Which clubs have good class racing?

Grafham has strong fleets of Flying Fifteens, Lasers and Sprint 15s(cat). You can check the results: wwwgrafham.org . The new Commodore, Peter Saxton has improved race management by training club members. This means you can have 3 or 4 races every Sunday from the 1st of December to 31st March with committee boat starts for £75 a boat and two adults or £65 singlehander. When your club reopens in spring, you will not have forgotten how to sail!

Originally posted by iitick Where do you people live who can find 30 chapsies who can get away from work, travel to the club, rig a boat, get changed and get to the line for 7 o'clock? When I was working I had to engineer my day so that I could make it to the club in time. I think these 30 strong fleets must be all civil servants..........

Originally posted by iitick Where do you people live who can find 30 chapsies who can get away from work, travel to the club, rig a boat, get changed and get to the line for 7 o'clock? When I was working I had to engineer my day so that I could make it to the club in time. I think these 30 strong fleets must be all civil servants..........

Well at Lymington it's 6:30.
Many work locally.
Many self employed.
A few retired.
Some freelancers who arrange their week around it.

In Portsmouth it's people who work locally, a few people who work from home, people who choose to visit local customers on certain afternoons.
Maybe even a few people who have spoken to their boss about a bit of flexibility....

Where do you people live who can find 30 chapsies who can get away from work, travel to the club, rig a boat, get changed and get to the line for 7 o'clock? When I was working I had to engineer my day so that I could make it to the club in time. I think these 30 strong fleets must be all civil servants..........

Originally posted by iitick I think you are all missing the point. Whatever the fleet race be it a Nationals or Club Racing there will always be a variety of abilities. Look at the results of any Championship. Usually 4 or 5 sailors are racing each other at the top. Those sailors fill the first 5 places. These mini fleets continue through out the competitors. If I am racing against the other 4 Lightnings at our club we are fleet racing but in a fleet of 4. In a big fleet you are 'ability' racing. If we all attended the Nationals one of us would be sailing in the top 3, three in mid fleet and me at the back. It might be nice to see big fleets but from an individual point of view if you are mediocre then you will just have the pleasure of being surrounded by other boats. Only if you are a front runner will it be cool to look back at all those beaten boats.

I agree with this.
Personally, I think the most enjoyable fleet size is about 20 boats.
Unless you are really lucky and can race against say 6 boats, all off which you might beat, or might beat you. The people who are near-pro standard are not very relevant for a middle aged couple like us to race against, although it's nice to see the local 'experts' taken down a notch. Beating beginners by a leg or more does nothing for me, apart from enjoying seeing some of them improve and enjoy the boat.
Racing in a fleet of 100 boats, or in a class that's buried in other classes on the same course can be too like driving in traffic.
When you stop seeing the other boats as individuals, you'd be having more fun in a smaller fleet.

If what you want is pure level racing, that is better served around here by open keelboats like x's victory, squib, redwings etc. Do not knock these (heavy old) things until you've tried it!
But our little clubs deliver a balance of boat-on-boat racing and the fun of sailing an asymetric dinghy on the sea. Once you've come to terms with only being middling-competitive, balancing tactical racing with a bit of a blast can be a lot of fun.