Championship Race length

   Short races and more of them.  Long races are dull unless you're doing something unusual like a coastal race where there is something interesting to influence the race outcome.  Championships where you do one 3hr race per day round a massive triangle are rubbish.

Poll Question: How long should races be at major champs?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
45 minutes	6	[42.86%]
60 minutes	3	[21.43%]
90 minutes	1	[7.14%]
120 minutes	1	[7.14%]
varies too much with boat type to say	3	[21.43%]
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WildWood Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Posting king Joined: 14 Nov 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 136	Post Options Post Reply Quote WildWood Report Post Quote Reply Topic: Championship Race length Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 12:11pm
	Short races and more of them. Long races are dull unless you're doing something unusual like a coastal race where there is something interesting to influence the race outcome. Championships where you do one 3hr race per day round a massive triangle are rubbish.

jeffers Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 29 Mar 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 3048	Post Options Post Reply Quote jeffers Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 11:38am
	It depends on the class and venue. For the 8.1 nationals last year we had a short course with short races which worked really well. There was just enough time between races to go ashore and have a comfort break if you needed it. For a sea based Nationals make use of the space, have a big course with good reaching and running legs and races around the hour mark if doing 2 per day. Or as another alternative mix it up a little. have some long races and some short races (I seem to recall the Scorpions do this) with a variety of course (P and inverse P as well as old Olympic). I don't always think that using the 'normal' club marks is a good idea as this put non locals at a serious disadvantage unless you are going to have a lead boat.
	Paul ---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74

bert Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 23 Apr 05 Location: norwich usually Online Status: Offline Posts: 584	Post Options Post Reply Quote bert Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 11:10am
	Given the choice f race format I would tend towards 3 races of which 2 shorter ones in the morning & 1 longer distance that covers a decent area after lunch in the afternoon. So I would like 2 votes please 1 for 2races at 45 minutes & 1 for a race of about 2 hours if possible
	Phantom 1181 AC-227 IC 304 blaze / halo 586

JimC Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 17 May 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 6660	Post Options Post Reply Quote JimC Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 10:27am
	Yes, I think its very much a class thing... Not just type of boat, but also fleet size. I think there's a tendency for positional changes to reduce as the fleet sorts itself out, unless of course the weather does something special... A lot of it depends on how much you want the race to be a starting competition or at least a first beat competition... Given a large fleet and moderate peformance boats then it can take an awful long time to recover from a bad start/first beat because of the sheer volume of dirty air, in other classes... In my days in the Cherubs for instance I found the start was relatively unimportant because with a smallish fleet clear air was readily obtainable, and with high performance sophisticated rigs there were a lot of choices: low and faster, higher and slower - all were options that could be taken with some tweaking of jib settings to get you in clear air... This meant that you could have moderately short courses. If you're in a fleet of 100plus very even performance SMODs on the other hand recovering from being at the back half way up the first beat requires a lot of ability and a lot of luck. I think its good to mix up course types and lengths too... The Canoes, for instance, have a prize for a long distance race which is held within their Champs. And perhaps a really talented and brave race Officer ought to shorten races if the fleet is static and let them run if they are still changing places, although the crew that has pulled up thefirst beat of a lifetime but are now falliing back through the fleet might disagree... Edited by JimC - 14 Sep 10 at 10:31am

Medway Maniac Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 13 May 05 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 2788	Post Options Post Reply Quote Medway Maniac Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 10:25am
	Sure, the type of boat will affect my preference, but even more the number of races per day and venue. One race a day implies to me at least a 2.5 hours race over big a geographic course (all round Falmouth Harbour, Carrick Roads etc, for example) of not more than two laps; heaven forbid 2.5 hours on a windward-leeward or sausage-triangle - I'd die of boredom. Four races: 30 mins each (plus all the faffing in between that entails) Ticking the poll very much with the above provisos in mind, therefore.
	Wilsonian SC 3000 Class

alstorer Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 02 Aug 07 Location: Cambridge Online Status: Offline Posts: 2899	Post Options Post Reply Quote alstorer Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 9:39am
	As a related topic to the "back to back races" thread, how long do you prefer races to be at major championships? The poll's really just to kick the discussion off. Does the type of boat (and thus the type of tactics employed round the race course) affect the optimum race length? Is there a cut off after which postional changes become less likely? Should major championships have longer races than "normal" circuit/club racing? Obviously, there are classes that have some cheerfully crazy races as part of their nationals (or even as their entire nationals)- the I14 and N12 come to mind- but this is very much a "tradition" thing.
	-_ Al