St. George’s, Grenada - On Thursday March 31st Grenada held its first Race Management Seminar for sailing; probably the first in the Caribbean. It was jointly promoted by the Grenada Sailing Association and the Grenada South Coast Yacht Club and held at the Bananas Night Club in Lance Aux Epines. The presenter was Martin Bedford from England who had been the principle Race Officer for the Easter Around the Island Regatta and is a Royal Yachting Association and ISAF International race officer. This was his third year as the Regatta PRO. In attendance was the President of the Grenada Sailing Association, Jacqui Pascall and representatives of the Carricou Regatta, The Grenada Sailing Festival, the Grenada Yacht Club plus two juniors from GYC. A total of 12 people were present to hear Mr. Bedford outline the functions of race management, from deciding and setting the course, handling starting line procedures, to what to do if things go wrong or the competitors are over the line. He emphasized the need of keeping track of the boats during the race. He also shared ideas on how to shorten the course, set a finishing line and recording the finishing times of the boats. Mr. Bedford reminded all of two major things to remember during regattas: 1. Competitors are Customers – make them happy. 2. In a difficult situation people are more important than boats – safety is always the prime objective. Event coordinator Peter Doughty extended the following, “On behalf of those present may we say thank you to Martin for giving his time and his words of wisdom, to the GSA for giving us lunch and Roger and Claire Spronk for allowing us to use the Bananas Night Club.” “It is hoped that seminars like this one will become a regularly scheduled event,” said GSA President Jacqui Pascall. “Having learned from this first seminar, it is our intention to plan and promote more seminars on boating-related topics. We believe they will attract interested participants both locally and from other islands.” Contact: Jacqui Pascall 473-439-1000 e-mail: horizonyachts@caribsurf.com