yeah.... nobody would call that racing... Who would waste their time going racing on handicap ...

Ooops... Eurocat Results for Handicap racing

4 starts....3 on handicap.

C1 65 entries.... Vipers, Spitfires... spin boats
C2 103 entries. F18's...
C3 78 entries Hobie 16's... Dart 18's. Non spin boats
c4 7 entries.

You know... just one start is bigger then ANY US REGATTA...

Must be a lot of europeans who are just kidding themselves at these events drinking and not racing. .... I just wish they would stop kicking our butt on the water.

They would be much better off... racing one design...

The difference there is that they still group like boats together. The problem comes when you group dissimilar boats.
Or you get someone that trys to play the system.
You have the same problem in ORC or IMS. There is always someone who build a boat for the rule and the area that they sail. If I was serious about just racing I would go one design(I can't afford to keep up with formula) but I sail what I do because I like the boat and I race because it is just good fun.

What's wrong with "run what you brung, finish where you finish"?

I do like having elapsed times.

Trying to make it fun and fair for everyone and to get people to come back and do it again.....

I don't know the answer. Keep chipping away at it, maybe you'll have an epiphany. Personally, I'm willing to try most anything.

maybe have a race series where the winner was the one who sailed closest to their rating. This may or may not be the person who actually finished first...

I'd like the winner to be the best sailor on the course that day.

Imo, the key to greater participation is more individual rivalry and just plain fun. Someone mentioned Racine. I had a great time even though there was almost no sailing.

We are using Texel Rating for races of the "open class".


1. If the boat looks really a standard stock boat she get the standard TR of the given type.

2. If the boat was modified (bigger sails, etc..), there is a small committee in the class who decide about the individual rate. No measurement here, just a approximation, take 5 minutes max.

3. If the owner (or anybody else in the class !) don't like the number defined at point 2, he can ask an official measurer to completely measure the boat (fee paid by the requester), define all the figures what need for the Texel Rate formula.


Point 3. still never happened. The people who are compete in the open class typically do not want to complicate the life, spend a lot of time and cost for the measurement. Really-really just week-end sailors, just want to have good race, good fun. If somebody want a bit more they typically moving to F18.


I think all handicap systems can work, the only exception if the wind strength significantly changing during the race. If you start a race at 4Bf but after 30 minutes the wind drop to 2Bf, the fast boats will be the winners, in increasing wind the slow boats are the winners. Unfortunately you can do nothing with that.