The original Scoot discussion...

[CapnK]

Try this for a first attempt ... All specific details are, of course, not set in stone (start, finish, date, etc...).

A Huge Thanks (& Grog, of course!)  to Adam, for writing 99.9% of this so well, that I could only add some inconsequential extras...  8) ;D



The Scoot

scoot (skōōt)
v. scoot•ed, scoot•ing, scoots
v.intr. To go suddenly and speedily; hurry.


A proposed race, that's not a race, to the Bahamas.  The primary objective is the exercise of good seamanship and the safe arrival of participating boats.  There are no entry fees, no inspections, and minimal rules.  The Scoot is an exercise of the independent judgment and good seamanship of the individual skippers in the participation of an event with a common goal.  It is only nominally a race, as in any two boats heading in the same direction are always racing.  We don't handicap (PHRF).  We don't have prizes.  We don't have protests. Seamanship should never be sacrificed for a better finish time.

Qualified Boats: Everyman Sailboats that fall under the SailFar Philosophy, typically 20-30' LOD, Multi-hull or mono hull.

Two Crew classes: Single handed and short handed (two crew)

Start Date: 3rd week in April, 2010, 9:00 AM
There will likely be some preliminary challenges recommended for Scooters to participate in prior to the Scoot. These will be done at a Local and Regional level, before the start of the East Coast-based nature of the Scoot. (We would be interested in the creation of a Scoot West, as well!).

Start Point: Off of Beaufort, NC, likely from the Lookout Bight area.

Finish Line: San Salvador, Bahamas or Eleuthera, final destination yet to be determined, and totally dependent on suitability for our purposes and in the spirit of the other considerations for the Scoot. {Anyone have charts? Or other input as to which destination might be more suitable? It will need to have designated Ports of Entry.} Costs of Entering and other such legalities will be assumed by the individual skippers.

Distance: approximately 650 NM

Entry Fee: $0.00

Deadline to Enter: The day of the race. 

Deadline to drop out: The entry fee will be refunded if you drop out before the first day of the race.  ;D

Minimum Equipment List: At the discretion of the Skipper ... No official inspection.

Time Limit: Before the sun burns out

Minimum Age of Skipper: 18 (ie; legally responsible for themselves)

Use of engines:  This is nominally a race, so the use of an engine for propulsion would go against the spirit of the event.

Other Regulations: The Rules of the Sea

Handicaps: None. 

Prizes: At this time there will be no prizes for participation, winning, placing, or completing the Scoot. It might be nice if a volunteer Prize Committee was formed to arrange some type of recognition, provided any expenses where handled voluntarily and not financed by the Entry Fee ($0).

Race Committee:  Anyone want to volunteer at the start or finish line?  If not, starts and finishes will be recorded by individual skippers and reported to a coordinator for record keeping. This report would, of course, be voluntary like everything else; but the only way we would be able to provide any official recognition. {Perhaps a digital photo of a GPS display, if the skipper elects to have such electronic contrivances aboard...}

The Organizing Committee (at present, S/V Godot and CapnK) will be formed by a small handful of volunteers whose only job will be to set the basic parameters of the Scoot, and make available whatever information they have regarding the event to race participants and spectators; probably via a web page or email.  They have no responsibility what-so-ever for the well being of the participants, the distribution of information not already available to them, or even information they have but forgot about, notification of family members or the Coast Guard, or anything else.  They are volunteers who will do the best job they can, but will accept no responsibility what-so-ever for the outcome. 

Skippers are asked to report their status whenever practical, especially on arrival at the finish line, if they retire from the Scoot, or otherwise will be delayed in arriving.  This is to avoid unnecessary worry and the possibility of an unnecessary Search and Rescue.  Success will be defined as NOT having to call the Coast Guard.

[CapnK]

The preliminary challenges mentioned would be something along the lines of:

• Sometime this year, each skipper who plans to participate should go out on their boat on the water, for some period of time (I'd recommend a minimum of 48 hrs, 72 might be better), nonstop, and without anchoring. The purpose of this is to serve as a reality check. :)
• Sometime in '09, participants nearby each other (within say 2-3 days of others), will get together for a mini, mock Scoot: meeting somewhere in the middle, and Scooting back home.

As stated, the purpose of these exercises is to serve to make Scoot skippers fully aware of the realities of what they will be getting in to, prior to heading out from Beaufort and across the Gulf Stream. :)

[maxiSwede]

Great stuff CapnK !!! ;D

Hooray and Grog on ya from my side of the pond... ;D ;D ;D

[Manannan]

The Scoot Nouveau has arrived !!! vive the new vintage of a wonderful idea  :D :D

[CapnK]

It should be fun, as well as a challenge, and will also be a great way to put some faces to names when we finally meet! :)

[Lynx]

Cool. Sorry I cannot take my boat as it is a coastal cruiser but I may be in for crewing.

[Tim]

Hmmmm....I guess now that I have a trailer I don't have this big mass of land to use as an excuse. ;)   

I guess I will have to see how the next year goes regarding work on the boat and gas prices.  :)

[David_Old_Jersey]

Thought I could hear the sound of cogs whirring  ;D

Sounds cool  8) Although I would have been tempted to brand it "the Sailfar Scoot"  ;D....as I would guess that having a forum happy to accomadate these folks would be very useful for the participants.

IMO a good choice of start date with 2010 - hopefully give folks a good chance to hear about it and then plan / prepare for it......IMO the plan / prepare / dream is a lot of the fun (and 90% for non-participants  :D).......always plenty of valid reasons why folk cannot proceed as hoped, so IMO if only a few folk end up making the trip first time then IMO not a disaster......so once the rules and destination have been agreed I would not wait for a large entry list before going public - it being a chicken and egg thing..........

Would deffo also go for a dedicated website (plus this forum).

[David_Old_Jersey]

Nearly forgot..........

.......cracking good idea on including a "shorthanded class".


On the starts, in the absence of a shorebased starter (and finisher?!), the GPS photo thing sounds a bit too heavy handed.

I would suggest that the boats registered as starters get recorded as starters even though they may not have crossed the start line at the official start time............whether or not at the starting point on set off day / time - perfectly possible for folk to get delayed enroute to the start point / have a last minute problem at the start point delaying them for a day or two.....but IMO yer do not want to exclude folk simply for being late leaving / being prudent .........and arrivals are simply taken on Trust with the accepted norm being posting a photo of self and yacht at destination. If anyone cheats, they are only cheating themselves........

[CapnK]

James - it *is* coastal cruising - just a few hundred miles out... ;D

Tim - good idea! You could splash her here in G-town, park the rig safely at my bro's house 12 miles away, we could sail up to Beaufort together (maybe w/Smollett, or whoever else). And having your rig here would lessen the distance back for you by over 100 miles, and a big cape. :)

David - the GPS photo - is only if someone wants to. I would, it'd be easy, and what a great memento. :) Not a requirement at all.

sailFar will be donating the web-space as a personal thing from me, but isn't not an official sponsor of any sort, because I cannot be held liable for what a buncha crazy arsed small boat sailors might be doing in their spare time... ;D Besides, if someone wanted to sue me, they would be wasting their money - they'd do a lot better going to some fast food joint and scalding themselves with coffee... ;D

I figure that we can use a section of this board here for the discussion, because the setup is already done, and the things like board rules and a great team of moderators is already in place. I don't think it will strain our resources. :) (he says, crossing fingers). Maybe if it gets bigger, that might be needed, but not now I don't think...

Good point about the start. Even so, the "start time" is set more as a *goal* for the participants, than as any hard-n-fast rule. :) That is, at least as much as anything else, what the Scoot is for - it is a goal-setting/reaching tool, something to give the participants a definite date to *Get Out There* and do what they _all_ say they want to do. It gives you a reason to not have an excuse.  8)

[CharlieJ]

Oh boy- wait'll Laura sees THIS thread!!!!

I have a very funny feeling we'll be on the east coast in 2010 ;D

[CapnK]

Oh boy- wait'll Laura sees THIS thread!!!!

I have a very funny feeling we'll be on the east coast in 2010 ;D

...and *that* is why Adam and I thought having a double-handed class would be really cool.  8) 8) 8)

Cue... the Faiths? Norm & Elizabeth? Anyone else? :)

Maybe we can even get Greg to come around here from their Baja hideout... ;D

[Lynx]

James - it *is* coastal cruising - just a few hundred miles out... ;D

Hmmm, let me see what Mods I need to do. I have a few days to work it out. As long as I can get to port before that big, bad storm hits. I guess hug the USA coast and then cross over.

How many ports can we stop at along the way? ;D

Can I take a Year or 2 to get there?  ::)

[Tim]

Well, I can guarantee I will not be going without the first mate , Mary



And now for a little inspiration, Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera



((CapnK Writes: Tim - that was weird. Had a devil of a time getting them to post... Maybe a software bug. But anyway - your's didn't show because you had used the Page URL, instead of the Image URL, inbetween the img tags. ANyway, works now. :) )))

Duh! Thanks

[Tim]

 ??? ??? ???

Well there was supposed to be a couple of pics in my previous post

Thank You kind sir, What did I do wrong?

[Lynx]

OK, some pic's

Sun setting over Miami 30 miles out -



Bimini, Bahamas 8 miles away (it was really that smooth in Late May '06)

[newt]

Tim, if you want to do a sailfar prescoot this next year- I can trailer my boat to San Fran Bay. Anybody else want to do a prescoot on the west coast? Or you can join me in the Salt Lake- 2 laps would be about 200 miles.

[CharlieJ]

It was pointed out to me this evening by a quite experienced east coast sailor, that April just might not be THE best time to try this, weather wise. The feeling was that mid May or slightly later would be a much better time frame for getting across the stream.

Food for thought

[Tim]

Tim, if you want to do a sailfar prescoot this next year- I can trailer my boat to San Fran Bay. Anybody else want to do a prescoot on the west coast? Or you can join me in the Salt Lake- 2 laps would be about 200 miles.

We shall see, at this point when the work is done on it I plan on towing her up to the PNW for next season. But these days I let the wind decide which direction to go. ;)

[David_Old_Jersey]

sailFar will be donating the web-space as a personal thing from me, but isn't not an official sponsor of any sort........I figure that we can use a section of this board here for the discussion, because the setup is already done, and the things like board rules and a great team of moderators is already in place. I don't think it will strain our resources. :) (he says, crossing fingers). Maybe if it gets bigger, that might be needed, but not now I don't think...

Am probably being a bit thick here  ;D....but in addition to using the forum are you going to add some webpages to Sailfar.net? I am thinking a good idea partly to promote the Scoot, but mainly to distil info from the Forum into an easily read place for those initially browsing / thinking? (as well as those participants with bad memories!).....over time their will be a lot of discussions and threads on this subject (from "what Kettle to buy" to "how do I get back?" :)) which is all part of the fun, but will tend to hide the stuff that it would be useful for all folk to know.

because I cannot be held liable for what a buncha crazy arsed small boat sailors might be doing in their spare time... ;D Besides, if someone wanted to sue me, they would be wasting their money - they'd do a lot better going to some fast food joint and scalding themselves with coffee... ;D

I can understand you being cautious on this one, as even without major assets to have at jeopardy to lose, yer wouldn't want to simply be on the receiving end of legal stuff.........but if this would prevent you from attaching a couple of pages to Sailfar.net itself how about doing the same on one of the free website builders / hosting sites - and simply link to it on the Sailfar frontpage / forum........for a degree of seperation from both the Sailfar.net AND the Scoot (non!) organisers could call it the "Scoot Supporters Website" - i.e. clearly NOT run by the (Non!) organisers of the Scoot itself.

If this would still not give you enuf seperation to be comfortable with, although webtrickery is not my thing - quite happy to set up some sort of basic "Supporters Website"............as me being accross the Pond in a very small, obscure and very expensive legal jurisdiction (100% seperate from England, with some weird laws still based on old Norman law - from 1066 and all that :)) gives me great practical comfort from folk with a writ to serve..........in addition to genuinely and proveably having no connection to organising the Scoot.

Of course if you don't think a Website / some pages are needed, that is your call - and of course can always be revised in due course.......