Club Starting procedures

Ian

At Starcross we have an automated lights system (5 starts - 3 minute intervals) - with additional flashing lights for shorten course, recalls and abandoning.  Linked to a PC based system for race entry, timing and race/series results generation system.  All housed in a shore based OOD's cabin, and all built locally.

When we have committee boat starts we use the standard flags system on the boat - but we synchronise the start of the sequence with the shore based PC system via VHF to allow the lap/finish timing to be done from the shore.  The downside of this is that the course needs to include a pass through of the club line for each lap - but at least the starts can be true(ish).

Next month I hope to start a rewrite of the PC based timing system which will be tablet friendly so may be suitable for use on the committee boat if we can find a suitable weatherproof tablet. I know other folks in the club have been thinking about a lights system for a committee boat (but as others have said this is a much harder problem than a shore based system.

Mark


Edited by marke - 04 Feb 14 at 2:50pm

We still have people with watches, which most of the time is fine, though it is surprisingly easy to start chatting and miss the 1 minute!

Now we have a web cam, if we went automated, the race officer could just stay in bed and do it all on a laptop from home.

Originally posted by fab100 It appears Frensham leads the way again. For decades we've had a programmed start box machine. Tell it how many races and time of first signal and off it goes, sounding horns and lighting lights with no further intervention. As boats cross the finish line, touch a button and it captures their time. This used to be a custom made thing but a while back was migrated to a PC with the lights running off a serial interface. Respect to Brian Cushing (RiP) for the original and Bob Castle and Roger Gilbert (yes, the Roger Gilbert) for the latter. Works perfectly, no confusion possible and human error pretty much eliminated It even does pursuit races at the click of a button too Buckets?? I'm flabbergasted

Don't most clubs use an automated start box? We have pursuit and handicap race on a Sunday and it gives a hoot for each entered class in the pursuit (you can add extras) and finishes the race at the correct time. Then just a 5,4,1 countdown and hoot to start... simple!

We run 4-2-go with starts at 2min intervals and the P staying up. 5-4-1-go seems impractical for club racing.
I liked the flag system they have at Loch Lomond which is each flag permanently attached to a pole and an array of sockets so flags are hoisted by placing stick in socket

The bucket sequence was, from memory: