Hi Mary, Most fun course I`ve sailed was at an inland lake with bays protruding all over, with quite low water it was difficult to set a standard olympic (good old days) course, so the race officer came up with this one : -Start through a gate, go upwind to A-mark, back downwind through gate. -sail downwind on broad-reach course to B-mark, back to gate on close-hauled fetch/beat. -Downwind again to C-mark on the opposite tack, back to gate on a fetch/beat. -Do it all over again, as many times as the wind allows. Race Officer can shorten at any time, since boats go through the gate in the centre of the course, on each leg.
Shifty winds make it interesting - sometimes the "fetch" becomes a beat and you battle to lay the gate, other times it frees off & becomes a drag race upwind. It might not be the most tactically challenging course, but for a long-distance race of many laps it keeps everything close together, great for spectators, and can be finished easily if the wind drops off. See attached pic, if it worked.
