Club fleets and critical mass

Last year our club rejigged the fleets to better reflect the increase in 'non-laser' singlehanders.

By moving the PY limit for the slow handicap up, to just above an Aero 9, and incorporating the - often 2-3 boat - Laser 'fleet' it has created a slow handicap fleet with much better turnouts and the fast handicap with a much tighter PY range, giving (arguably) better racing for both and one less fleet for the OOD to worry about.

It seems club Laser 'fleets' are often red herrings once the multiple rigs are taken into account and some clubs seem to soldier on with multiple classes of 1-3 boats (because X class were popular there 20 years ago...) when it would be better to amalgamate them into a bigger handicap class. It seems logical that people are more likely to turn out if they are confident of having a decent numbers of boats to race against.

Curious as to how often other clubs review their fleet structure and what seems to work best - PY or style of boat (assym\symmetric etc.)? 

Fleets wax and wane. Event those with plenty of boats in the boat park rarely get regularly decent turnouts.

Our Laser fleet varies from 2 to 10 boats, Solo fleet the same. The handicap fleet does something similar.

Originally posted by jeffers Fleets wax and wane. Event those with plenty of boats in the boat park rarely get regularly decent turnouts. Our Laser fleet varies from 2 to 10 boats, Solo fleet the same. The handicap fleet does something similar.

I guess what I was getting at was how reactive should clubs be to these changes? At what point do low turnouts get considered permanent (1 season, 2 seasons...) and do clubs track average fleet turnouts?

Is the (theoretical) purity of OD racing between two or three boats (which may have helms of radically different ability) preferable to a PY racing in a larger fleet of reasonably well matched classes?

At South Cerney its interesting that the best attended race series are the ones where we all sail in one handicap fleet and from talking with people its the races that people enjoy the most. We have separate FF15 and Solo fleets in some series which see around 5 boats on average show up but the results are nearly always the same whereas a larger handicap fleet mixes up the outcomes especially over a series with differing conditions.

Hi GML, at our club a separate "fleet" implies a separate start and separate set of results / prizes but all fleets sail on the same course with starts 3 minutes apart.