I believe son Dave will either be racing the N.60 or the Wave. He is welcome to use my Taipan.
Understood, no pressures !
And keep in mind (Seth comes to mind)that when we must group boats into an Open Class, we first group all boats. Then divide that group in half by DPN numbers. Last year the F16 fell into the slower group. Had we run them on the longer course, we would have had to wait and wait for the slower boats in the group, thereby holding up all the races.
Sorry about that, but it is true.
I think Rick touches on a very important point here. Last year we had a small fall-out over this issue and I think it to be very important for everybody to know what they can expect. So lets take our own advice of last year and settle this issue before everybody gets out to the Tradewinds event. We really don't want to have another falling out over this. That is not fair to Rick and it will certainly not be enjoyable to ourselfs.
Personally I think that all the F16 sailors must agree to sail together as a class, meaning 2-up and 1-up crews sharing a start and sailing first in wins (of the same PN handicap); as is intended in our F16 class (differenting PN handicaps be damned). Surely we must notify the RC upfront and before the events starts.
Anybody not supportive of this setup ? Please, tell us now.
Also I feel that we must either achieve an assured numbers participants and "make class" (and have Rick confirm that) or agree among eachother that the crews going out are indeed taking their chances and are knowingly taking the risk of chapperoning the handful of low PN-handicap boats on the kiddies course.
To be frank I really don't want to see any complaining this year about the tradewinds way of running an event. We know full well what we are getting in to and we should decide on taking that risk or not with our eyes open. Of course deciding not to take that risk can have two shapes -1- making class ourself and demand the adults course or -2- Not going out to this event. We must however be fair and let the RC know before the event starts.
To Rick I would like to mention a setup that we are using more and more in local Dutch races. We start all the boats together and have the fast boats do a 3 lap course with the slow boats doing only 2 laps. I can assure you that nobody will be waiting for that H16 or Dart 18 anymore but rather on that trailing F18. This will make everybody happy. Everybody gets good sized legs and the RC only has a single start and finish. Also the biggest class (F18) will fully determine the pace of the schedule and not some lone Dart 18. Mind you we found this setup to be the quickest setup achievable. You can easily run three to four 45-min races in a 3 hour time span, including several cancelled starts. There is no way an RC can do that in a class-based-multiple-starts setup.
Best bet, be sure you have a fleet. And as you are doing here -- promoting a regatta and beating the bushes to get folks out -- is definitely the way to do it.
I think we can agree with Rick on this one !
I went ahead and ordered the awards.., please don't let yourselves down.
I must rather would have run the risk of making class without prizes then running the risk of having prizes but not making class.
But it has been done now, so ...
Regards,
Wouter
