S-M-A-R-T Sailing Goals

[MLee]

In the April issue of SW, Scott Ikle' gives us some advice on creating goals and then achieving them. Make you own sailing goals public hear, maybe someone else has some advice on helping you achieve those goals.

Dave Reed wants to hang with the guys at the Laser frostbit series in Newport. He's been hitting the gym and doing all his least favorite exercises. But it's paying off.

What's your goal and how can you get there?

[thirst_quencher]

Number one would have to be simply spending more time in the boat this year than last. We have a 6 month season, which is far shorter than I would like, so I want to maximize the time I have. To that end I am doing the reverse squirrel, saving up over the winter so I can play plenty of hookey over the summer.

Second would be to step up our effort. Last year was the first year racing for us in nearly a decade, and we were really just happy to be out there competing at all. We managed a third in our club series, however this year I would really like us to take it to the next level. I would like to run weekly practices, and use a full regular crew, instead of winging it each week.

To some degree, we are going to have to do this if we hope to not look hopeless out there this year, as we just bought a J24 to campaign this year in place of the Mirage 236 that we were sailing. The Mirage had everything led back to the cockpit, so it was always tempting to have 2 people do everything and anyone else drink beer on the right side of the boat. The J is set up with the new deck layout, and everyone will have a job, and it will take a full crew effort.

If we execute well, I think we can move up one or two spots, but if we don't, the new boat is going to be less forgiving of sloppy crew work.

[swill388]

I have many goals to achieve. But my first preference is to be a good IT Executive.