Optimum Balanced course for PY

Not possible in my opinion.

Just make sure there's plenty of variety over the course of the series, and don't try to stick to a single supposedly perfect course. Ring the changes as much as possible for reaching legs and course configurations, but try to always get a true beat and a true run each week. As for the rest, P courses, triangles, squares, long thin rectangles, irregular quadrilaterals, just mix 'em up.

Most of all try and set a course that will be as much fun as possible for as many competitors as possible in the conditions prevailing that week.

The way to think of it is that PY numbers are calculated from the huge variety of different courses set by all the different clubs round the country, so setting a huge variety of different courses has got to be the best match to the numbers.

Edited by JimC - 10 Jul 16 at 11:39am

Originally posted by 423zero At my club first leg always a beat, first mark always port, OOD then sets rest of course. When I am OOD I always go for a fast reaching course, even if it means almost every mark is a Gybe, I have never considered putting a run in. The buoys are 7 in number and are layed in a oval pattern.

I hate courses like that personally. Every leg it's just a drag race with no real tactics required except for the beat. The legs might be fun but the racing isn't. Every course should have at least one proper run in my opinion.

Has to have something of everything, including runs, but some fun reaching will keep those not just out there for a result on handicap coming back for more.

The tactics are certainly in the beats and runs, though.

If I could only have one, then beat, reach, gybe, reach, gybe/bear away onto run down to the Lee mark, then beat back up.

Today, at least. Or maybe a trapezoidal one. Or a figure 8. Or...

Jim's right. Different course every week. But please no fetches!

At my previous club we gave up trying - and had a W/L for the asymetrics and a triangle for the rest - most of the time.

Originally posted by ClubRacer The problem is that reaches are very boat specific but runs and beats are almost completely neutral to the majority

I really don't think that's true.

If you consider boats that don't plane upwind and aren't fast enough to apparent wind sail downwind then on beats and runs they are basically going to be displacement sailing all the time, and a high wetted area planing type hull will be at a huge disadvantage to a low wetted area semi displacement oriented boat.

And if you consider spinnaker boats then that sort of course favours boats with very large kites that can't sail hot angles over boats with smaller kites that can sail fast on a greater variety of legs.

Edited by JimC - 10 Jul 16 at 5:57pm