Newbie here with a few questions!

[Goodfreak]

Hi, my name is Alyse, I am very new to the world of sail racing. In fact, I know absolutely nothing about it! However, the company that I work for is lookign to put together a television show featuring yacht racing, and I have a couple of questions:
1. What is a good kind of boat that can comfortably hold a team of 6 people? i.e. how long does it have to be?
2. What is the length of a typical race? What is the length of the shortest race?

If anyone can help me out with this, it is SO greatly appreciated! Or if anyone knows a good website with very, very basic information about yacht racing, I would also appreciate that (most of the sites I went to were for people knowledgable in yacht racing - or the links were broken!) Thank you so much for your help!!
Alyse
GoodFreak@aol.com

[Jeff_H]

First of all, with a crew of 6 you are looking for a 34 to 35 footer. A J-105 would be pretty ideal. These are real race boats and they are quite common. They are fast enough to be interesting, yet docile enough that you are not putting your ''talent'' at risk.

Asking how long a race takes is like asking how long is a piece of string. Last summer, in a good breeze, I finished a race in my boat in less than 20 minutes (2 miles at between 7 and 8 knots) There are round the world races that last 150 days or more. A typical race for a boat like a J-105 would be between and hour and 7 or 8 hours long with 2 to 3 hours being quite common. A one design race for a boat like a J-105 would consist of 5 or 6 legs alternating between straight upwind and straight downwind. A Typical leg is 2 to 3 miles long but the boats don''t sail dead up or down wind so they would actually sail something like 15 to 25 miles through the water at 5 to 7 knots.

US Sailing used to have an introduction to racing on their site but I don''t know if it is still there.

Good luck
Jeff

[JohnDrake]

In addition to the good info you have gotten above, you can chat at length to a race director or racing committee chairman.

Many yacht clubs have a race director. I believe the Annapolis Yacht Club has a website online that you can check out and the contact info for their race director is listed. I am sure he would enjoy talking with you.

[73mensailed]

First, where do you live, is it ocean or lake sailing? Is there a Yacht Club near you? I''d check them out first. Also there are going to be 3 Boat Shows at the first of the year. Atlantic City, St. Pete. and Chicago. They''re going to have a large number of seminars sailing, racing, crewing etc. You could get a lot of answers from a lot of experts there.

Take a look at sailamerica.com, go to boat shows, then seminars. My wife and I are going to Chicago. We plan on taking in at least 5, if not more seminars. Of course looking at the new boats will be first on the list(drool,plead with wife,drool,plead with wife, negotiate with seller,plead with wife, finance, all those hassles, is it worth it? Darn Right!). We''re hoping to see and do a lot there.

[boeman]

Alyse, you need to hook up with someone near you who sails, so you can get a taste of it, then search until you can find someone who will let you crew/observe in an actual race. You would get a sense of the whole thing that no amount of interviewing and researching would yield. Plus you might like it so much you''d have to do more - and your name would look great on the stern of a sailboat.