Dear Junior Olympic Sailing Festival Organizer,

US SAILING appreciates your commitment to running a USA Junior Olympic Sailing Festival. 2007 marks the 11th year of the JO Program. Your event is a key to the program's success.

We are pleased to welcome Active.com as a new sponsor. We also welcome back West Marine and Gill North America as official sponsors. In addition to their support at the national level, they will be providing prizes for each event again this year.

New this year:

• Active.com's new, state-of-the-art Online Event Registration System administered by Regatta Network.
• Coral Reef Apparel joins The Pirate's Lair as an official JO merchandise supplier.

Our purpose in developing Junior Olympic Sailing Festivals is to broaden the base of youth sailing. Our goal is to establish Junior Olympic events around the country and to create excitement about sailing and racing for our young sailors. While all Festivals should incorporate fun and learning, each will feature different levels of competition.

Increasing the number of sailors, especially entry-level sailors, is an important goal of the Junior Olympic Program. We ask you to set a goal of increased participation at your JO event more racers or beginning sailors. Use your imagination, and let us know what worked for you.

We ask you, the event organizer, to keep these goals in mind while you use this manual to help create your own unique Junior Olympic Sailing Festival. As we expand our program of Junior Olympic Sailing events in future years, we welcome your input and suggestions.

Very best wishes for a successful Junior Olympic Sailing Festival,

Lee Parks
Junior Olympic Program Coordinator