Distance Racing
What's more important, first to finish or first corrected?

First in class.

Good point

The trophys are usually given out by corrected time.

Not so at the ECPR next weekend; there are class prizes, handicap and also over the line.

What do they do at Texel?

For the Key Largo Steeplechase we have two perpetuals.., one for best overall time, and another for the corrected time.
Mary always makes very creative trophies and we award three deep to both skipper and crew. They are sponsored by Caribbean Watersports in Key Largo.

And each finisher is awarded a bottle of champagne. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Seems to work.
Rick

On a 12 hour race first to the beach is most important, if you like shiny things then first corrected will get you there.

You could be first to the beach on a motor boat.
Doesn't say much about your sailing ability.

or a Volvo 40 (you can dream ... can't you)


First to the beach rewards those who invest in technology or the biggest boat in the fleet or in the case of unusual weather patterns... who was in the right place at the right time. (I never thought it made much sense to do more then award a single trophy for this feat)

First on handicap
First on spin or non spin
First in class
All make sense to me and reward sailing your boat in similar conditions against your competitors.

is not that part of racing, being in the right place at the right time? knowing which side of the course will pay off, starting on the right side of the line to be advantaged, approaching a mark from the right angle to preserve your rights, seeing the weather on its way in and positioning your boat to take advantage first?

this is a silly question and I answered it with what it deserved. Maybe I did not understand it, but how can there be a "better" of winning a race or being the first on the beach. when you are first to the beach but did not win the race then you were on a fast boat but you did not sail your boat to the number and someone else on a slower boat beat their number. what does it mean to be a sailor that can beat the boats number if you are sailing a wave, or a sailor that can not beat the number on a cfr20.
and why distance racing? what does that have to do with anything, except that maybe on a 12 hour distance race it might be nice to be on the water for a few less hours than the slower boats. Is the question to decide what boat to buy? or weather or not to be a slacker sailor on a fast boat? I am so confused? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

May I also throw single-handed first (corrected) into the pot. Single-handing in a distance race requires a special kind of masochism.
Where some distance races ban them The Statue of Liberty race rewards the fastest masochist with his name etched in perpetuity on the Jackson Trophy. So single-handers come join the insanity - 88 boats so far!! www.fleet250.org

The Mug Race did its best to answer this situation by making it clear the first corrected time would also be first across the line.

While not perfect, the handicap is given to all boats up front allowing the best corrected time to finish first across the line as well.

I do like this system they run at the Mug Race with the staggered starts. Some boats start as early as 7am (some earlier?) and we got our start (I20) around 10:14am. However, with monos and multis in a mixed fleet, it really tends to favor the multihulls. I think last year they were making some changes to try and even things out a bit but I don't know how that worked.

I call it lunacy ! It does give a sense of achievement sailing all that far on your own.

When ever you start mixing fleets and using handicaps, things go to crap quickly. The wind is almost never the same from the starting time to the finising time, for all boats, so some have better wind than others, those are the ones who correct out on top, usually. The mono fleet at the Mug race is a prime example. Due to their ratings, they have to start early in the morning when the wind is either light or nil. The cats, being rated much faster, start later in the day after the wind has built, usually, and are sailing the entire race in good wind (sometimes) where as the mono's spend their first 3-4 hours drifting. I don't know when the last time a mono won that race was.

No handicap system will ever be able to take out all the wind variables so you have to pick the races you want to do for the fun of it and hope for a wind that suits your boat/start time.

In my mind that's more of a crap shoot based on the wind than a race, except with the boats that are the same as yours. So I guess first in class is what would matter to me in a distance race. But I prefer buoy racing to distance racing. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I love my Crew, and she is wonderful to talk to on the course and she keeps me from getting too serious, and will help when asked, however I mostly sail my I20 by myself, she claims that she does not know if we are sailing up wind or down, despite the evidence of the spinnaker and is only willing to do exactly as I say when I say. I would not want another crew even if I was not married to her. I think there should be a trophy for single handing a double handed boat, anyone can single hand a boat designed to do so. how hard is it to pull one string and one tiller, try sheet, traveler, spin, jib and tiller some time in 18 kts one more control and I would really have a problem, now that is fun.

Distance races suck! All that time out there with no beer, little water, terrible food, worried about sea life and crap. Forget it.

Me thinks me reads sarcasm.....

You must be on a H16, We take beer, food, water, and if it is a light air day, pull into a cove for some alone time. What a sea life for me,( must be a song in here some place).