-
If you would like to add your comments on the OLLIE please send to: SEND COMMENTS! They are used at the West River Sailing Club, http://sailingsource.com/wrsc The RC's love the unit, since the watch watcher and gunner are eliminated, also as a safety issue an air horn is a lot safer than a 12 gauge shot gun and there is minimal chance of a misfire. The only two problems we have found is that one the system is loud and the RC's are putting it at one end of the committee boat and working at the other end, one RC stuffed sailing gloves in the horns to reduce the volume. The only other problem is that the system is dumb and simple to operate except it has two buttons, the off on switch and the horn button, this wide choice of options has confused some of our more challenged committees, especially on the wednesday night races so we are printing very simple and large instructions for them, thank the gods most of the RC's need about 2 seconds of instructions and go off and run races. If the unit could only hoist flags and do the scoring life would be good but until then
Larry Cullen : Sr Race Officer U S Sailing
-
Your system works fine and is especially helpful to me since I run weekly races by myself and I like it for Laser Districts where I usually work short handed with only one other person.....It is very professional and lets the sailors know your on the ball...
-
Bill Grover : Pettipaug Yacht Club -
For years, at our Sunday afternoon dingy races, we lugged a heavy car battery, a couple of car horns, and a cord with a push button on the end into the race committee boat. Some part of the apparatus always fell in the water and shorted out, or somebody forgot to charge the battery (or overcharged it). Then the substitute race committee would show up and we'd have to explain the starting sequence (and loan them a wristwatch). No two countdowns were ever the same. The "Ollie" has eliminated all of those frustrations. One completely inexperienced race committee person can run perfectly timed starting sequences with almost no instruction. At our summer sailing academy where there may be forty kids in ten or more starts a day every day the "Ollie" is a real time saver. It always works. It's always charged and ready to go. It's worth twice the price. No sailing club should be without one.
-
Franny Charles : MIT Sailing Master and Varsity Coach -
At MIT we host more intercollegiate races than any other school in the country. If you consider that we also have team practice every weekday in Spring and Fall and Tech Dinghy club racing Spring, Summer and Fall and junior clinics and high school championships and learn to race classes and the local frostbite fleets borrow it.... well you get the idea. Ollie's race starter device has been fabulous for two years. It is especially helpful to competitors who need consistency in tweet frequency on the last 30 seconds. If you have volunteers who don't blow start whistles on a very regular basis, then it is almost impossible to get a consistent countdown. It makes life much easier for race committee as well as racers. Wow, does it put out some sound, too. We put a valve on the air line to the horns to keep our neighbors happy.
Franny Charles
MIT Sailing Master and Varsity Coach
Gary Orkney : Frostbite YC Connecticut River Squadron-
A great asset to small boat racing. It works so well you may have a one person race committee and have fun doing it. Frostbiting in Newport, in the winter, the box is started by one of the racers, requiring no race committee. This is a well designed quality piece of equipment, that is easy to use. Excellent for small and large fleets. Allows a less experienced race committee and is an excellent training tool. Don’t start a race without it.
Gary
Eric Robbins : Cedar Point Laser Fleet-
The Ollie Horn is quickly becoming the standard for Race Committees in New England. It eliminates 90% of the timer's work, freeing that person to do another task. And no one is more dedicated to support and service than Ollie himself!
-
-
Greatest thing since sliced bread! I took the thing out of the shipping box, pushed on/off, and voila a perfect three minute start sequence. Watch out though that the air hose to the horns doesn't come off the thingie inside the case to which it's attached. That happend to me once.
[three weeks later] Now, after more than 50 frostbite starts, we can't do without the Ollie and I've begun to appreciate all Ollie's done to make it so rugged. Inexplicablly, the clamp had came off the hose inside the case. Since I re-installed the clamp, the hose never comes off. As a matter of fact, the Ollie is the most reliable thing about my race committee. I just plain don't have to worry about start timing and can concentrate on OCS competitors.
Michael Colnes : Cedar Point Yacht Club
CPYC is a big fan of the Ollie Horn. We have used it extensively for dinghy starts over the last 5 years and it is absolutely terrific! It is easy to use and incredibly reliable. In the 1997 Hinman Trophy regatta for the USSA team racing national champion- ship, we used the Ollie Horn to start 123 races in 3 days with no failures. To my memory, we have never experienced a single failure in the 5 years of use. Thanks for providing such a useful and de- pendable product. Michael Colnes CPYC