I attended this seminar over the weekend at M.I.T. in Boston. When I got to the room it was held in, I was immediately impressed with the facility. It was a mini amphitheater, suited to hold 150 of your closest friends, complete with many buttons that controlled everything from the lights to the window shades. Dave Dellenbaugh was the course instructor and he is no dummy when it comes to the course topics. The lecture started at 8:30 and we were there until 5pm. Believe it or not, we ran out of time to cover everything in the curriculum. There were quite a few eager sailors that wanted to hear what answers Dave would have for their situations they had come across. There were also many that needed further clarification on items that were discussed. Overall, I think that the large amount of questions detracted from what Dave had to say. I was hoping to hear more about tactics and less rules talk. As Dave said, to understand what tactics to implement, you must understand the rules that you are dealing with. It was my feeling that there were quite a few people at the seminar that may only have had a basic knowledge of the racing rules. As Dave began to scratch the surface of this basic knowledge, it was then that the questions started to roll. As a course instructor, it must be hard to find the balance of what or how many questions to take versus keeping the course schedule on track and moving along. I would have liked to have seen a time at the end for an open forum of questions and perhaps some of the questions that students had, may have been answered through the day in the topics that Dave covered. He had magnetic boats to create scenarios, some footage of actual racing situations, and computer simulated situations to add to his wealth of knowledge of the sport which were all ingredients for a great presentation.

In the end, the seminar was definitely worth the whole day. We were given Dave Perry’s 100 Best Racing Rules Quizzes with our course materials, a DVD and some other printed material. He reinforced each rule by number, and his sense of humor gave everyone in the room some laughs. I would recommend the course to any sailor that wants to learn the rules. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone that would like to learn more about tactical thinking in different scenarios around the racecourse.