GB Sailing Challenge - still confused

Originally posted by davidyacht Originally posted by Old Timer It’s good to see innovation.  Let’s face it, the standard open circuit model is hardly booming.  That depends upon the class of dinghy ... Solos, Merlin’s, RS200 are doing alright. That is not that I am against innovation, if Handicap racing was made more credible I would have greater enthusiasm for it, rather than it being something that has to be suffered when the Sailing Committee put it on the calendar.

TBH I suspect every dog has its day is a big part of the appeal of handicap racing. If people really liked class racing it wouldn't be so difficult to build a fleet at a club and so easy for it to fall apart.

Edited by JimC - 25 Nov 18 at 10:39pm

It is simply like herding cats... against a back drop of grand parsimony.

Truth for me is that s bit of break from competitive sailing and just messing around on various toys from beach cats to paddle boards makes me realise the benefit of the clas racing that’s left... be that at a local club in a Laser or Solo, or something nicer with a few miles between the venues.

I agree totally on your last point, but wonder whether this quasi science with staitistics really is the right solution, after all numbers continue to decline and PY has been the club racing firm favourite for several decades now. Secondly, deep down, most of us know that if you want proper competition and some genuine progression, you need to put the miles in in a sensible class which at least vaguely suits our demographic, fitness level and body weight - how else can we explain the popularity of the Supernova?

Our local leisure centres are rammed with people doing fitness classes. Local five a side leagues are thriving. There are heards of mamils out every Sunday clogging our roads- and good luck to them. None of these community sports programmes even try to handicap their players- yet two which do, golf and sailing, are two which seem to definitely be the wrong side of a boom and bust model. I don’t think it’s solely down to handicap racing, but It can’t always be helping.

Making the handicaps more accurate is missing the point that they are more accurately measuring an unfair comparison. At the end of the day, you're comparing how far above or below the average for their class each sailor is, then extrapolating out. Also, the more dynamic and intangible the handicapping system is, the less faith many will have in it, regardless of accuracy.