"I’m convinced formula racing is a winner, " Our Spring regatta is mostly A class and spin boats. We give the A's their own start and run all the spin boats together. A few people absolutely refuse to participate, but most of us have a great time. There just isn't enough difference between F18 and F16 to warrant separate starts.
If people complain, Give them a reason to come and bring their mates!!!
We offer seperate prizes at our open (160-180 boats) for ANY fleet with 6+ boats. They may start within a "fleet start" but we give them prizes.
We set 2 totally different courses at each end of the lake. On the fast course (SCHRS 1.13 and below) we offer the following
1, Single handers (so this is The F16's, A's Shadows and the like - usually about 25-30 boats)
2, F18's (usually about 20)
3, Spitfires (usually about 12)
4, Fast handicap which inclues Hurricane 5.9, FX1 (2 up), Tornado and N20.
We also make it clear that the 2nd and 3rd starts are not set in stone - when we get more F16's than Spitfires(and the F16's want to sail as a fleet vs all Single handed in start 1), they might get relagated to the Fast handicap. If another class puts a big effort in over a couple of years, they might well get a start and some others starts get put together. THere is competition for starts, but WHATEVER happens, >6 boats get a couple of prizes.
It's worked for the last 20 odd years!!!!!!!
Most boats we had was 202 and we ran out of beach!!!!
