Some of these ideas probably won't work in a "real" regatta.

I taught both monohull and cat sailing. On our "race" days, I would set up the usual 3 legged triangle. The students would carry red buoys. They were required to drop the buoy overboard anyplace they wanted on the course and do a man-overboard drill picking it up again. It was fun to watch them decide when to do so as it could dramatically affect their positions.

Other variations that I used included doing the course backwards, starting with the lee mark 2) setting up a slalom course where they went top to bottom through the gates and back again for a bit more interesting situation teaching and using right-of-way rules and 3) Le Mans starts off the dock, sailing to a mark and returning where crews and skippers would be required to switch roles and take off again.

All of my courses were made small enough that a race would take less than 10 minutes to complete. This allowed for more races and greater opportunities for folks to try again. This way if someone is behind in a race, it doesn't take a long time until the next one.

Sheldon
P-18