Category: general updates

Your Boat Profile

Posted on by John_RailMeets.com

I was cruising through the RailMeets Boat Finder looking to see what was going on the sailing world as well as looking for interesting boat profiles. You can learn a lot about a boat and program by reading the profiles. I see lots of you have beer, cold, free, craft are all options you can find. Some boats list the skills they are looking for from beginner to advanced, there is a seat available. Some of you extol your racing accomplishments and others have a Dude like laid back cruising style. These are all great conversation starters with prospective crew.

One thing I did notice was there were a lot of boats that did not yet have the Motto spot filled in. Not filling in the Motto section is kind of like putting up an ad to sell a car and then leaving out the details. Creativity is good here but not all of us have Mad Men levels of it. So what do you put on your boats profile? Tell us a little about your boat, when you race, the attitude on board, types of crew or positions that you are looking for. If you need crew for Wet Wednesday or the Sunday Commodore’s Series, let us know. Keep it short, keep it tight and the crew will start contacting you.

RailMeets Releases New Cloud-based Scoring Solution

Posted on by John_RailMeets.com

Chicago, IL (March 23, 2022)— RailMeets, the popular crew management and crew finder platform, has released a new, full-service, scoring system. The company has launched an integrated scoring solution to better meet the needs of Race Committees, Principal Race Officers, Skippers, and Crew.

John Madey, co-founder of RailMeets said, “Our scoring program is a very modern platform, utilizing newer technology than existing providers, to ensure maximum data safety and security. We designed it to integrate with all of our other software to create a comprehensive solution for users at all levels.”

The new cloud-based program has all the features of existing scoring systems. Race Committees will enjoy self-service regatta management, pricing, divisions, fleets, and race schedules. For Principal Race Officers there are privacy features designed to securely store all the necessary information about the regatta and the competitors.

You can read more here

Giving back to the sport

Posted on by John_RailMeets.com

There is one conversation that we at RailMeets have had with people all over the world. How do we match experienced skippers with new skippers to get them started in sail racing? RailMeets is doing its part to match them up. Say you are an experienced skipper that wants to give back. You can now check a box on your profile that indicates that you are open to mentor. If you are a newbie skipper and want some help you can check a box on your boats profile to indicate that you would like some help getting started. This is searchable in our crew/boat finder. Thanks to the three people that have already made themselves available to mentor as well as one boat that is looking for a mentor. Can any of our eastern Michigan peeps help him out?

Eight Bells for Luiz Kahl

Posted on by John_RailMeets.com

When a sailor has died he or she can be honored with the sounding of eight bells; meaning “end of the watch”. The term “eight bells” can also be used in an obituary, – Wikipedia

This past weekend the sailing community lost one of our giants, Luiz Kahl unexpectedly passed away on September 25. Luiz was the founder and developer of the popular software program YachtScoring. I had the pleasure of working with Luiz and his system to set up scoring for racing in the Chicago area. YachtScoring helped unify and connect the sport. Beercan racers to Grand Prix sailors used the system and the familiar interface has become the standard for the sport. Luiz will be missed.

Eight Bells: Luiz Kahl

24 hours a day…

Posted on by John_RailMeets.com

We made a little tweak this week. Some of you were requesting to list the time for events in a 24 hr format. So we added this option. To access go to your profile (upper right corner click on your silhouette), select My Info. Then Update Account Settings, in Time Format select Display time in 24hr format. Don’t forget to hit submit.
All your events will now show the time in 24hr format

Making lemonade…

Posted on by John_RailMeets.com

Lemons – First the COVID-19 statement. All RailMeets personnel are currently happy and healthy. We are Chicago based but we do work with vendors around the globe. Everyone is currently working from home and we are working hard. All of our suppliers have shared with us and assured us with their business continuity plans. RailMeets is in great shape, ready for use now and when this is over.


Lemonade – What are we working on? A healthy refresh of the site, you may have noticed some changes in the crew and boat finders, the signup pages, and general readability of the site, you will notice a cleaner crisper look. We are also freshening up the crew confirmation pages and most aspects of the mobile interface. This should make RailMeets faster and easier to use. We will be rolling out the new pages over the next 30 days.

Wondering how to do something in RailMeets? See our help pages (bottom of every page) or contact us at info@RailMeets.com
Pic by PhotoMIX

The Road to Ensenada

Posted on by John_RailMeets.com

RailMeets is proud to announce that we have been selected as the official crew and boat finder for the 73rd annual Newport to Ensenada race on April 24-28 2020. This is the 73rd running of the 125 mile classic that starts in Newport Beach California. The Race continues south along the coast to the finish at Ensenada in Baja Mexico.

In the coming days we will be posting more on the race and how to find crew or a boat on all the destination races that we are featuring. For more information about the race or to enter please visit https://nosa.org/

mmmmm cookies!

Posted on by John_RailMeets.com

It you have logged into RailMeets in 2020 you will have seen the cookie policy notice. If you click accept it will go away and you will not see it again. If you ignore it you will see it the next time you log in. You probably noticed these things popping up all over the web and if you read things like website privacy policies and terms and conditions you would have noticed a few changes in ours. We are now compliant with the new California, European Union and European Economic Area data policies. Before you laugh those laws make your data more secure and includes stuff like “right to be forgotten”. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us at info@railmeets.com

Official crew finder for the 2020 Newport to Bermuda Race

Posted on by John_RailMeets.com

RailMeets is proud to announce that we have been selected as the official North American crew finder for the 2020 Newport to Bermuda race. With RailMeets you can add to your profile that you are available for the race. Go to My Info, then Crew Finder Profile, update, check Newport Bermuda Race and click on update. That’s it, ready to go.

Prospective skippers can search for crew that would like to do the race by using the filters. They can also search on specific skill sets needed to round out the crew.

See the official announcement here…
https://bermudarace.com/race-links-to-online-platforms-to-match-boats-and-crews/

For more information about the race see https://bermudarace.com/