Winning with a bad boat

[BobPrell]

I did not have a good answer to Foolish Muse's question about the "average boat" in a club or clubs.

However it got me to thinking, and I reflected on an experience I had in club racing, in a longer race which made the principle more obvious.

It was a mixed fleet, no two yachts were the same design. I was racing in a slower design, poorly tuned and average-on-a-good-day crew. With a fairly clueless skipper. We started poorly, sailed badly, and fell further and further behind. We got down hearted as we beat to windward, and did not revise that feeling when the wind changed to a reach, because the fleet was so far ahead.

We finished way last and went home, too late to hear the results in the bar. Looked up the results on the club website a couple of days later to find . . . . . . that we had won on handicap!!!!

So I am now wondering, if you got yourself a slow boat, and started the season with a very favourable handicap, and placed well on handicap in all races, but not too well, so people noticed what you were doing, and the weekly handicap adjustments were not too onerous, could you win the club championship?

A tactic which would help in this strategy, would be not to contest starts and mark roundings, where penalties could be incurred. A major problem to be overcome is that miserable feeling when way behind, which stops you from sailing at your best.

 

[Foolish Muse]

In my long experience with club level racing at different clubs, the single most important part in taking 1st place for the whole year is to simply show up for every race. You don't have to win a single race, or even come in the middle of the pack for each race. But you MUST show up.

The reason? The penalty for missing a race = Number of racers in the series + 1. So if you have perhaps 10 boats who come out at various times in a series, but have perhaps 5 boats that come out for any individual race, then missing one race scores you 11 but coming DFL only scores 5. You'll find that most boats miss one or two races in each series. These guys are out of the running completely. But if you enter every race, then your final score will be pretty good. You might end up with a 2nd or 3rd in the series.

That's for an individual series. And to take the scenario further, most skippers go on vacation or away on business or some other reason. And they miss an entire series, which is even worse.

So, you've got a guy with an average boat who comes to EVERY race. You'll see that at the end of the series, he has scored a 2nd or 3rd place in that series. Then, at the end of the year you'll see that sure there are guys with a few 1st places, but then they score a couple of 10th places. And low and behold the guy with the average boat wins the cup for the whole year.

I know this very well from 15 years of racing. Way back when I was first starting, I sailed a Tanzer 22 in active one design racing in Ottawa. I believe that I came dead last in EVERY race. (Perhaps there were times when I came not quite dead last.) But I won the entire season because I showed up for every race and nobody else did.

As you all know, right now I race singlehanded against fully crewed boats. So in general I finish poorly (but I still have lots of fun). In the 4-race series just ended, I scored 3,3,3,1 (note that in the final race, I was the only finisher as everyone else quit in no winds and the darkness of night, but I drifted across the line.) My score of 10 gave me 1st place in the series because everyone else missed a race or two. There were 6 boats that raced at various times in the series so missing a race scored a 7. This is the only thing that gave me 1st place overall. Over the 5 different series of summer racing, (total of about 20 races) I scored 3,1,3,2,1 So while I very rarely win an individual race, I end up doing quite well because I show up.

 

[awol]

It is possible that the salient point from the OP is "the wind changed to a reach". If the rest of the fleet had a beat on that leg then the slow boat gets a big advantage.
That is one of the joys of handicap racing in wide spread fleet - though it usually favours the faster boats. Sailing deliberately badly is unlikely to be the path to success. For a slow boat clean air (and going the right way) is probably key.

 

[scottie]

This strategy depends on how the races are scored and if there are discards but there is a lot of reason in it

 

[BobPrell]

Yes awol, we must have sailed a considerably shorter distance than the rest of the fleet, who beat all the way to the windward mark, of a passage course over about 15 miles. They were so far ahead that we did not realize until much later that we were catching up.

about the scoring, I remember now hearing that if the dns penalty is onerous, one can avoid it by starting and immediately retiring. I know some people like me, want to experience a little sail in heavy weather, but not strain gear and bodies too much by doing the whole race.

THere are also times when one can turn up, but need to go home very early. We have busy lives and competing commitments.

 

[awol]

Then there are events where more than one race is to be run in the day. Staying out and going slowly until the RC's patience is reached can gain average points rather than DFL.

 

[flaming]

Then there are events where more than one race is to be run in the day. Staying out and going slowly until the RC's patience is reached can gain average points rather than DFL.

I recall one RORC Easter challenge sailed in light winds where the slowest boat was a Contessa 32, and it was a LOT slower than the rest of the fleet. At the end of every race, the whole fleet would be watching the Contessa going round the leeward mark and heading back upwind... So the race committee took to bribing them with Easter eggs in return for retiring. Easter eggs being the traditional prizes at the Easter regatta it was amusing that the boat who didn't finish a race had more eggs than the winners...

 

[MissFitz]

In my long experience with club level racing at different clubs, the single most important part in taking 1st place for the whole year is to simply show up for every race. You don't have to win a single race, or even come in the middle of the pack for each race. But you MUST show up.

And I have a nice glass engraved with 'Queen Mary Wednesday Evening Ladies Laser Series Winner' to prove it. Don't believe I did better than second last in the entire series, but I did show up for every race!

 

[Birdseye]

I can recall entering one open cruiser race maybe ten years ago when we were on a Sadler 29 bilge keeler, a boat that has to be near the slowest in any mixed fleet. Anyway, this was in the Bristol channel where there is a fair tide and the race was over low water starting at half tide. Course down tide to a turning mark and back.

As the start time approached the wind dropped and sure enough we found ourselves some 20 m or so over the start line with no ability to get back across it. To prevent even further drift we anchored so when the start happened we were facing the middle of the line in the wrong direction. It was more than half an hour before we found enough wind and the tide dropped a little to allow us to stagger across the line and start after the rest of the fleet.

It was a godsend. As the rest of the fleet got carried way past the downtide turning mark , our slow boat speed and late start meant we arrived just as the tide turned and with a slightly strengthening wind we were carried back across the finish line first boat. On handicap we won by miles - and were shunned in the bar after the race!