More class racing at clubs ?

...what banding are you putting into "high-performance"?

Maybe some people, who previously sailed a certain a class in a few opens and the nationals, and saw the club racing as subservient to that, will choose a boat to get boat-on-boat racing at their home club? Once you admit you're not going to the 470 nationals next year, it gets tempting to make the best of racing against Kev with his 505, so you buy a 505.

But I think the premise of this thread is flawed, nationals turnouts are not too bad considering the state we were in until Putin threw covid off the front page. Opens are a mess, everyone's plans are a mess as we catch up two years.

Originally posted by davidyacht We had 16 Solos doing our club race on Saturday, the success of the class may be serendipity, but I suspect few of those sailors would turn up if handicap racing was the only option.

Isn't that just because: (Randomness of PY) X (Randomness of Salcombe) = far too much for the human mind to cope with...?

What percentage of the total SYC Solo fleet was that turnout?

Originally posted by davidyacht ..operate within a tight band, you cannot get away from the fact that these boats perform better or worse in different wind strengths and points of sailing, so becomes very course dependent.

Which is also a good description of the level rating classes that were regarded as the high point of big boat racing? Seemed to make quite a lot of people happy at that time? Trouble with strict OD singlehanders is that body size counts for a lot, at least in doublehanders it is possible to accommodate a much wider range

The other trouble with being too prescriptive is it makes it harder to manage or facilitate change when it may be needed. Combining a 2-4 boat slow handicap fleet and a 2-4 boat Laser 'fleet' (ie the odd situation where Laser's get special treatment, even though they are essentially a handicap fleet sailing with a mix or rigs) at my old club seems to have lead to better turnouts for the Lasers and the growth of a de facto Solo fleet, while also catering for a number of other singlehanders and the odd doublehander.

There was a bit of grumbling from the lasers when it was first changed, but it seems to have survived 5-6 years in that format and it would be interesting to know how much appetite there would be to change it back? My guess is not a lot as a regular turnout of 10 'similar enough' boats probably gives a better race than a 2 identical boats who have helms of massively different ability.