out of curiosity, do they try to time the start with high-tide?
Or do you just have to hope there's not some huge low tide you have to drag the boat down to?
I like the boat ramp setup they have a short distance away (on the google earth picture). Maybe some cruising boats could follow the course for those less inclined to "rough it" ?
Launching from the beach is designed to be one of the few "filters" to restrict the boat size. I don't know that there is any consideration for the tide for the start...it's usually at 7am on that Saturday. The boats have to be above the high water mark on the beach before the start signal. You can self-impose a weather hold on yourself if you the conditions are scary but I think this is the only way you can delay launching...and it needs to be a pretty understandable reason. Waiting for the tide probably won't be an excusable start delay.
Getting into and out of the checkpoints are one of the biggest challenges for the sailing class of boats. The tides at Check Point 2 are incredibly important and caused us to lose 5 hours because we got there just after the door had closed. There is also extended travel through water that's 1.5 feet deep into checkpoint 2...so a cruising boat is probably not the best fit for this kind of race.
These requirements drive a lot of the interesting boat designs - Randy's tri is especially refined for the requirements of this race and sailing single handed. Alan's tri has a lot of features built into it for these things too. I'm already scheming around a design to make it faster through some of the tough spots of the course (I have no idea if I would ever build it). I'm trying to answer the question of whether a cat or a tri is the best fit and I'm not sure what the answer is.
