Bandits!

were you there this year jim?

i think the rib motors in a straight line at 5 knots and drops a bouy every minute or something then split handicap groups by about every 50ish points

im not entirely sure on the numbers but thats the jist of it.

practice at getting off the line.

i think handicap is ok if you have similar boats but if you try to race oppies, 200s and cherubs all in one fleet you will end up with trouble. my favourite handicap race is Hill Heads Triangulation race (time to promote the club a bit) its realy good because you sail one beat one close reach then a run and then one leg which is normally a fairly broad reach to a bouy that is a different distance away for each boat (ie oppies got to the nearest mark f18 cats go to the furthest away mark) then you have a realy close reach back from your mark to the start on which you get overtaken by all the faster boats. its realy fun but a pain for the safety boats. not sure if any other clubs run a race like this.

I always felt I should travel more but moving so far from the class heartland has made this a pain. I'm starting to enjoy handicap racing more although it does help to have some other boats in your class or very similar yardstick. Furballs for instance are a little quicker overall but we are quicker upwind (once trapezing) so we end up trading places constantly in a good race.

I think the Contender is equally blessed and cursed with it's yardstick, sailing well below in light wind, a fair bit quicker when it blows but crucially remaining sailable when it howls. This means that if you stick with it over a long series, which you really only get with club racing, it usually evens out... not surprisingly I suppose.