When should you postpone a race?

[Aeolus_IV]

Before I start to sound bitter and twisted, I'm not, it was my fault, I've still not got my yacht racing head on - I still thnik I'm sailing a 32 foot dinghy weighing 5 or 6 tons.

The question is "when is there too little wind to start a race?"

Yesterdays race was scheduled to start at 10am, which it did - despite the fact that at that point in time there was probably less than 1 knot of wind, and both the tide and wind were pushing the boats over the start line. We "missed" difting over the start line by less than a boat length, having realised with 6 minutes to go that the wind we had was private to us, and as we sailed toward the line it disappeard. On goes the engine for 45 seconds of push to try and get us to the line in time - but not enough. It took un an hour and 10 minutes to get back to the line, then cross it.

This is a lesson I've learnt now - when its light I'll keep the engine running until the last moment, and I'll get a kedge anchor and warp and have this ready.

But seriously, should they start a race when it obvious that the slower end of the fleet cannot even stem the tide, and that this situation is going to get worse as the tide picks up speed?

Over to you,
Jeff.

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[Robin]

Can you not anchor uptide of the start? A bigger question is the other end of the windscale, we once had a local 20 mile passage race (club one) cancelled because the forecast for the next day was too windy for the smaller boats to get home. They had time to return immediately after the finish, but would need to forego the beers ashore!

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[circumnavigation]

Transat: La Rochelle - Canaries - Brasil. The start was posponed on Sunday PM to this coming Tuesday, due to a much increase in wind - look at all the weather web sites to see why. It is interesting to see the disturbance caused by ex Hurricane Fabian.

http://www.transat650.org/

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[Aeolus_IV]

Yes, should have planted the boat just up from the line and swung on the kedge then let go and drifted down to start. As I said, my fault, I still consider that I'm sailing a dingy, so I've never done this and it didn't cross my mind /forums/images/icons/frown.gif.

It was only a small "round the cans" race, normally takes only a couple of hours. My problem with it was that in such conditions it seems unfair to start a race when a reasonable percentage of the fleet cannot expect to make it round the course because they'll get "stuck" at the bottom of it.

In reality (and to prove my point) we eventually came 5th out of 8. How? During that hour and ten minutes it took us to sail back to the start line to round it, eveyone else drifted to the bottom of the course and put out thier anchors. When the wind did pick up enough and the race "started", we were only a short leg behind them, the handicap did the rest as we had an extra hours time advantage over all the faster boats.

I was wondering what others felt about this "race", is this just part and parcel of big boat racing? As a dinghy sailor racing I would have reasonably expected the start to be postponed until the wind filled in a bit - which it evetually did, is this not a consideration for yacht racing?

Regards, Jeff.

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[Robin]

What used to really get up my nose was a club regatta (not my current club) where there was a time limit on crossing the finish line, we then had a slow boat with a high allowance on handicap and several times felt we had been cheated out of the prizes because we finished after the limit, on one occasion only a few minutes after!

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[Aeolus_IV]

It always feels like the odds are stacked against you when your racing one of the slower boats in a fleet. This is to date our worse light airs sail/race - and we learnt a lot. Not just about anchors and engines, but getting the old girl to move in what could only be called "ultra-light" airs. The fact that she moved at all was amazing, and stemed about 0.5 to 1 knot of tide with only 1 to 2 knots of "breeze" over the deck (often less than a knot). Now it all hinges on the last race in the series, two weeks time.

Jeff.

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[Robin]

I'm not sure which is best (worse), being at the slow end or the fast end of a handicap fleet! If you are out front you relax and then find they all beat you on elapsed time, or they get more of the favourable tide, or the wind gets up after you have finished. One design racing is the only real answer I suspect.

I'm not allowed to race these days, SWMBO says it interferes with her culinary preparations to be asked to tack/gybe more than once per couple of hours. To raise the spinnaker she requires a guarantee that it will remain light winds, remain on the same gybe and not be required to be taken down for a minimum of 2 hours and preferably more, and no she will not work the sheets/guys, I wanted it up so I have to do it....



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[AuntyRinum]

"I was wondering what others felt about this "race", is this just part and parcel of big boat racing? "

Yes it is, but you also move up the field by one every time somebody else retires because they're bored. Anchoring tactics help as well and who's to say that the wind won't suddenly pipe up unexpectedly.

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[AuntyRinum]

"I was wondering what others felt about this "race", is this just part and parcel of big boat racing? "

Yes it is, but you also move up the field by one every time somebody else retires because they're bored. Anchoring tactics help as well and who's to say that the wind won't suddenly pipe up unexpectedly?

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