When I was doing regular club racing here in St. Margaret's Bay we always had a designated Officer of the Day for eacgh race and that Officer usually raced his/her own boat too, so we had no committee boat per se. We set more or less permanent marks at the beginning of the season, 4 that we could choose from as I recall, and we usually chose to start on a weather leg but the mark was not adjusted to make the start line exactly perpendicular to the wind direction but in our favour winds here are predominantly southwest so choosing the positioning of our windward mark usually worked fine and with 4 marks to choose from we could start to weather in different directions. The Officer of the Day would announce everything on VHFon a working channel that we all tuned into and the horn signals 10 min, 5 min, 1 min and start were broadcast on that channel as well. We played by an honour system on over early starters which worked fine and our fleets were typically 10-15 boats sometimes in 2 classes for starts depending on handicap so the start signal (horn) for the first class to start was the 10 min signal for the second class to start and in this case the slower boat class started first, 10 min ahead of the faster class boats...it was all about competitive fun and everyone tried to observe the racing rules of sailing so we had very few after race protest hearings
Dwight Veinot C&C 35 MKII, *Alianna* Head of St. Margaret's Bay, NS d.ve...@bellaliant.net On Sun, Aug 9, 2015 at 11:37 PM, David Donnelly via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > I know this is sailing related but it is not C&C related. We have a fair > number of avid racers on the list and I was hoping for some useful leads. > > > > A short background. > > > > I started sailing essentially 3 years ago when we bought our C&C 26. > Although I have only raced in the “fun races” I have been volunteering on > the race committee since joining the club. One problem we have always had > is lack of other volunteers to help run good races, often there would be > only 2 of us. One person usually ran the start countdowns and recorded > times and I assisted on line calls and did all the mark setting and > adjusting for changes in wind direction. Being on a lake wind shifts are a > regular part of the day and while not an excessive amount there is almost > always adjusting of the marks. 2 people can manage the duties as long as > they know what they are doing, committee boat and mark boat. The other > individual is retiring from the committee boat duties. > > > > I am only talking keelboat PHRF racing, not dingy racing. Series racing we > have 6-8 boats usually and fun races we have 20ish. > > > > I have been asked to be fleet captain next year. Having reservations > regarding the ability to get volunteers as I have 3 seasons of experience > in this regard I am trying to think of ways to “automate” the start > sequence so that we can assign other club members to committee boat duty > throughout the season. My thought process being if they are intimidated by > racing rules, having a simple system pushing a button and watching the line > is easier to train and get people acclimated. It also provides consistency > to the boats racing that no one “forgets” the horn because they were > talking to someone else aboard. > > > > I realize this may not be official according to the rules but we are not > running the Americas Cup. Having spent some time researching via google > there are some commercial alternatives available, only a few I found in > North America. I am looking for anyone’s experience with these devices and > perhaps problems or ones to avoid. My short list of wants: > > > > 1. Ability to do a 5,4,1,0 start. > > 2. Easy to use / reset. Push button with its own clock > > 3. Connected to lights instead of using flags so all human > intervention is avoided beyond the line observations and recording of time. > I think racers on our lake would accept this as long as they are visible. > > 4. Portable, able to be taken ashore and used on different boats. > > 5. 12V power > > 6. Reasonable cost > > > > The lights seem to be a non-standard option on what I found, at least on > this continent, or only on homemade systems. > > > > Any leads or links appreciated. > > > > Regards > > David Donnelly > > C&C 26 Mistress > > _______________________________________________ > > Email address: > CnC-List@cnc-list.com > To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go to the > bottom of page at: > http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com > > >
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