It’s been a while since we all crammed together around a bulletin board after regatta racing to check out who was at the top of a handwritten list of scores on paper. Remembering to swing by the notice board at the sailing club each morning to look for any amendments to the sailing instructions (SI) is a practice that seems to be fading into memory, too.
Nowadays, it’s much more likely that sailors are walking around the boat park hitting “refresh” on their phones as they check out results on the regatta website or hearing pings as they get chat notifications that racing is being postponed ashore. Both old school and new school methods have pros and cons, but as we go increasingly high tech, there are best practices to keep in mind for regatta organizers and competitors alike.
Before the Regatta
Hosting a notice of race (NoR) and registration online is pretty much the bare minimum for a regatta these days. Make sure the venue or sailing club has the regatta on its calendar, and that NoR and registration information are easily linked from that calendar. While some sailing clubs’ websites have built-in methods for creating “events” that can include regatta documents, others don’t. That likely requires building those materials on a separate platform such as Regatta Network, Clubspot, Upwind24, or a handful of other providers.
Having a home page for your regatta makes spreading the word easier, as you have one URL to share with your fleet and other potentially interested sailors via good old word of mouth, links on fleet and class websites and calendars, email lists, and social media. And there’s where it gets a little tricky and a little demanding. There are so many social media options these days, and different people and age groups prefer different platforms.
Here’s where event organizers and competitors need to meet in the middle: Organizers should share news and reminders about upcoming events via multiple relevant social media platforms (to offer the opportunity to the broadest suite of sailors). But potential competitors should always use looking at the NoR online as their fallback (in case the event organizers don’t share information on their preferred social media platform—or if the “algorithm” doesn’t deliver the information to them).
During the Regatta
The best regatta organizers and race committees communicate well on and off the water. Traditionally, this has taken place thanks to sound signals and flags and hard-copy information on the official notice board. Today, where and how the official notice board exists is evolving. For many regattas, it is now virtual, often as a section on the event’s website.
An even newer option is to have a dynamic official notice board, perhaps as a WhatsApp group or a text group. Whether it’s results, SI amendments, or protest hearing schedules, having information shared virtually can make it more accessible for competitors. That’s especially helpful at large, multiclass regattas when competitors may be sailing out of multiple sailing clubs.
Note: The location of the official notice board must be specified in the NoR so that event organizers must think through how they want to post notices well before the event actually happens! This lets competitors make sure they have the right technological setup before they arrive for the event—for example, to make sure they have the current version of WhatsApp on their phone. And it makes it official and puts the onus on competitors to ensure they are prepared to access the information.
WhatsApp is a great way to share information with sailors. If you’re an event organizer dipping your toe into this option, there are a few best practices to ensure your sailors have a good experience:
- In addition to having the WhatsApp chat link in the NoR, have a QR code with the WhatsApp chat link on site at registration so that people can easily sign up for the chat when they arrive at the event. Include language that notes that competitors are responsible for signing up for the chat if that’s the route you take.
- Don’t piggyback the chat group for your regatta onto another chat. For example, don’t simply have your local fleet’s WhatsApp chat serve as the chat for a regatta you are hosting. Trying to multitask a chat is a recipe for confusion.
- Only allow administrators to post in the chat. The official notice board should only include information that’s being shared by regatta organizers and/or race committees; it is not a place for competitors to weigh in on how awesome they thought the regatta dinner was. Keep information here streamlined—you can restrict who is able to share in your group’s settings.
- Want to stoke the social side of things? You can create a parallel WhatsApp chat for fun items!
- Be sure to give any WhatsApp groups you form clear and concise names—for example, “2026 One-Design Nationals Official Notice Board” vs. “2026 One-Design Nationals Social Updates.”
By Kim Couranz
About the Author: Kim Couranz has earned several national and world titles in Laser Radials (ILCA 6), Snipes, and Lightnings. She has also raced J/22s, J/24s, and Ynglings on an international level.
