Sydney ---------> Hobart '25

[flaming]

You should come racing on the Solent sometime. Not knowing the rules is one thing. Choosing to ignore them is another…

The ability to see the data declared for your competitors’ IRC rating has been enlightening. One or two boats are on notice that if they turn up next season with, for example, sail data from 2017 and brand new sails, then protests will get lodged.

 

[flaming]

Clearly the weather did suit the smaller boats rather than the biggies for a change, which is nice.
But looking at just Class 6 IRC, it does appear that a full crew on the rail is indeed either superfluous or simply a handicap!

Of the 14 finishers in Class 6, eight were double handed and 6 fully crewed. Yet only one crewed boat, Love and War an old S&S 34 in its ideal upwind conditions and big age allowance, managed to beat any of the double handers. Otherwise 8 of the top 9 places were taken by the double handers, with the crewed boats filling up the rear - and outside the top 50 on IRC overall, even in a race won by the class leader.
Also the crewed boats had a higher retirement rate than the double handers.

Crews Union had better look out.

But now do the same analysis on age of boat. And competitiveness of skipper…

It’s simply the case now that the new launches, and best prepared skippers, are gravitating towards D/H.

I agree that this is a time bomb of an issue though.

 

[SaltIre]

 

[Laser310]

I feel bad for them...

It is a pretty big penalty

There was a newport-bermuda race a few years ago, where the boat that was provisionally the overall winner of St. Davids Light trophy (the biggest division and arguably the most important trophy of the race - usually 80% or so of the boats are in that division) broke a rule; pro's are allowed in the crew, but they are not allowed to helm in that division, and this boat had one of their pros drive the boat.

The Protest committee met, and assessed a time penalty.

But, the boat still won the St David's Light trophy.

Many people, myself included, felt that a boat should not break a well-known rule, and still win the race - that the penalty should be big enough to bump them to 2nd..., at least.

I will note that the boat in question had won more than once previously, was owned by a _very_ knowledgeable owner, and was in a continual program of optimization for N2B that included hull modification etc..., how they made such a "mistake" was a bit of a mystery...

In the S2H case, I feel a bit more sympathetic - maybe they should have been allowed to win.