Race Management: Championship Race length

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Championship Race length

Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Race Management
Forum Discription: For race officers and competiors to discuss the topic
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7141
Printed Date: 10 May 25 at 10:44am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Championship Race length

Posted By: alstorer
Subject: Championship Race length
Date Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 9:39am

As a related topic to the "back to back races" thread, how long do you prefer races to be at major championships?

The poll's really just to kick the discussion off.

Does the type of boat (and thus the type of tactics employed round the race course) affect the optimum race length? Is there a cut off after which postional changes become less likely? Should major championships have longer races than "normal" circuit/club racing?

Obviously, there are classes that have some cheerfully crazy races as part of their nationals (or even as their entire nationals)- the I14 and N12 come to mind- but this is very much a "tradition" thing.

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Al

Replies:

Posted By: Medway Maniac
Date Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 10:25am

Sure, the type of boat will affect my preference, but even more the number of races per day and venue.

One race a day implies to me at least a 2.5 hours race over big a geographic course (all round Falmouth Harbour, Carrick Roads etc, for example) of not more than two laps; heaven forbid 2.5 hours on a windward-leeward or sausage-triangle - I'd die of boredom.

Four races: 30 mins each (plus all the faffing in between that entails)

Ticking the poll very much with the above provisos in mind, therefore.

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http://www.wilsoniansc.org.uk" rel="nofollow - Wilsonian SC
http://www.3000class.org.uk" rel="nofollow - 3000 Class

Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 10:27am

Yes, I think its very much a class thing... Not just type of boat, but also fleet size. I think there's a tendency for positional changes to reduce as the fleet sorts itself out, unless of course the weather does something special...
A lot of it depends on how much you want the race to be a starting competition or at least a first beat competition... Given a large fleet and moderate peformance boats then it can take an awful long time to recover from a bad start/first beat because of the sheer volume of dirty air, in other classes...
In my days in the Cherubs for instance I found the start was relatively unimportant because with a smallish fleet clear air was readily obtainable, and with high performance sophisticated rigs there were a lot of choices: low and faster, higher and slower - all were options that could be taken with some tweaking of jib settings to get you in clear air... This meant that you could have moderately short courses.

If you're in a fleet of 100plus very even performance SMODs on the other hand recovering from being at the back half way up the first beat requires a lot of ability and a lot of luck.

I think its good to mix up course types and lengths too... The Canoes, for instance, have a prize for a long distance race which is held within their Champs. And perhaps a really talented and brave race Officer ought to shorten races if the fleet is static and let them run if they are still changing places, although the crew that has pulled up thefirst beat of a lifetime but are now falliing back through the fleet might disagree...

Posted By: bert
Date Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 11:10am

Given the choice f race format I would tend towards 3 races of which 2 shorter ones in the morning & 1 longer distance that covers a decent area after lunch in the afternoon.

So I would like 2 votes please 1 for 2races at 45 minutes & 1 for a race of about 2 hours if possible

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Phantom 1181
AC-227 IC 304
blaze / halo 586

Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 11:38am

It depends on the class and venue.

For the 8.1 nationals last year we had a short course with short races which worked really well. There was just enough time between races to go ashore and have a comfort break if you needed it.

For a sea based Nationals make use of the space, have a big course with good reaching and running legs and races around the hour mark if doing 2 per day.

Or as another alternative mix it up a little. have some long races and some short races (I seem to recall the Scorpions do this) with a variety of course (P and inverse P as well as old Olympic).

I don't always think that using the 'normal' club marks is a good idea as this put non locals at a serious disadvantage unless you are going to have a lead boat.

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Paul
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D-Zero GBR 74

Posted By: WildWood
Date Posted: 14 Sep 10 at 12:11pm

Short races and more of them. Long races are dull unless you're doing something unusual like a coastal race where there is something interesting to influence the race outcome. Championships where you do one 3hr race per day round a massive triangle are rubbish.