I received five responses to the email Carl Harrington sent out. Some of the thoughts and concerns expressed are answered by the following.

First of all, this is not intended to be just race training. Rather, the emphasis will be on sailing for maximum performance, with some time spent on applying that performance to racing. So, individuals who are not interested in racing will still benefit a lot from participating.

The answers to the question below are my own thoughts on and will be modified as the group gets active and determines its own answers to these question.

How often will we meet?

• As we wish. My thought was to sail at least twice a month, for at least three hours. This could be done on an evening except during winter. Let me know what works for you, and we'll get things rolling.

What will we do in each session?

• Each meeting will be a combination of training (we will all pool our knowledge on the subject of the day) combined with as much practical application as time allows. Thus, if we were working on jib trim, we might take a boat out and have each person trim the jib for what they believe is the best performance, and explain the reasons. Then, we could all experiment until we each find what works best.
• Sometimes we might take out a second boat and compare performance.

How much experience do I need to have?

• Just know how to sail (basic keelboat class or such) and be willing to contribute what you can.

What boats will we be sailing in?

• I believe we will learn the most by sailing in a variety of boats.

What about getting the boats ready for racing (cleaning bottoms, etc.?

• This is outside the scope of this group as I see it. However, there is nothing to prevent part of the group from doing so.