by....you guessed it....engineers! Last year I was on 12 different boats, this year I think just 10, but I started dividing it up into fairly broad employment catagories (sales, health care, engineering tech, creative services-arts, legal) for what the owner did for a living, and then using both subjective ratings (was the owner organized?) and the basic empirical data of where the boat finished, and the state of the boat in terms of new sails and then, bottom line, how experienced the owner was. (pathetic, I know, but this is what I do during meetings sometimes to amuse myself) ANd although the sample size is admittedly tiny, thus making it almost anecdotal, I found that at least within this relatively small amount of data, the engineering/tech community really mashed down the other job descriptions.......annnnnd.......lawyers did the worst! Your mileage may vary... tf __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 3615 (20081115) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 3615 (20081115) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com
