We are looking into holding an event in aid of the JMST on the 21 /22 April 2007 at Largs SC.  It will be the Scottish equivilent of the Tiger Trophy (Tartan Trophy).

The plan so far is to have 3 courses; junior/youth, open dinghy, and cats all with cash prizes for anyone winning all the races.  There will be a black tie dinner on the Sat evening.

We want this event to appeal to as many Scottish sailors as possible so the questions are:

Is the date about right?

Is the location right?

Would this type of event be of interest to you (Scottish or other UK sailors)?

What format should the racing take; 3 handicap, 1 pursuit etc?

Should there be a cash prize or should it be purely for the honour?!

Should there be stuff organised for non-sailors during the event?

Should the classes be split as suggested?

Any thing else you think may help.

We only have 5 months to get this off the ground so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

perfect location, perhaps on the saturday hold one warm up race fairly early followed by the pursuit race in the afternoon and then the 3 races back to back on the sunday

as a club memeber i know there is sufficient scope for the black tie dinner followed by celidh or some such afterwards. Should be able to roud up plenty of skiffs and there are some active cat sailors at th club who i am sure can easily round up those from the multihull predisposition you shouldnt have a problem getting youths so ong as you do not clash with any topper traveller or laser traveller dates then you can pretty much gurantee on them coming. The only catch to it up here is if you want it to be a big event, get it organised quick so you can get the word around as all the big events up here always seem to be the best known ons, or ones people can plan for well in advance.

Thanks for the posts  the concept is progressing well so fingers crossed we should be able to organise it for end of April next year.

Another idea to add to the pot, is to combine it with scottish class travellers, e.g. albacore, Lasers etc.  Is this a good idea?

Any more comments much appreciated

Great idea, good venue

might be best to spit the fleets on the water by dinghy/assy/cat instead of junior/youth and peolple that should sail cats.

I would like to do lots of short races on Saturday 6? and round the Island on sunday weather permitting (maybe not in a oppi)

calum has a point in saying that we already have a bi annual once a year race around the island, but if you wanted to do that just ensure you give the club plenty of notice to get the safety cover in place as the cumbraes regatta takes a lot of forward planning. However i think a pursuit race would be a good thing as we rarely seem to have any up here. In retrospec i think id agree more with stens idea of having a Cat, Assymetric (Fast and Slow split?), non-Assy and maybe a split topper and laser fleet dependant on thenumber of entrants you get in that feild but perhaps have a youth/junior prize within the ayy and cat fleets that way there is a lot to play for and will encourage tight competition all the way through the fleet. Maybe not cash prizes tats really your call might be a good idea but if you are having adult assy, cat non assy prizes aswell as youth/junior prizes this could be costly. But i think the main idea of an event like this is to encourage competitivness at all levels and just a generall big "gathering" near the start of the season as a good warm up for everyone. I think if you can get it nailed and ready to go soon and then start advertising it big time it should be a fantastic event. Someone should contact the guys that organise the big Tiger Trophy and ask wht they recomend planning and logisitically.

Excellent comments which will be added to the pot.

We are in talks with JMST and they are sorting out the contacts for Rutland.

I think the Assy's could race on one course with 2 windward marks, the non-assy could include the junior/youth on one course again with 2 windward marks and then have a separate cat course.

The cash prizes would have to come from sponsorship and it is unlikely that we would have the same major sponsor so I guess the pot may not be as large but we will look at that as the plan progresses.

Anyone local that can suggest a suitable venue for a black tie dinner on the Sat evening?

The current planned date is April 21/22.

First (well almost) person I spoke to.  I think it would be better that any event on the Saturday night be held away from the club and maybe the numbers would be too high to hold it there anyway!!!

I think that an event to raise  money for the jmst  in Scotland would be great but  I think that you would have to set it up as  something different from other  Scottish  events.  

  Most   travellers  in Scotland are  already  part of multi class regattas  where  up to  200 boats have turned  up to the most popular events, eg North berwick in 2000, Loch Lomond and Tummel in the 90's   although they became a  race managment nightmare.  trying to weave through lasers in a  14 with   a 100 boats  on a fairly large  course  is not an enjoyable  experience.

My other  point is Largs may have the best set up ashore  but  after the  Scottish Skiff champs  and several  Cumbraes  regattas  the  actual sailing  area off the marina   ain't great in  due to the land around it.

If you do want lots of fleets then  it is best to speak too and cajoule the various scottish reps to have a traveller  there    if you  can find the right volunteer  extracting different class results is not too hard.

Finally ensure you get a  very good pro  or it can all turn to rat s**t  very  quickly. 

More excellent comments....keep 'em coming

I think that this event should be slightly different from Tiger trophy otherwise it would literally be another tiger trophy.  As Chris said different fleets, albeit with a mixture of similar classes, does encourage people to come along.  I still think a big pursuit on the Sunday would be good but if we have the Oppies, Toppers etc then it would be unfair to put them in amongst it.  What about 2 pursuits with the adults going all in and then a junior one?

As for venue, I think it would be hard to find somewhere else that could accomodate a large event and that is reasonably accessable for all of Scotland and the North of England.  Where you go there is always something not quite right so it is a compromise.  Holding the event in April does reduce the chance of no wind me thinks.

Inverclyde Sports Centre has been suggested for the Saturday night?

Also should the Sat evening be black tie?

"During major events camping is available around 1km away from the clubhouse"

from SSi website .

Although the marina area at largs has more than ample room for camping at big events , the council have stopped them .

so the common definition of a poor person now is someone with a camper van , times have moved on since I became very  poor (tent)  , was only my point , next time I see a winniebago at a travellers i'll pop a penny in their begging cup .

Get your drift with vans and valid point ,

If largs and SSi continue to plan to run "big " events (which I'm sure they do) it may well be worth approaching council and getting temporary camp site status (and all that entails) which I'm sure would compliment the excellent shore side facilities Largs can offer and a great asset too.

I was at Celtfest a few years back and there was camping up at inverclyde (on part of the golf course i think).

Is this an option, you could always organise a shuttle bus between the two venues?

Right things are moving on, and we are hopefully days away from confirming the event.

Just on the format, I was thinking of a non-discardable pursuit for the junior, youth, single handers and double handed non assy classes.  I then thought for the assy's and the cats a non-discardable medal race.  The series would be low points apart from the medal race which would be double points.  My thought was that this would make it a vital race as the result would have a big effect on the overall series.

Yours thoughts?

My wife thinks its a sh$t idea and would put people off

If you're calling it the Scottish Tiger shouldn't the format be the same as the English (rutland ) Event?

i.e. 3 handicap races on Saturday - all classes but seperate starts for fast / slow. Two to count.

And a non-discardable all classes pursuit on Sunday.

It's a proven and popular format that would be hard to beat.

And BTW the only way I can afford to do a significant number of events is by camping - preferably cheap or free in the club grounds. Driving anywhere for the social is a big no. So must be within walking or reasonable Taxi fare.

I think a medal race is a silly idea, its not like its on TV and everyone only see's the last race.

Consider the medal race dropped !!

It will be a similar format to the Tiger trophy except the assy's and cat's will do 4 shorter races on the Saturday and the junior/youths, singlehanders (non-assy) and double handers (non-assy) will do 3.

Then one big pursuit on the Sunday.......Optimists off first and then....3 days later........49er's

Well perhaps if you make yourself known "Far Canal" then next time we see you around the club we can take you for a bit of a blast, but as of yet weve still to actually see or here of you on the water...

very true Ben our training programme is going well, first event is a week on sunday after all

an offer I can hardly contain myself to refuse ,

Getting a tad touchy are we ?

Yoove soon me on the water and I  you for a year or two , wouldn't poop inama pants over it

was just having a bit o banter in that you classified yerself alongside a 49er in your youthful (and enviable ) enthusiasm .

Nearly xmas time for banter ,

enjoy yur training , bit fek cold n windy if you ask me .

I reckon with a py diff of 908 to 747 you may get a wee head start over a 49 er ,

but who am i to say ?

and who cares ?

I don't .

have fun

Bit windy? Sorry I don't understand lol

for the record i was mearly implying that were going to try and get some other b14s up for the event. Wasnt implying the b14 is as quick as a 49er, having sailed one i know the 49er is quicker. Me touchy nah, just curious as to why you wont reveal who you really are, either you sail something you dont want to admit to or there could be a few reasons. Question is though and i doubt youll answer it, just where or what events have i seen you at before then?

.........sailing perhaps

Hopefully we might be able to get the boat up to Sunny Scotland in April as it would coincide nicely with Uni Holidays (hopefully), seems like it's going to be a good event at Largs.

The website is progressing.....

http://www.tartantrophy.co.uk - http://www.tartantrophy.co.uk

Still requires some work but we are well on the way

Any comments/things that should be on there?

 Barty, you've asked for comments, brace yourself, they're coming...

..... and you've got a PM from me...

Will be attacking the class associations soon.....if anyone with the relevant contacts wants to either do the leg work or PM me then that would be great.  I think to make this successful we all need to do our bit and promote it within our respective classes?

I had thought (although I have no idea how to!) do a online registration think so that there would be a list of people entered but like you say Tim it could put people off if the list is small.

Thanks for all the positive comments so far.....shaping up for a great event

it doesn't matter who I am , all i did was get the "wrong" inference from your submission after Bartys comments bout 49ers starting 3 days after oppies .

b14 will be 2 days

sorry got the py mixed up typo !

main thing is event goes ahead , shame skiffs r rubber earing it over a mix up at Scottish this year .

Its not the best of water , but , its a great venue otherwise , and with a big turnout should be an epic event .

I will be there ,

 sorry frayed knott

best concentrate on the b14 , more fun !

when i get older may consider one

Sorry all, but due to things outside of our control () it is looking highly likely that we won't be able to organise this event for April 21/22.  There is a slim chance still, but until these issues are resolved then we are unwilling to advertise the event and hence most sailors will be off doing other things.  We are looking at the possibility of holding it towards the end of this year when the open circuit has died down.

Sorry again

Thats a shame, thanks for the trying and all the time and energy you must have put in, please don't give up. I think these sort of events take time to get going but will be popular in the end.

Martin

Is there anyone from Helensburgh on here???

Ideally a committee member but anyone who is member would be good.

Can you PM me as I have a few questions to ask

Thanks

Barty........pm'd you with contact details. I sail at HSC and am involved with dinghy racing organistion.

Graeme