Sail Trim Seminar

[Don Guillette]

I get lots of requests from sailors from all over the US to conduct a sail trim seminar for their groups. In fact, I'll be conducting one next Tuesday morning in Lake Havasu, AZ for the Pocket Cruisers Convention. About 125 sailors will be attending my presentation. Normally, my seminars are about 3 hours long and are chocked full of sail trim info. Unfortunately, it is like getting info through a fire hose. In other words you get you need to know about sail trim in one sitting but you end up knowing more about sail trim than 75% of the sailors worldwide. The Lake Havasu gig has to be a shortened to a 35 minute verson with 25 minutes for Q&A (which is never enough) because of time constraints. Since I'll be at the convention until Thursday, the sponsors will set me up with a booth in the vendor area for individual consultations or whatever you want to call it.

For sailors living in the So Ca area - Marina Sailing Of Newport Beach conducts both a class room session and an "on the water" session. At the on the water session you put into practice what you learned in the classroom. After both sessions I'll match their sail trim against any boat on the water. The nice part is Marina Sailing uses my book and chart as their class room material and you get to keep the book and chart as part of your admission. They will be conducting the classes soon as I just shipped off a bunch of books and charts to them today.

If you have any interest in atending this sessons you should contact Leslie at Marina Sailing of Newport at 949 548-8900.

 

[jimmyb]

Don have you ever thought of taping one of your

sessions and selling the videos/cd's. Ill bet they woud sell very well.

jimmyb

 

[inarathree]

Or when will you be in FL?

 

[Don Guillette]

Re: Don have you ever thought of taping one of your

Yes, I did think about producing a CD on the sail trim seminar and the "on the water" seminar. In fact, there was a group of investors at Newport Sailing School (they are no longer in business) in Newport Beach, Ca that wanted to do just that but it involved me selling rights to my products and a bunch of other stuff that caused the deal to crash.

I could produce a CD and then everyone would just pirate it before I made any money on it. Sail trim is just a hobby for me. Actually, everyone (post office, laminator, printer, bindings etc) make more on the products than I do. It is just a labor of love - I don't want new sailors to go through what I went through to learn how to sail a silly sailboat and I like giving back something to a sport that has given me a great deal of enjoyment.

 

[Don Guillette]

In order to make the seminar financially worthwhile I need a bare minimum of 50 participants and a place to hold the event. You have no idea how hard it is to get over 50 people to attend one of these events. It was easy in So Ca, where I conducted a number of seminars which were held at Shoreline YC or Marina Sailing and a lot of sailors knew me. 75 participants was easy and we often had to turn folks away.

The way the sailing population breaks down from a sail trim standpoint is the expert group from 75% to 100% don't need it. The beginner to intermediate group from 0% to 25% is very small and they really want to know WHAT and WHY they are doing things. The group from 25% to 75% is a very difficult group to break into. Many "don't know what they don't know" but a lot think they know more than Dennis Conner.

My career was in the insurance business. Let's say I was talking to you about your buisness, which isn't insurance, and I tried to BS you. Inside of 2 minutes you'd know if I was full of crap or not. Same goes for sail trim - I know in 2 minutes if a mates knows his onions about sail trim or if he doesn't. You guys do the same thing. Do you think RichH, Alan, Joe from San Diego, Stu J and other regulars on this forum know their sail trim onions - of couse they do and you know it from the first sentence they write. They are in the 75% to 100% catagory and they don't need my sail trim semiinar. Actually, they don't need this forum either but they contribute for the same reason I do.

On knowing more than Dennis Conner, here's my first tip off. Gals don't do this but guys do it all the time. Guys start off most sail trim questions by saying "I've been sailing for 25 years" (my wife has been golfing for 25 years and she rarely hits the ball to the same place twice plus her average score has not changed either) and then they start asking me about the topping lift!!

 

[jimmyb]

Don, points well taken. Keep up the good work!
jimmyb