Try a Little Bush League Racing

With a bit of creativity and a willingness to accept imperfect racecourses, you can race anywhere you desire.

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The first time I went to a bush regatta was the 1986 Tasar British Columbia Championship at Lake Cultus. The scene was new to me: camping, bonfires, barbecues, lake racing. I was hooked.

When my team went to Australia to race 18-foot skiffs the following year, it was obvious we were way behind the other teams. We needed more practice racing to be competitive and came up with an idea to host informal racing every Tuesday night. We borrowed a 12-foot "tinny" and made marks with plastic milk bottles lashed together. We sailed in the small confines of Balmoral Bay in Sydney, primarily for boat handling practice, but also because our anchor lines were not very long.

At first, only one team joined us, but a month later we had the top boats racing around our little makeshift course. We started calling it the Balmoral Cup. Everyone had a great time, learned a thing or two, and enjoyed the casual camaraderie. In the years since, we have created regattas around the Pacific Northwest using the same principle of simplified infrastructure.

How do we run a quality event with minimal infrastructure? I have some ideas based on our experience in the northwest Tasar class. First, bush regattas work best with only one class, or two at the most. You want to maximize the racing and minimize the waiting. Having the right race committee is important. We find someone within our fleet who cannot sail or an alum. Having a spouse or second person on the committee boat is ideal.