As some of you already know we started sailing monohulls at Tacticat. And because its new, or more popular, or whatever, we're having problems with cat sailing.

One of the actions to promote cat sailing that we thought was the possibility to host mixed races: cats and monohulls at the start line.

We thought it was possible because we have complete control and knowledge of the boat speed and performance: so we might have a 'perfect' handicap or still better we might adjust the dynamical parameters of the boat types to make them 'equal' around the course.

Wrong <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> wrong <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

The two boat types having different pointin ability, inertia and tack/gybe performance MAKES IMPOSSIBLE to give a handicap to make the competition really fair.
At the end it all depends of water/wind conditions, variability, etc.
Just a token: if wind is shifty, oscillatory, some periods (how fast is oscillates) would clearly benefit monohulls and others will clearly benefit cats.

So, and that is of course rethorical, how can ANY handicap system be fair in real world?

(Opening another thread to discuss obvious OD vs formula vs handycap was not my intention <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />)

aestela
Tacticat Admin.