The topic of getting a professional on-board next year was discussed a number of times and I think we are about ready to have someone aboard to help evaluate overall performance and formulate our overall weaknesses, and strengths which will give us a Starting Point to designing a solid practice regimen.

The crew is serious and committed to improve and be competitive in the next level. And I believe we can as a boat and crew achieve this. I think Priorities for the next little while (off-season strategy) will be the following:

• develop a crew goal list: establish what each crew member wants to get out of their time on the boat. Be clear and make sure we all understand what priorities we each have, where we want to be and what we want to learn. How much we want to practice, how committed we are, how much time we can devote. We should develop a 3 year plan and briefly set some goals as to how many regattas and which we want to try and do. What system of measurement we want to choose to help track our goals over the years.



• Clearly Define Crew Roles: Sit down and write down who does what when and stick to those roles. Now that we have a fixed crew it will be easier to assign positions and responsibilities. I am more confident and willing to parse out duties such as Crew Chief and Regatta Coordinator now as well as other tasks that were pretty time consuming on my part.



• Off-Season Strategy: Define our strategy for off-season. Look at meeting times and places and establish agenda. Make a list of material we can review to keep up to speed and help develop practice sessions.



• Define Short Term Objectives: This will include what physical things still need to be done to the deck layout. Discuss options for changing these items and co-ordinate timing for spring to have them accomplished. Plan our early spring training regimen.

This list is a starting point. Will build on it and further develop it as we go. Came across this interesting post regarding advice for new person trying to put together a boat. Some excellent info and comments here. Worth a read.