Coastal Classic Next Year

[elevation 3]

Elevation is a modified Elliott 7 from Rotorua's Bay of Plenty Trailer Yacht Squadron. Yes we made it in time winning division 5 on line and 3rd on handicap. The frustrating thing for us is we finished at 11am Saturday but took us 8 hours from Cape Brett to the finish. Some of the div 5 boats were only minutes outside the cut off time though. That was tough for them to complete the race and get a DNF.

[white tornado 1]

As a sometime participant in a variety of boats, and a likely starter next time, (harder when you come from Tauranga), yes I agree, there should be no time cut off. Just a great turnoff for those with slower boats. How about adopting something from the Moth playbook. They have a scheme that when the time limit runs out, boats are scored at their position at the last mark. With tracker technology, surely there can be an "engine start time", with participants who have not finished at that time scored on distance sailed until that time, or distance to go to the finish at that time, then permitted to motor to make the party.

[DrWatson 381]

Jono, another addition to your list would be the enjoyment of an evening meal that is a minimum of a stew, eaten from a bowl or mug, with bread rolls although the gold standard is always going to be a roast. Freeze-dried would be specifically excluded.

 

That's a great idea! I'd go one step further and suggest that in the two handed division, the preparation of a 3 course roast meal gets .1 taken off your handicap -0.2 off if it blowing more than 25kts.

 

 

I read about an event (in england?) where each boat had to prepare a dish under way, a pot luck was held at the finish and the winning boat was the one with the tastiest food. My kinda race.

 

What if the dish is caught in transit?

 

 

But in general I support the idea of enabling the majority of the boats to finish. They've paid their monies, after all. Having a couple of boats not make it because, well, they are dogs with no legs is different to having the better part of whole divisions not make it. It pushes sailing more into the elitist category which is something I'm not keen on seeing in NZ sailing, because i think that the essence of NZ sailing is that you don't need to be stinking rich to have fun and take part.

 

I guess it'll be another 5 y before I'm lining up with you on the start line, and when that day arrives I hope to still be remotely competitive. But with a design from '94 (ocean proven, now) I'm concerned we'll be dead in the water at Brett watching the sun come up on Sat morning - and that's not a bad thing for she's a mighty thing to see - and then not make a cut off...

 

At least from there I'll just sail the last little bit back to home... hopefully