Class proliferation...

much talked about but is it true?

I make it 121 centreboard classes on the 1973 PY list, 84 on last years.
Basically its nonsense, there were far more classes back in the day. Go back to an early 60s list and there are classes you'd struggle to find photographs of, never mind an actual boat!

Edited by JimC - 08 Feb 19 at 3:25pm

Less classes now maybe, but many less active sailors is my guess.

As I think I may have said before, the question that interests me is why fleet racing is so unpopular. It seems fairly easy to start the nucleus of a fleet, and charismatic individuals can build quite a substantial fleet up with an awful lot of hard work. But if they move or lose enthusiasm it rapidly falls apart and it will be back to ones and twos again. If people really valued fleet racing for their normal weekend's sailing then it would be the opposite - it would be hard to build a nucleus of a new fleet, but once it was there it would snowball.

Again, too, in areas where there are a lot of clubs close together then club A would build a fleet of one class, club B of another, as it used to be in the days when the fleets were encouraged or mandated, and there was no handicap racing.

It seems clear that when you look at what people actually do, as opposed to what they say, that they value the club over the class, and would much rather be one of 2 boats at their preferred club than one of 20 boats at another one.

Of course there are people who think differently, but they're the minority on the open circuit.

This is, incidentally, why I really dislike the summer sailing challenge thing. Even at the biggest of the major winter handicap races you rarely get enough boats of most classes to deliver a reasonable single class race within a race. And even if you do boat on boat class tactics is a way to the back of the overall places. So if this thing takes off it will inevitably take some of the keen sailors from class events, which means there will be no fleet racing for anyone anywhere.

Edited by JimC - 08 Feb 19 at 7:24pm

I think it’s because many/most people aren’t actually that into racing. If you get into class racing you have to accept that you will only win if you put the effort in - fit enough to out hike the opposition, boat kept in tip top condition, new sails, perfected tuning, well chosen crew to be the right size etc. That takes more time on the water than most can manage. On the other hand, do some club based handicap racing and the PY may cover a multitude of sins on any given day, and you’ll likely still get some boat on boat action for that little frisson of excitement.