Back on the Lake.

 ..... Ayatollah the 'Dark Prince' Lyons he who controlleth the Great Lakes system with the power of his mind.

Absolutely ...and with limited 'thought power' available (it comes to all of us with age of course) for a modest fee what would you like the venerable EPS's 'Great Lakes' number to be ?  Not that I've ever seen one at an SJ event so what is the point ?... And btw and before you get too excited I don't do 'new classes' numbers ... no not for anyone !

Seriously I don't know what you have against Simon Lovesey now - he has not a lot to do with the GL system, and never did.   (But I bet if he put a tracker on you it would be interesting !)

The clubs that pool their results together to create the GL 'adjustments'  are only doing what the RYA want individual clubs to do anyway.  YOU presumably were recently encouraged by Bas to have a 'handicap officer' at Hythe - good move - and the said officer will presumably will modify your local club handicaps in time ?  .. er almost the same maybe ? 

All that the GL system does, and the clubs that use it within the Sailjuice Series do, is make handicap adjustments against their own collective data pool.... Almost EXACTLY what Bas seems to be telling individual clubs they should be doing !  ... and you seem to now believe in (!)...The GL results are used to justify their numbers in exactly the same way as your local results should justify any local changes your club makes.

Only thing is .... YOU really have to race in the SJ series to get them to adjust their numbers and only then if the results justify it ... and they do apply a different weighting and look more towards the front of each class .... but that is not so different to doing it at individual club level by the RYA bible surely ?

See you at Datchet / Grafham / Oxford / QMSC / Northampton etc etc then ? 

Mike L.


Edited by blaze720 - 02 Dec 14 at 5:34pm

Nope, I'm none the wiser - Simon appears to be working hard to make the system fair - even if you disagree with some of the methods, I can't see a reason for hatred.

Simon your task is simple, stop prejudicing new boat sales by encouraging harsh handicaps, encourage your 'friends' on the PYAG to adopt a 'formula' for new boats based on the length, weight, sail area, crew weight/righting moment and use that for the first three months/necessary period to collate race data.

And stop mind melding with the Dark Prince or any of his pals in the trade.

Then nobody can accuse you and your pals of anything and all be be well in the garden..

Smell those Roses!

Good, then broadly we are in agreement then?

So, who has to be the new target for ironic abuse if not you?

Where does the responsibility lie?

So a month has passed and a new year dawned and for one family or move or daughters of darkness reason or another today was the first time back, it's a new series and apparently it's customary to run the start of every series as a pursuit race.

Not something I've ever experienced before, it's enough down that lake to remember the mark rounding sequence and wether to take them port or starboard, trussed up in a death bag, temperature 1 degree, fumbling in gloves, not the sharpest of sails, yet despite starting last I think my 6 minute was after the Solos and the three minute was as the Laser departed, I ended up damn close to winning it, had I not had one of my classic senior moments falling into the bottom of the boat, then another issue with that stupid harness rig thing coming adrift and leaving me without the main sheet for a couple of wild gybes down wind when the cable tie securing it snapped, I could have won.

So what is my point?

The point is, how is it possible to make that ludicrous ground up coming from behind when imv it simply isn't feasible if we all start together. Now they were all out, Miracle, Europe, Solos, Streaker, Laser, the only boats missing were the 300 and the Rooster.

I've been going over and over it in my head, I wasn't sailing exceptionally well, I got a couple of shifts and a couple of good mark rounding as I came through, but I've sailed much better in conventional races and not done as well, what is it about a pursuit that does this? Has anyone else had any similar experience?

Maybe it's down to psychology once out front, not needing to push hard to keep making up time, i guess from years of not needing to worry about time if you are in the lead, maybe it's easier to catch up than gain ground, there is an element of that, it's easy to spot a boat in front making a shift error and indeed what the shifts definitely going to do before it reaches you, anyway it was an interesting experience, kind of gives the lie to the handicap being wrong though doesn't it? i may have to STFU in future.