[sailingfool]

The two most popular race events in the Bopton area are pursuit races (http://www.figawi.com/ and http://www.hullyc.org/chase.shtml). I''d guess that half the participants do no other racing in the season. In a pursuit race, each boat has an individual start time based on their assigned rating, i.e slow boats first, fast boats last, with the starts times adjusted so everyone should finish at the same time. As a result you don''t have newbies angling on the start line at the same time, and if you finish before someone, you beat them. You don''t need to require PHRF certificates, just handicap the boats as needed using the area PHRF adjustments.

Everyone has a good time, and the non-racers all turn out.

Good luck.