Round the Island

[Resolution]

Speaking of entry fees I'd love to see a breakdown as to just how they justify charging over £100 for this race? I mean, just what exactly are they providing for your money? As far as I can see they log your entry, tell you your start time, provide someone to sit on the line to set you off and maybe see you finish after you've sailed around an island that's been in place for quite a while.......... Berthing, accommodation, catering etc etc is all extra. I'm sure someone is going to suggest they take care of emergency cover and support but so do other events and they seem to manage to provide several days racing over numerous different courses (which they have to set) for less than that.

You forgot the finisher's tankard! Actually I am amazed that you are quibbling at paying as little as £100 ( approx) for such a fantastic experience for you and your crew. As any economist will tell you, price is there to balance supply and demand. Cost has little to do with it. As the ISC have built this event into the largest number of entrants in the country, the demand seems to be holding up pretty well.
I have had loads of fun in the several RTIRs that I have done. Now that old age has curtailed such activities I will be feeling very envious of the participants this weekend.

 

[ds797]

No tankards this year!

Well not unless you pay extra for one!

 

[Triassic]

.... Actually I am amazed that you are quibbling at paying as little as £100 ( approx) for such a fantastic experience for you and your crew.

I guess we have rather differing views as to what constitutes a fantastic experience. I like close racing but I guess I'm not a fan of crowds. Fortunately by sailing a multihull I'm not normally in them for long.........

 

[TallBuoy]

I guess we have rather differing views as to what constitutes a fantastic experience. I like close racing but I guess I'm not a fan of crowds. Fortunately by sailing a multihull I'm not normally in them for long.........

Just like the Catalac which was 2nd last over the line

(Last was a Macgregor 26 which shouldn't really count)

 

[Triassic]

Just like the Catalac which was 2nd last over the line

Crowded back there was it?

 

[Chris 249]

I like close racing but I guess I'm not a fan of crowds. Fortunately by sailing a multihull I'm not normally in them for long.........

Yes, well since multis get such small fleets of course you're not in crowds for very long.

 

[sarabande]

No reports on the BBC Sport website !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sailing

but loads of out-dated stories of the America's cup.

 

[AIDY]

Nice picture on front page of times today of kites rounding the needles.

 

[flaming]

Well that was a fun day out. Have to say I was very surprised to see so many people starting up at the northern end of the line though. That was never going to work with at least a knot more tide at the squadron end of the line. The angle was only a couple of degrees different so how people thought they were going to be going that much faster to compensate is beyond me. Top 5 at Hurst from our start all came from the bottom third of the line. We were 5th at that point, which I was very pleased with given we're not really a reaching machine and all the boats ahead of us definitely were!
The wind going light after Ryde cost us quite a lot, and once again our final result did not reflect our position at the needles, but another RTI done drama free which is nice...

Most entertaining part was definitely the dredger which seemed to make a timed run to the line during our start, think he was only about 5 seconds behind the line at the gun and leaning on his horn, which I thought was definitely a little rich as he was definitely the overtaking boat to all the boats lining up for the start and clearly not actually dredging at the time. Thankfully he was also really slow so the fleet soon left him behind.

 

[Racecruiser]

Just ben looking at the results and pics and thinking as ever 'should have entered'! Still the family wedding was good.

I see two Elan 295s like ours in IRC 3B with one coming third - should have been there to give them a run for their money!

 

[Iain C]

We had a crap race but a great day. My own boat's gearbox is on my workbench in pieces, so a good mate lent me his Feeling 426 (very trusting, as it's also his home during the week) whilst he was away overseas with work. Unfortunately, it was all a bit last minute and she'd not been scrubbed in over a year, so as we watched the rest of our fleet do a horizon job on us very quickly, we just kicked back, relaxed, and enjoyed the sail. However it was a very enjoyable day...obviously last year was epic for other reasons, but this was just a good day out.

I do echo the "WTF?" comments about the entry fee. For not-very-serious cruising sailors like me who probably make the RTIR the only yacht race I do each year, there will be increasing amounts of chin scratching when it comes to entry time. I liked the "everyone is equal" aspect of the race, but when you look at the race fee for four of us on a little old Sabre 27 being the same as the big carbon 20 sets of matching foulies boys & girls, it grates a little when you do the "entry fee divided by crew numbers" maths. Add in no tankard, a tenner for the Folly waterbus, the fact that purple fleet boats get far less time to make use of the entertainment/race village, and the fact that this year the race pack was nothing more than a piece of paper with "south line finish" and some sponsorship stickers, and it does start to look like poor value for money to be honest. I think there will be a steady drop in future entries at the grass roots level, or more people keeping last year's flag and just having a cheeky sail round the island on the QT. ISC really need to find another big ticker JPMAM style sponsor or I think the Corinthian element of the race will suffer and the #raceforall hashtag will be pushing the truth somewhat.

 

[lw395]

For a lot of yachts, if you divide the entry fee by the number of miles sailed for the race, and compare with the same maths for the season as a whole, I reckon it's not that much out of order.
For the ISC entries, they do have to sort out ratings. IRC boats in the proper race have to pay for that separately.

I've not done it for a while, but when I did, the main negative was not the cost, but the excessive number of numpties not having a clue about the rules, which doesn't work well with so many boats so close together.
It's definitely better to be on an early start in IRC with the grown-ups from that point of view. A reasonably fast boat improves the day no end.

Sponsorship always increases costs, so when the sponsors don't want to splurge so much, the entrants end up paying more than if the event had always been run by amateurs.

There are plenty of races we can enter for less money.

 

[Stotty]

It's definitely better to be on an early start in IRC with the grown-ups from that point of view. A reasonably fast boat improves the day no end.

I've done 11 RTI's over the last 17 years - 6 on a CO32, 4 on a Dufour 34 and last year on a Beneteau 45 - and I completely agree with this... bigger boat, earlier start time, faster rounding, more enjoyable!

 

[bdh198]

It was a good race this year. Unfortunately we lost a lot of ground on our fleet with some poor tactical decisions tacking round Ryde Sands.

...a tenner for the Folly waterbus...

We moored up on the Shepherd's Wharf Whitegates Pontoon, which relied on the water taxi to get to a from. If we do the race next year that is something we will defiantly change! By booking a mooring a bit earlier we could have got a walk ashore (albeit heavily rafted) at the main marina for the same price. The Whitegates Pontoon is perfectly good, but the water taxi was a joke. Numbers per taxi were severely restricted (no doubt because of H&S and insurance concerns), and there simply were not enough of them. They must have a pretty good idea how many people need a water taxi from previous events so why more weren't employed is beyond me. The queues next to the Red Jet ferry terminal were ridiculous on both Friday and Saturday evening.

 

[flaming]

They must have a pretty good idea how many people need a water taxi from previous events so why more weren't employed is beyond me. The queues next to the Red Jet ferry terminal were ridiculous on both Friday and Saturday evening.

What would the extra water taxis do for the other 363 days of the year? Even during Cowes week the demand is nothing like the demand for RTI.

 

[Keen_Ed]

What would the extra water taxis do for the other 363 days of the year? Even during Cowes week the demand is nothing like the demand for RTI.

Go back to the harbour they came from?

 

[Keen_Ed]

Re the entry fees, I bet people would be surprised by things like the costs of the results service. The back of the CCC building on the Parade is fairly well populated by folks doing results.

 

[bdh198]

What would the extra water taxis do for the other 363 days of the year? Even during Cowes week the demand is nothing like the demand for RTI.

I'm not suggesting having them there all year! But surely it can't be that difficult to bring in a few more water taxi's from other locations just for the weekend.

 

[Keen_Ed]

Exactly

Plenty of rib hire companies around.

 

[flaming]

I'm not suggesting having them there all year! But surely it can't be that difficult to bring in a few more water taxi's from other locations just for the weekend.

Fair point.