Also, there was the lucky circumstance that I could do the job while making a living some other way. I bet most sailors would do the same thing if they could. Material strength never hurt. Every gain we have had in this respect has left me wondering how we existed without it. I still believe it would be productive to scale our fleet up, the chief advantages being the ability to host major regattas and the increased recruiting power.
Prospective sailors weight a program's material size heavily.
The visibility generated by our recent success has not outweighed our lack of equipment enough to bring us the best young sailors. We would also lose fewer 'casual' sailors to the lack of available boats every Fall. A coach or program director wouldn't hurt either. We have had much help from Jonathan Foot '83 in the way of program direction, and StergePapadakis will no doubt continue as volunteer coach, but it's a little scary to rely on the emergence of the next volunteer. The team I leave is well aware of its long term needs and I am confident they will do what they have to in the way of maintaining the great things we have and in building on them.