Our single fleet club is organized as a social racing club to distinguish us from the two brick and mortar clubs in our bay. Our tag line is “Serious Fun, not Serious Racing”. We generally get about 45 boats ranging from true racing machines to 22 foot cruisers using volunteer committee boats from the fleet.
Some of the things we do to keep things fun include the sliding PRHF as Bob describes. In our version, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place boats in each division lose 9, 6 and 3 points off their PHRF for the next week. 4th place stays the same and the rest of the fleet that raced gets an additional 2 points added. This keeps anybody from running away with a division, believe me! We also run a mix of spinnaker and Jib/Main only races with a time penalty for using a spinnaker to keep things even. This keeps the more advanced boats interested, but also maintains some balance with boats that either don’t have a spinnaker or don’t want to fly it. Another provision is a guest skipper bonus, which is a half point deduction on the series score for any skipper that hops on a different boat for a race. This has been great for new members that need a little mentoring. The club is very protective of our reputation for welcoming new racers and we have actually asked overly aggressive boats to find another fleet at times. We also run classes on racing, rules, committee boat duties and even boat maintenance to help our members stay in the sport. Our website at www.mastracing.org<http://www.mastracing.org> also has a stripped down, common sense version of the rules available that one of our members wrote a while ago. That is required reading for our membership and might be something you could use for those starting out. In terms of why we race, when we started a big reason was to nudge us to use the boat at least once a week and stretch our comfort zone by going out in conditions that would not necessarily be attractive for a pleasure sail. It’s evolved into a very social thing now, as over the years we have maneuvered our slip location to be near our fellow racers. Pre-COVID, this resulted in some pretty impressive shared meals on the dock after the race and a general party atmosphere. We race on Friday nights, which is also a factor in this. On the whole, I think there is room for a lower stress racing series to try and lure more people into the sport and I would urge interested clubs to give it a try. Jim Reinardy C&C 30-2 “Firewater” Milwaukee, WI Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: dwight veinot via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2021 3:29:33 PM To: Stus-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Cc: dwight veinot <dwight...@gmail.com> Subject: Stus-List Re: Racing fleets and getting sailors to participate Sort of funny how all the egos go for the line i did it many times take him up no room to go up no protests nobody wants to go to protests. Fleet racing accidents happen. Then after the aggressive start line close packed maneuvers things spread out, crew loses focus and then another chance for collision at the first mark and so on and on and then maybe a bewildered and disgruntled crew afterwards talking about what went wrong. I am a dedicated cruiser now but i still love watching Americas Cup started following way back when Stars and Stripes and Dennis Connor was in the thick a lot of changes and new developments since then thats what i like and the presentations of races is so good nowadays its very exiting nothing at all like watching the grass grow or the paint dry and so very technical and experimental. Next races Prada Cup Final Luna Rossa vs Brittania feb 13-22 On Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 4:26 PM Bob Mann via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com<mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: Video tape all starts from the committee boat and use these for review. Always surprising how far from the line boats are at the start, especially in the middle of the line. Our local group (multiple clubs in one organization) implemented golf-style handicapping last year. We call it Delta class. Based on your result from last week your rating may change. Unfortunately, I don't have more details on what they did but can put you in touch with someone. Bob Mann Detroit - DRYA On 01/30/2021 9:58 AM David Knecht via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com<mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: I noticed looking at Bill’s link about his spinnaker that his club has three racing fleets: Spinnaker, Family JAM and Jib & Main . I don’t know what those represent, but am curious. I am in charge of racing for our club this year (for the first time) and one of the things I am looking into is whether we can increase participation in racing by our members. One idea I am exploring is having a “green fleet” for those new to raicng to get them invoved in a low stress format (primarily start timing when you get to the line). We would also have a pre and post race skippers meeting/discussion to talk about the race, rules, etc.. This group seems like a good place to get ideas as to what other clubs do in terms of racing fleets and encouraging participation from those who are not traditionally participating. Has anything in particular worked well for your club? Thanks- Dave S/V Aries 1990 C&C 34+ New London, CT [cid:1775525298c1022a4281] Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks - Stu Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks - Stu -- Sent from Gmail Mobile
Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks - Stu
