Yeah...balance. "In the old days" I recall downwind finishes as very rare but the 'B' mark was always judiciously mixed in. While the gate and downwind finishes are interesting it seems some RC's get "stuck" on calling one course, for the day. In 15 events sailed in the past two seasons I recall an upwind finish at three events, and at two of those it was only the last race of the day. I'm happy to hear the comments in favor of the reaching mark. And even if not a B mark, how about more 6's and 7's?<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Spinnakers made the reaching legs even more unattractive in the "non-strategical" aspect.

Spinnakers can run pretty deep and so even a mildly spaces reaching leg quickly turns the "downwind" leg into a single spinnaker reach to the bottom-mark without a gybe. This means that, with the exception of the upwind beat, the course has become a parade. And one where the guys winning the first upwind leg has by far the best cards as overtaking other boats in a parade is difficult and will slow you down sufficiently to see the leader walk away.

Something the reaching leg was so long that the spinnaker boats would have to drop the spi on the following broad reach and reach to the bottom mark.

Both these make spinnaker sailing very unattractive c.q. unenjoyable. As most racers were gravitating towards spinnaker cats they actively pushed for a race course without a significant reaching leg. As such the reaching leg became an rather short offset leg (max 200 meters) to maintain some seperation and avoid conflicts at the A-mark. Without that benefit it would have died altogether.

Spinnaker did do that to catamaran race courses; it finished off the triangular race-course in a very short time-frame where it had been struggling to maintain itself under pressure of tactics. It was the sharp and final blow that did it in.

Wouter

Hey Matt, maybe you're having a bad day with cut-and-paste, but that was not a quote from me. I intentionally omitted names from my disertation on my understanding of the subject. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Wouter, I disagree that "most racers were gravitating towards spinnaker cats" at least in the US. Yes, there are more than there were 10 years ago, but the far and wide majority of racing cats in the US are still uni or sloop rigs. I do agree that the offset came about because of spinnaker boats, but that is a completely different issue.

I recall this issue of removing reaches from championships as originating from the Olympic level, many years before the Tornado had a spinnaker.

At most of the cat events that I run, we either have too few mark boats to run a reach (at the "fun" races), or fleets of sailors who don't want them because they prefer to use points regattas to train for major events, where they never see reach marks anymore (for the strategic reasons in my prior message).

Mike

That was Rick I was quoting, not you, Mike.

From a PRO perspective, you give the sailors what they want, not necessarily what you think is "best" for them. If they want a reach or two, and you've got the resources to pull it off, then you need to give them a reach.

If there's going to be a reach, it should not be the second leg of the race (which just stretches out the fleet). If the wind is up, the next to last leg (before an upwind finish) is optimal for a tight, double-trapeze reach. Good for some crash and burn action. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

A way to separate fleets of differing performance profiles (which is what Rick was trying to accomplish) is to use a trapezoidal course. Takes more resources, though.

I know, but you can't tell from that post.

Anyway, traps are GREAT! Best thing ever for separating fleets. You're right, they're hugely resource-intensive. Adjusting for wind shifts is a major PIA...

Mike