GB Sailing Challenge - still confused

You can compare sea sweeping all you like, but like other muscle bulk derived activities it lacks the cranial finesse of sailing and using the 'force' to confound and confuse those that might be technically, physically or even financially superior to your own resources.

There is no greater feeling than being 1st over the water in the slowest boat out there, it doesn't happen that often, maybe once a year, but when it does there is no handicap known to man that will over awe sailing tactical genius..

My point is and always has been, the boat should be fixed and the man should be handicapped/rated and until that moment arrives it's always going to be a clusterf**k. Even in your precious class racing environment, there are going to be moments where dogs have their day according to their ability/racing weight/age/fitness/gender whatever. this is what should be considered.

Edited by iGRF - 26 Nov 18 at 2:32pm

Making line honours the aim in a mixed fleet would involve banding at a fairly narrow level or boats with a PN at the top of the band would have little hope of a result. The speed difference (to take an extreme example) in our junior fleet between the Optimist and Laser 4.7s is fairly huge. Likewise between a GP and a Merlin. I'd say a PN difference of 100 points would be more than enough to discourage the slower boats in each band from turning out. I should point out I'm not a 'winning is everything' type (just as well given my results these days though I've done my share in the past) but it's nice to know you might be in with a chance of the odd decent result if everything comes together.

Originally posted by Sam.Spoons Making line honours the aim in a mixed fleet would involve banding at a fairly narrow level or boats with a PN at the top of the band would have little hope of a result. The speed difference (to take an extreme example) in our junior fleet between the Optimist and Laser 4.7s is fairly huge. Likewise between a GP and a Merlin. I'd say a PN difference of 100 points would be more than enough to discourage the slower boats in each band from turning out. I should point out I'm not a 'winning is everything' type (just as well given my results these days though I've done my share in the past) but it's nice to know you might be in with a chance of the odd decent result if everything comes together.

Originally posted by H2 So assuming that in this parallel universe of weird people that do find handicap racing fun - why not at least test out a different way to do it? Seems worth a pop to me!

Originally posted by turnturtle I do get that in an emerging fleet, mixed class racing can provide a wider context which adds depth and meaning.  I’m just not convinced that the wider context need be formed from a numeric calculation... and certainly not by over-complicating said numeric formulation away from what has become widely accepted.  I’m certainly not a proponent of mandating which boats people sail - far from it.  I just think grouping up and ditching PY would be a more worthwhile experiment than dealing further into the data-driven abyss.     I rather liked your comments about beating Blazes over the water.  I took from that comment a sense of achievement, and a little bit of cheeky competition between two boats not that dissimilar that they can’t be raced side by side in light hearted racing.  I doubt the numbers and timings on spreadsheet made any difference to you in that moment of joy....