Writing Reports

Report writing is simple if you remember the basics. Don't forget to say what the event was i.e. open meeting, regatta etc., where it occurred, when it occurred and that it was a GP14 event. The report might then go on to describe the highlights in each race or provide a more general description of the event. Try to be concise and be careful not to give a boring step-by-step account of everything that happened.

You should probably be aiming for 300-400 words for an Open Meeting/Area Championship to 400-500 words for a National/World Championship. Give results down to fifth place for an Open Meeting/Area Championship and for the National/World Championship, the top three in each of the three fleets. Finally, don't forget to use your spel chekhur!

Your report and results may well be edited, but at least the Editor will have sufficient to go to press with a good story and not so much that he/she cannot be bothered with a re-write and puts it straight in the bin!

Digital Images

Digital images must be stored in .GIF or .JPEG format to be displayed by a browser. Images add considerably to the download time of a web page so aim to limit the size of the file to around 20-25kbs. This can usually be achieved by limiting the image size (although this will depend on the number of colours used) and reducing the number of colours using image editing software such as Photoshop. If you are scanning a photograph set the resolution of the scan to 96 pixels per inch.

You can attach your image files to the e-mail, but if you are sending several pictures it is often better to limit this to two per e-mail. This makes for easier downloading of e-mail messages, but do make sure each message clearly refers to the others that are being sent so they can be cross referenced.