Brobru,

Gone where? If you are running triangles then those "gone" boats are turning around "A" mark and heading down into the slow boats. That is what happened to Tracie.

At most regattas we run 2-4 starts with 2-3 laps.

Slow boats and fast boats DO meet on the course. We are ALL racing in the water between "A" mark, "B" mark and "C" mark.

Mark,

The offset marks helps at "A" mark roundings. Offset marks work even better if ONLY the spi boat classes round them.

At Lake Norman Yacht Club, they set a second "A" mark, about 100 yards upwind for the faster boats. This helps, but you are sailing down into the other "A" mark.

I think offset marks should be mandatory for races with spi boats. If it were standard, people would get used to it.

Unfortunately they is no system for an offset "C" mark. That is where the spi boat almost fell on me as I enter the two boat length circle. The spi boats needs to keep his chute up until the last second for maximum performance.

And yes, I carry a whistle on my PFD.

Tracie,

I realize that the PRO cannot change the right-of-way rules, but I feel more emphasis needs to be put on the spi boats trying harder to look around and plot the speed of smaller instead of vice-versa.