Match Racing Manual Part 3: Invitations
This is the third of an eight-part series compiled by the US Match Racing Committee (with help from Chicago Match Race Center, one of our sponsors.) You can start from the beginning with Part 1. If you want all of it at once, you can download the entire series as a PDF.
How to Request an Invitation
First of all, you should reach out to event organizers and ask if they have a specific “Request For Invitation” form you can submit. In your initial outreach, attach your sailing resume to provide information about you and your team. On paper, this is what event organizers look at first when evaluating prospective skippers:
ISAF Ranking
- Your ranking 4 months prior to the first day of the event is used for grading purposes
- Include your highest ISAF ranking, month and year
- If you are unranked, provide a strong sailing resume and explain your sailing successes
Sailing Resume
- Keep it to a page!
- Draw attention to your strengths, and paint a picture of your team
- See the example resume below
Nationality/Hometown– Grade 1, 2 and 3’s require geographical diversity of skippers, so indicate your current hometown and include your ISAF ID, which shows your nationality.
SKIPPER NAME, TEAM NAMEISAF Rank: xx (date), skipper age and hometown OBJECTIVE STATEMENT: Explain your team’s background, campaign, and goals in 3-4 sentences. TEAM BIO: Answer the following questions: Who are you? Who is on your team? What are you trying to accomplish? SAILING EXPERIENCE Match Racing: Include the highlights of your match race experience. (up to 10)
Keelboat Racing: Explain your keelboat experience as a skipper and/or crew. If event organizers can’t offer you a skipper invitation, they will often recommend you as crew so you can familiarize yourself with the venue and boats first. (mention 5 of the best)
Fleet Racing: if you do not have much match racing or keelboat experience, demonstrate that you are a competitive sailor and would bring value to the event in other ways. (5-7 bullet points here)
|