Race/Touring/FUN event ???

[Wega24]

Hello fellow sailors,

I accepted the position of race chair for the next season.
I want to bring the non racer marina occupants together with the "hard-core"racers in some fun events, next year !

In other words, The racing program is top notch, but we want to get some people involved who are afraid of the start and maybe also afraid to see their name all the way at the bottom of the list , when the results are posted.


I need some ideas, what we can do to get those folks involved. I am thinking along the lines of a GPS Hunt ( al la geocaching, where you find "treasures"when you get exactly to the correct spot ) or a Poker Run .....

Please let me know, what cool event you participated in, which was fun and low key, non contact ( lol ) social "non-Racing"

Thanks Thorsten

[Sailormon6]

Our club has encouraged new participants in the racing program by having a "pro/am" race at the beginning of the racing season, in which veteran racers crew for new racers and show them how to start without getting run over, and how to find the marks of the course, and they give them some pointers on right-of-way and tactics and sail trim. That way, the new racers can learn enough to get by until they are able to polish their skills with experience. The pro/am race should not be a part of the regular racing series, because the new racers will get more out of the experience if the veteran racers are able to concentrate more on teaching than on racing.

If you have enough new racers, you can have separate starts for veterans and new racers. "A" fleet starts 5 minutes before "B" fleet, and when a B fleet racer has won two races, s/he must move up to "A" fleet.

You have to get through to the veterans that they absolutely must only use aggressive tactics with other veterans, and they should avoid intimidating the new racers. One bad experience can scare a new racer out of the game. There''s no reason to be aggressive with a competitor that is incapable of beating you.

[Jeff_H]

When I was a kid there were a lot of cruise races where you you would be racing to an anchorage for the night. There were typically two fleets, racer and cruiser, and the had separate starts to keep things from getting out of hand. A plan "B" would be a pursuit style race which also eliminates a lot of starting line highjinks.

Jeff

[maestro]

One of the races I saw this season, was a destination race. Race starts at 5 pm friday evening and ends at another boat club/marina/cove....next morning, go the other direction. The biggest rule is that all crew MUST stay overnight on the boat (great fun for families)

How about a pirate race, where crew throws water balloons at the other boats??

or

get a couple of sailing dinks and have small match races in the mooring field. Make brackets and have single elimination races. You''ll see many a sailor turtle their boat and get wet...fun for all

[paulk]

There are lots of ways to have fun racing. We have a destination race where participants are each allowed to motor for a total of 20 minutes. You never know when the guy you''re about to pass will suddenly start going deac to windward with his engine. The race is set up as a "pursuit", with the slowest boat startting first, then the next, according to the ratings and the distance involved, until all have started. The order of finish is the final resultt. Afterwards, everyone rafts up for a pot-luck sharing of hor d''oeuvres and cocktails. We should probably have a prize for the best hors d''oeuvres, too.
Anotther thing I''m going to suggest to our fleet is a "man overboard" drill sometime during a race, using a watemelon tthat each boat has been issued. Maybe the Committee Boat signals this with four horns or something. The slower boats have the advantage of not leaving their "man" as far behind, and if the lead boats happen to have their spinnnakers up.... this could be a great equalizer.
To solve the problem of people always seeing ttheir names at the bottom end of the results list, perhaps you could simply list tthe whole fleet in alpha order by boat name. Then the finish points or place could be indicated in the next box. People might have to hunt to determine the results, but no one would be overly stigmatized.

[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.

[tiz_1]

We ran a regatta this past summer in a "rally" format, similar to a pursuit race.

We had boats start at 1 minute intervals so that there would never be any more than one boat on the starting line at a time. After that the race is against the clock, not the other competitors. We calculated phrf finish scores based on elapsed time vs each boat''s rating to determine who sailed the course fastest. Smaller boats started first to try and get everyone finished close together. Worked great. Short courses helped novices understand where they were going (1 to 1.5 mile per leg)

We gave handicap increases (base +) for dodgers, furlers, kids under 15, dinghy''s on davits, etc. so no one would feel compelled to strip their boats for the day.

--Kevin