Courses - fast fleets at Grafham open

Originally posted by Scooby_simon Is this a change in requirements as last year there was no leeward gate ?

I must be going mad, because I was certain there was a leeward gate last year.

One thing that might help is a bit more space between the gate and the start line.  A number of times I hit the leeward mark/gate right in the middle of another fleet's start, and was presented with a wall of close hauled, starboard tack boats.

Paul

I was not on the "fast" course last year as I'd sold the Inter 17 and was doing some comedy Dart 18 sailing.

 

There was a gate at the leeward mark.  My mistake.

the pin-end of the start line was very well laid.
I caught a rudder round it for a good five minutes, and it never moved!

Not only was there a leeward gate, but the start/finish line was to leeward of the gate. The finish was between the boat and the left gate bouy. that meant that the RC had trouble keeping count of laps and finished boats at odd times.

Keep the start/fin remote from the course so that the onus is on the sailors to count laps and leave the course to finish. everyone hates going through the start/fin on each windward leg and it means that the RC have to lap count for everyone.

i don't think that the fleets are split properly, it should not be on speed but on sailing habits - mixing spinny boats with non-spinny boats on the same busy course causes problems.