Grafham Grand Prix

166 boats entered, both races were sailed for all classes in a little more wind than was forecast and the results were on the Grafham website by 6pm.

Pretty good eh?

A little more wind would have been even better!

Cheers

Bob

Not so.  It was changed as a result of performance at Grafham.  The Main driver was the DoE.

Ian Fosdyke won the Duke of Ed handicap event at Grafham in Sept.

He won it despite capsizing in EVERY race at least once.  He was racing on something like 850.  The club re-calculated the results on 750 and he woud still have been second.  It was a fairly windy event.  How can ANY boat be near the front of the race having capsized in every race.  I was sailing in the same regatta, did not capsize at all and Ian was in front of me in every race.  I was sailing on 690. 

As for sailing when the conditions suit.  Welcome to the cat sailing handicap problem.  We know we will do well when it's windy and know we'll be screwed when it's not.    As soon as a Moth is foiling, it should be be on 690 (IMO); when it's not foiling it's stuffed just like a Catamaran is before we get going.  Moths foil in about 7-8 kts, most races will be more than 7kts.  Thus I think 750 is more than fair (considering a Moth would still have come 2nd in the Grafham club champs having capsized at least once in every race).   

It was under review anyway.  Some moth sailors are quite happy to claim the boat is fast as a Tornado, but then some moth sailors moan when the handicap drops.  Cannot have t both ways.  And the PY is always a compromise.  YOu never see Cats winning light wind races as they don't go in lignt winds.  The Moth won't either.  Both Cats and Moths PY's move towards their higher wind performance because of the way the PY formula deals with performance that is below the current PY.