Actually... it was a bad call.
Let me see if I convince you why...

Pt 1: Would you have wanted to wait so the RC could start the Tornado on the long course?

A: Not applicable here. The Tornado was originally scheduled to sail with the H18s and the H20 - short course. The T would have been finished and ready to go before the H18s and H20.
In any case, after the first start, subsequent starts were not constrained to waiting for all starts to finish before starting again. The only way the F-18s would have had to wait for the T to finish is if the T was sailing the same start...


Pt 2: His game was to sail fast and take his time against the first F18's and do his own math.

A: His game was to race Portsmouth, recruit another 4 T's for a class start, or recruit a class of like spinnaker boats to sail against. I don't know about you - but in my area of the country one typically gets on the phone and makes a few calls to encourage people to come out and race. The F-18 class did just this. Mike could have done likewise.
Secondly, no one was recording time for the F-18s, so the T would have to record his time and that of the F-18s in order to determine where he was finishing relative to the fleet.


Pt 3: Unless you paid extra for your separate start, I think the RC call was reasonable.

A: The F-18s paid for the regatta and showed up under the impression that they had paid for a class start. They also organized participation and travel to Santa Barbara as a class in order to race as a class. So they did more than just pay their entry fee. And they were promised more that just "a start". They were promised a class start.


Pt 4: Putting the spin boat on the short course with the non spin boats would be less safe.

A: What?


Pt 5: The issue is bad sportsmanship...

A: That's a ripe comment to make. If anything, the intention of the race organizer (who is a member of the F-18 fleet and was also a race participant) was to make the regatta enjoyable for Mike. However the results of this decision demonstrate that it didn't turn out this way. The truth is that it was eminently foreseeable that this wouldn't work out - ergo - NOT a good decision. Well intentioned - but not well practiced.


My recommendation to all race committees in a similar position is to stick to the advertised plan and not to repeat something similar to what happened here.

In truth I believe it was a bit of a set up for Mike. As far as I could tell he was OK sailing with the H18s and the H20. The RC probably should not have asked him what class he would like to sail with. Obviously it was no surprise that he might prefer to sail with more like boats - i.e. the F-18s. By the same token Mike might have anticipated that it wasn't a good idea to request this - which comes back to the earlier topic (several posts back).

And just as a final point - while there was some frustration among the F-18 fleet with the T being in the same start, and while Mike may have periodically felt somewhat unwelcomed sharing the start with the F-18 fleet - as far as I could tell everyone in attendance was glad to see each other on the water and off despite whatever technical issues arose on the water from an ill conceived management error.

Cheers,
Christopher