GB Sailing Challenge - still confused

Personally, I wouldn't turn up if I had to race my Laser without handicap against an Aero 7 or Rooster 8.X Laser, which is probably about as narrow a range as you'll get, because it will mean that the result won't get down to a battle of skill. The slower boat can sail immaculately and still be beaten by guys on faster boats who don't stuff it up quite as badly as they usually do.

The other weekend we had a regatta where Lasers of various types were starting with three 100 8.4s and a Aero 7. The top Laser standard (best of all the singlehanders on yardstick) would have been second to one of the 100 8.4s if they'd been racing together over the line.  But the thing is, the Laser sailor's skill was irrelevant to a certain extent, because even if they sailed at 100% then all the RSs had to do was to sail at about 98% and they'd finish ahead. So when you're on a slower boat and you have to beat faster boats across the line, you don't really have any part to play in the result from some aspects - no matter how well you do, what it will get down to is whether the other guys sail a little bit less poorly than usual. You have no control over the outcome, and few people enjoy that.

I must admit that I was not actually aware that they were using two different approaches, one for the DD and one for the Sailing Challenge and I have not gone looking for how I did except for the DD. I think Simon mentioned earlier in this post that they did not actually use the planned approach as they are still gathering data necessary to calibrate it. So to be clear I am not advocating that Simon and his team have this sorted but I am fine with them gathering the data and working out whether an alternative approach could work and I will be interested to see how they get along. If it is sh*t then I will be the first to say so!!