Race duties!
Published 22:19 on 17 May 2026
Shotwick Lake Sailing has an amazing programme of racing, but of course each race day requires a team of volunteers to enable racing to take place. The four key roles are:
- Race Officer of the Day (OOD). This requires someone with experience who can organise the racing for the day.
- Assistant Race officer. Basically assists the OOD in administering the races, helping setup the starting station, keeping track and recording lap times etc. This is a fantastic opportunity for the less experienced, often getting a running commentary from the OOD on the race and strategy and tactics being used on the water.
- Safety boat helm. Requires PB2 and club endorsement to do this role.
- Safety boat crew. No specific qualifications or experienced required. The experienced helm will ensure you know everything you need to know. Again this is a fantastic opportunity to get up close with the racing fleet, to watch how the more experienced helms are handling their boats and get direct feedback and info from the safety boat helm, who is often an experienced racer themselves.
If you are a racer then you are expected to carry out a number of these volunteer roles over the year. Without volunteers then the racing simply will not take place. At the moment a small number of members are keeping racing going by racking up many many volunteer sessions and losing time on the water of course which is simply unfair. If you are still to take on a role, maybe you are nervous about taking on a duty, then contact Dave Thomas to discuss what is possible and get your name down in the duty roster. Support is available so you will not be alone if undertaking race duties for the first time.
If you are not a racer you can still volunteer for race duties, youll have a great time and learn so much… it might even tempt you to give racing a go!
If you are really lucky you will find yourself along our very own flag expert Gaz who will also teach you how to point in a heroic fashion…
Last updated 22:21 on 17 May 2026
