race length

I'm getting really annoyed these days at the length of the races at my club.  For the last 4 weeks now my crew and I have retired before the end of a race because they were just too long.  I personally think that a race should be not much longer than an hour but for weeks now races have been over two hours.  I don't know about you guys but I like to go and have a drink after racing or just get home and have my lunch and then have a life in the afternoon but with these ridiculous length races it just takes up the whole day really.  We have a word with the race officer every time and tell them to not make it too long but it just makes no difference.  The problem is that the race officers are usually non-sailors and don't understand what we're thinking out there and just keep on sending us round lap after lap.  Am I just being a whinger on this one or do other people think that 2 and a half hour races are too long?  How long do races at your club last?
PB

1 hour or there abouts is enough.

I will admit that on the odd occasion where the wind has been the correct strength, the sun has been out and it's not too hot or too cold, I feel that I could go on forever.  But an hour is usually enough.  It gives you the knowlede that if you are closing in or defending your position, you have a finite lenght of time to do your thing

Yup, 2 or 3 X 45 Min races is always good, weather they are back-to-back or with a break in between.

Talk to the comitee, and tell them. They don't know the pain they are causing until you tell them.

Alternativley, get some sailors to help run the racing. What good are non-sailors who have been forced to do a duty?

Personally, I like long courses that you can get stuck into and really go places (obviously this wouldn't apply on a small pond). So 2.5 to 3 hours on the Medway wouldn't bother me at all. For something as major as the Isle of Sheppey race, all day is OK!

Our club races tend to be 1 1/4 to 1 1/2, which generally gives us sufficient sailing in the better parts of the river downstream. Anything much less than two of those or one longer race I'd hardly consider worthwhile going to the club for and breaking into my day.

On the other hand, I find three races a day at other clubs I've belonged to a bit much, and the races tend to blur into one another by the time I get home. Preferably fewer and longer.

I should maybe qualify all that by saying I'm talking about handicap racing on big, single-lap courses. For class racing, a mixture of lengths/formats is nice. Bashing out identical windward-leewards or sausage-triangles one after another can get a bit tedious.

Originally posted by Prince Buster We have a word with the race officer every time and tell them

So one team "tells them" and it makes no difference. Quite right too. These sort of requests should be raised through your fleet captain, assuming you have one (and if you don't, you should).

If you are limited by tide to one race a day, then a couple of hours doesn't sound too long to me. If several shorter races are an option, then most people tend to prefer that.