1 hour or there abouts is enough.

I will admit that on the odd occasion where the wind has been the correct strength, the sun has been out and it's not too hot or too cold, I feel that I could go on forever.  But an hour is usually enough.  It gives you the knowlede that if you are closing in or defending your position, you have a finite lenght of time to do your thing

Personally, I like long courses that you can get stuck into and really go places (obviously this wouldn't apply on a small pond). So 2.5 to 3 hours on the Medway wouldn't bother me at all. For something as major as the Isle of Sheppey race, all day is OK!

Our club races tend to be 1 1/4 to 1 1/2, which generally gives us sufficient sailing in the better parts of the river downstream. Anything much less than two of those or one longer race I'd hardly consider worthwhile going to the club for and breaking into my day.

On the other hand, I find three races a day at other clubs I've belonged to a bit much, and the races tend to blur into one another by the time I get home. Preferably fewer and longer.

I should maybe qualify all that by saying I'm talking about handicap racing on big, single-lap courses. For class racing, a mixture of lengths/formats is nice. Bashing out identical windward-leewards or sausage-triangles one after another can get a bit tedious.

So one team "tells them" and it makes no difference. Quite right too. These sort of requests should be raised through your fleet captain, assuming you have one (and if you don't, you should).

If you are limited by tide to one race a day, then a couple of hours doesn't sound too long to me. If several shorter races are an option, then most people tend to prefer that.

At Wilsonian the Fleet Captains set the courses and the RO merely checks there are no clashes with other fleets or safety issues.

If you're getting the call of nature after an hour PB, you'd better cut down the number of pints before you go out there...

And that's a common and understandable view from people who prefer multiple shorter races in the day. However you don't seem to want that either. You just seem to want less sailing.  

We have gone for 2 or 3 short, back to back races in the morning with simple courses taking about 1.5 hrs in total to work on starts. So races about 20 to 35 minutes long.

In the afternoon 2 longer races of about 1 hr, with more complex courses such as trapezoid with outer loop!

Replaced once a month by a long race Round the Lake which can take between 2 and 4 hours and be up to 20 miles, visiting some spots with interesting shifts.

We enjoy the variety - keeps us on our toes.

I like lots of racing so our current format of 2, 75 minute to 90 minute races suits me fine.  At Wilsonian we race down the river to the wide open spaces I wouldn't want a shorter race as this would restrict our space.  I wouldn't mind if they were a bit longer!  I really enjoy our long distance races - the Medway Marathon is marathon length (is that 26 miles) and can take anything between 3 and 5 hours.  We also have a creeks race (always at high tide) that too is about 20 odd miles and great fun since we go places you can't normally get to.

At Bough Beech they have a monthly short course series of 4 races 2 back-to-back, am and pm.  Not so good for me but good for Lasers although I do know of one Laser helm who turned around and went home when he discovered it was scheduled.  There was a time when we did 3 back-to-back!

That sounds good to me.  Shame you're 400 miles away.

Pierre,

Not a lot of chance of you coming up to visit us in September for the Osprey Open, then? You can fly to Newcastle and I am sure someone would give you a lift out. Then we would just have to provide a suitable boat.

At least we should meet at the Nats, which must be nearer you if you are 400 miles away.  I liked the 2 races a day at the Nats but we are back to the whole week format again with one long race. I would agree that a week makes sense if we are going all that way, but on balance I prefer more shorter, more intense races.

I tend to agree with you Viola re the nationals, and thankyou for the invite.

Don't know if you've ever sailed in St Austell Bay before, but it is a brilliant location.  I love it (but then again that's where I first sea sailed in a Mirror I built with my Dad way back when).  The only downside to Porth Pean is the ramp down to the beach.  It's real heart attack material!!!!

Shame it couldn't have been off the beach at Pentewan, just around the corner.

I've had warnings about the ramp from my husband Michael, who went to the Contender Nats there.  He loved the club and the water but does have reservations about the ramp!

Im looking forward to meeting Basking shark!

It was a lovely location for the Contender Nats in 2005, though. And I know what your hubby looks like, vscott! We've met him that week!

How great to see photos of it! 

And he has good memories of meeting you, and was disappointed not to see you both at the Dinghy show this year. We were there on the Saturday.

He sweet talked me into getting the Contender by saying we were both in the right weight range, etc. but just recently the Osprey is our first choice of sail.  Our youngest (18) is now the one who gets out in the Contender most often, when he has no choice but to come to the club. Sadly, he would rather be climbing...

The thought of pulling an Osprey up that ramp after a Nationals race makes me wince - I hope they have a tractor.....

If anyone likes long races it is the Kielder Dam to Dam challenge this Sunday afternoon - 20 miles of fantastic scenery and shifty winds with a nice trophy for the winner.

When we were there, there was no tractor. The first bit of the ramp is steep but the last bit into the compound is very steep. Enjoy!!

Great place to sail with a nice sheltered sandy beach. Can be very deceptive as it is very sheltered down on the beach.

Great friendly club that serves good pasties and excellent beer. What else do you want?

Two people can manage an osprey up there alright, by the Wednesday you'll be running up there!

http://www.porthpeansc.co.uk/ - http://www.porthpeansc.co.uk/

Whenever I have been RO I try and have the leaders finishing shortly after 45 min so that everyone is finished around the hour.  The fleet will have usually sorted itself out by then aswell.

When I'm racing I do expect a race to last about an hour and prefer to do lots of races rather than 1 long one a day.  At my present club we have had a few long races but thats mainly because of the wind dying off so that we can barely get over the tide and us all being too stubborn to retire.  Do feel sorry for the RO when that happens. 

One thing that no one has mentioned is that most RO's are volunteers and if they get too much criticism they just won't show up next time.  We should all be grateful they showed up and give criticism in a polite manner so that they learn rather than get p'd off.

it's not always sheltered I seem to recall an...mmm.'interesting' leeshore landing in a strong easterly at an Ent open