BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival loves to welcome back repeat customers and it’s well-documented that they return because they respect the work of the world-class race management team that ensures that the regatta is the top-level racing event that it is. PRO Diana Emmanuelli has supported the race management team for some 10 years now and this year for the first time gets to run her own course, a daunting proposition for some, but not Emmanuelli.
As an active 32-year-old, Emmanuelli is unique in race management in that she is young to be a well-established PRO; this is good news as the sport needs younger people getting involved in race management activities. She was about 15 years old when the Central American Games came to Puerto Rico; her dad was on a mark boat for the sailing portion of the event, and he was on the Board of the Yacht Club, all of which gave Emmanuelli a path.
“I became an assistant PRO for one of the leading race officers in Puerto Rico, and he just kept me going,” the vibrant Emmanuelli explains. “My first real role was at the Puerto Rico Heineken International Regatta, and then the Central American Games.”
Emmanuelli grew up in Ponce, on Puerto Rico’s south side; she started out as an Opti kid, did some 420 sailing before graduating onto keel boats and IC24s. But once she got into the race management world, she was hooked; now she sails for fun and does race management for work. When she’s not traveling to be a PRO, which takes her to national and international events, Emmanuelli has a real job working for US Sailing as an Organizing Authority (OA) representative. In that role she runs U.S. Sailing’s National Championships in three main disciplines: team racing, match racing, and one design.
“At the end of the day for me it is all about keeping the sport alive, and I think the community aspect of it has been very important for me, not just during racing, but also the people that you meet along the way that end up being lifelong friends,” Emmanuelli smiles. “As a sailor, it is a challenge to figure out race management, it’s always a puzzle that you have to put together which I really enjoy doing on the water.”
She loves her work even though while she’s in the BVI assisting with race management at the BVI Spring Regatta, she’s up at 5am working on her real job, and pulling late nights so that she can get both jobs done.
Emmanuelli first got involved with BVI Spring Regatta Race management some 10 years ago after she was encouraged by an international jury in Puerto Rico at an event that she was running a course for.
“They said to me, “You should really start looking at getting certified and taking this seriously,” she recalls. “I had friends that were going over to the BVI who gave me a ride, and I started by volunteering with Dave Brennan and Dick Neville. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
With Brennan absent from the Regatta this year, Emmanuelli will be PRO on the PSY course and she’s up for the challenges.
“Obviously, the challenge is always the weather, but I think just making sure that your team is happy and that the sailors are happy is most important. The job is a lot of people management and making sure that everything is fair and fun.”
Brennan’s proud to have the talented Emmanuelli, who is now a national race officer in Puerto Rico and a regional race officer in the United States working her way towards an international qualification, on his team.
“Diana has been part of my team for more than 10 years; being the race officer for a major event like the BVI Spring Regatta means that you need to be able to wear a lot of hats, being able to jump into any given number of situations in a moment’s notice, anything from guiding a mark boat to resetting a drifting mark to get the finish line where it belongs, to being able to get the scoring up on line in a timely fashion so the competitors know where they stand after each race. Diana has a depth of experience at every position. I think one of her biggest attributes is the fact that she grew up in Puerto Rico so she has been racing and sailing in the BVI for most of her life. Knowing all the idiosyncrasies of an area are helpful to making the regatta run smoothly and not making basic mistakes, fixing problems before they happen are from experience, they are not in any rule book. Diana has a long history in the BVI.”
What does Emmanuelli enjoy most about race managing the BVI Spring Regatta?
“You can’t beat the crystal-clear water and the blue skies” she laughs. “Seriously, I think that when sailors feel that the race committee is doing a good job and that the event is good, you can feel the energy on the water of how happy they are and they’re all just smiling. It’s competition, it’s fierce, but it’s also very friendly and everyone comes back to the dock and to the bar and even though someone beat you, you’re still friends!”
