I am keen to encourage new sailors in my club's Fast Cat fleet (
www.dee-sc.co.uk). As a fairly recent newcomer, I can still remember the frustration of trailing behind the rest of the fleet while I learnt the ropes. I was at the back because I hadn't acquired many skills, and I had an old and 'slow' boat. I can't help thinking that this experience puts a lot of people off (particularly in one design fleets, but that's another debate!).
I'm looking for a handicap system that compensates for the helm's experience (or lack of!), and for the age of their boat's design. The aim is that on a good day, a relative newcomer could win a race on handicap. The system should certainly lift them off the bottom of the results table. I think this will motivate them to improve, and encourage the more experienced / successful sailors to raise their own game in order to stay ahead.
I am proposing to adjust the SCHRS handicaps used in our club races as follows:
- pin head sail: +0.01
- no spinni: +0.02
- old hull shape: +0.01
So an Inter 18 would move from 1.01 to 1.02. A Nacra 6.0 (pinhead) would move from 1.00 to 1.04. A modern Nacra F18 would remain at 1.01.
Helms would have an additional adjustment based on experience:
1st year of racing: +0.10
2nd year of racing: +0.05
3rd year of racing: +0.02
So a newbie on a Nacra 6.0 would have an effective handicap of 1.14 during their first year.
I'd be interested in your comments, and especially the experiences of people who have tried to achieve the same thing - do you have an alternative system?
I suppose that's one distinct advantage of handicapped racing - we can make adjustments to encourage newbies!
Cheers
Simon
