Jump to content

2015 Coastal Classic


Recommended Posts


"What's the plan for the future of the race? Grow the participation to encourage more involvement from average family cruiser racers"

 

Orakei Yacht Sales did a big push a few years ago and the lack of interest was stunning.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Tracker not as good as previously or the European trackers.

 

race data is so confusing.

 

Does not give sea conditions, cannot tell the speed wind direction relates to wind or vessel

 

Disappointing and is rubbish.

 

 

 

At present leading boat is 78th position on handicap. I assume which I should not but the DIV has only 5 vessels but handicap placing 78th but does state which handicap system when reading the results.

 

 

News reports do not mention, who is, each division leading on handicap.

 

Mixed yacht racing is all about placing's on handicaps.

 

Hard to compare design against design each class.

 

Rubbish race.

 

 

OC

 

I guess that you don't realise that the Coastal is put on by a small bunch of volunteers without no budget to use YellowBrick trackers, run flash web sites etc.
 
Check out the cost for YB!
 
 
The race is for the racers and we do our best for those not out on the water.
 
  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Cut off time puts off more participation if the wind direction isn't right and you know you can't finish and you're a cruiser or smaller boat.

69 DNF's is really disappointing for the people that persisted to the finish.

Feedback was more to do with crew not wanting to sail up wind for 24 hours +
Also the wind for the return trip!
 
The guys that finished out side of the time limit all had their time taken and even had a prise in their own "division". 
 
Last boat was an Elliott 770 - finished in just under 27 hours
  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

DrWatson, at the prizegiving there were about 6 boats read out, who completed the course, but finished after 2pm.  One of these was Crocodile (Elliot 770).

And quite a few boats, including Farr 1020, Chico 40, and Jeanneau 45 only finished in the last half hour.

 

I guess the learning here, is that if you have a small boat (say handicap less than 0.75), don't bother starting the race if it's a northerly, as you won't make the cut off time. :cry:

 

A bit like the America's Cup, when ETNZ could not make the finish time when the wind was light! ;-)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Had to smile with the last official finisher with an elapsed time of 28h 29m 59s, one second before cut off.

 

This year I doubt many boats flagged it due to the time limit but have noticed a couple of years since 2000 where over half the fleet would miss the time limit.  That will happen again and I think they'll be some pretty unhappy people when it does.

 

Have to say if I were racing and unlikely to make the cut off time, I wouldn't keep going for the GPS position scoring approach.  Also have to say if I had a boat any slower than an 88, the time limit would really make me think about whether to enter.  It's a lot of effort and a chunk of cost with a reasonable probability of not finishing.

 

Would commend the organisers for the change to the start sequence, that's all plus.

 

An observation I would have made from this years fleet was the absence of the traditional classes.  Open 85s and Ross 930s accepted, don't think any class had more than three entries.  Sort of crazy when there's as many E770s as Y11s, 1020s or 88s. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

For the small boats, it is a huge effort, as you have a long trip up, and then a long trip back, 

 

i spent a lot of time and effort and dollars to get my boat ready to race (8.5 cat).  I/we made the decision not to start for a long list of reasons - headwinds for majority of race ain't fun, 25+ for 35nm  north of tuts also not fun, no time to fix any damage if it occurred (which would prevent other racing) and of course the trip home looked hard work.

 

It is supposed to be fun, and for me, that situation did not look fun.  

 

The organizers did a great job, i was at prizegiving, and was very impressed with the spot prizes in particular.

 

I think rehabs comments are seriously out of line, and worthy of another holiday. well, the comments i could make sense of anyway.

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

The time cut off debate always comes up after a race like this and its a balance between getting everyone across the line and being able to formalise ALL the results and prizes in time for the prize giving - in a manner that doesn't place undue stress on our volunteers who haven't really slept properly for 4 nights prior trying to get the entry list finalised.  After processing it takes about 90mins to lay out the prizes etc so that we don't keep you there forever and the party proper can get underway! 

 

Realistically we are talking about Div. 5 and perhaps the bottom end of Div 4 - tcf=0.75 should get in easily - I think its more like 0.715 - which equates to 21 boats out of the current 242 PHRF fleet.

 

Ignoring my comments above I think that the absolute latest we could cut off would be 1600hrs - allows the 60min protest period, an hour to process the remaining results (there are still quite a few even at 1400hrs!) and an hour to lay out the prizes.  To do that we'd need a significant increase in the number of club volunteers to help get it over the line.  That might lower it down to .67 or .68 - 7 boats (plus quite a few that aren't on the list obviously).  Of those 7, four of them enter regardless - and the cheer for Sealegs at the prizegiving will attest to how grateful we are that they race!  It is a fair comment and I'll test the last 5-6 years of results to see whether this is possible.  I'd like to get the entries up to a 170/30 split and the real push for mono entries has to be in Divs 4 and 5 so this is a fair question on the way we run the race.

 

Markm is right - the class entries was the worst its ever been - why? (oh - and I recuse myself responding to your first comment!)

 

I've hidden Rehabs posts as I frankly find him irrelevant.  That said - someone copied his post and so I've read it.  Objectively - most of it is actually valid (or relevent! starting to feel like Rattue commenting on DC!).  Yes we could always do a whole lot better, improve what and the way we report on the website etc. But as Clive points out we are a small club of volunteers making the most of what we have - its a racers race but we also want to maximise our exposure for our sponsors so they come back / increase support etc etc.  The number of hours that Clive put into keeping the site alive was phenomenal - cheers mate!

 

As I said at the briefing - we do want to hear any constructive critism you have.  The proper forum for that is to email racemanagement@coastalclassic.co.nz

 

Cheers,

Anthony

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

forgot to mention

median mono tcf of fleet as at 8am Thursday morning was .804 (Pacific Sundance) average 0.83 (Indelleble/Spank)

median of finishers was 0.844 Elenanor average .87 (Itchy Feet)

median of non-finishers .773 (Farrago II) average .78 (Red Baron / Pepe)

 

so there was still a fair number of bigger boats with larger tcf's that still chose not to finish, which to me, suggests that the SW slog back had as much to do with not finishing as the cut off.  Some years are just gonna be like that!

Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree with the time limit being extended to 16:00 hours but thats about as late as it can be. I wouldn't want to go back to a Sunday prize giving.

 

The prize giving has moved between Saturday night and Sunday morning a few times. Sunday morning gave more time for finishers but as so many boats left early, it wasn't good for sponsors and a prize giving where half the winners aren't there is a pretty embarrassing thing for the presenters. It moved back to Saturday for the 2011 RWC and has stayed there.

 

There have been races before where only half the fleet makes it, all strong headwinds. This year was relatively good by comparison to 2001 and 2008. I haven't heard of any breakages that stopped boats, just uncomfortable conditions and the thought of more of the same coming home (which it was)

2001 - 270 entries and 105 finished = 39%

2008 - 229 entries and 83 finished = 36%

 

There are lots of reasons for stagnant entries and I don't believe it's the fault of the organisers. The team function well with the resources they have. It is difficult to run a race that finishes away from a "club" and there has been constant change in Russell which doesn't help.

  • Notably missing this year was the fleet of TP52's, Georgia and Wired
  • Front end multi's are now foilers with 3 already and one coming and they can't get Cat3.
  • A few cruising Multis entered but they aren't great to windward at the best of times. Why would you...
  • 8.5's have developed into pretty extreme racers compared to the GBE's of 10 years ago.
  • There were a lot of European imports in this years race. Look down the entry list shows them. This area will grow. The same applies in club racing
  • 88's only seem to want to race their own series and sprints. Squaddy winter series Y88 fleet was dismal.
  • 930's had a good fleet but they benefit from the off-wind dash and pull the pin early on headwinds. The 88's would have creamed them but only a couple entered, probably due to the reaming the 930's usually give them in Coastal.
  • Same with the 1020's. As racers develop, the one-designs look increasingly slow in class configuration. Shame as they would have done well this year.
  • Great to see the BOI and Tauranga boats do well this year. I guess the additional commitment to getting to the line encourages you to hang in there.

A tough race, but far from the toughest.

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

I would also like to add to what Phil said and congratulate the Coastal organisers on the new start time format - so much better than the old sequence. Perviously we had to dodge nearly all the entrants manoeuvring around in the start box area which sometimes lead to a few close calls. Now with the two smaller divisions starting earlier we get concentrate more on what we need to rather than have to constantly dodge smaller slower boats all setting up for a start. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

The CC is a fantastic race. Period.

 

Magique is an 18t Lagoon 450. We had a great time to Cape Rodney keeping up with quite a few of the Div 1 yachts. However it was always going to be awfully slow to windward when the shift hit (the fan). We settled on 7-8kts but at 60deg True so another 14 hours + from the Hen and Chicks to Cape Brett. And yes the return winds did come in to our decision to pull out.

 

We were out towards the Mokohinau's and there must be a strong current as the waves were far steeper than when we got back to the Hen and Chicks. There is a bay on the SW side of Whatupuke Island that was very sheltered in a North wind and saved a few miles to the other options to anchor.

 

Well can't aways have a 25t SW wind, much as we would like it for the cruisers.  I think the three start sequence and the Sat night prize giving is very good. I think PredictWind and the Tracker is great and should be very much appreciated and many friends kept an eye on progress. But room for programming improvements. One example - try running the race now and zooming in and you will see what I mean.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Great discussion and I absolutely appreciate the efforts of the volunteers and organizers, and the tricky job of balancing the timing of prize giving, protests, finalizing all finish times etc., and keeping the bigger faster boats and crews just bobbing around waiting for prize giving. A delicate balancing act indeed.

 

It's true that there have been other races with far greater attrition. Everyone has their own reasons for pulling out and I think it's important to understand what factors the skippers and crews take or took into account.

 

In the past I've also pulled the pin just a mile or two from the line when the wind buggered off and the tide was dragging us back out. We motored over the line as the sun set, and headed for the pub so we could get to the party. I'm told that on that occasion, other boats sat at anchor until about 23h Sat before being able to up and go for the line. As frustrating as that was a 16h or 17h cutoff (there wasn't one at that time I seem to remember) would probably have been fair, because we made a mistake off the Brett and sailed out of wind, other boats with lower PHRFs did finish.

 

At the end of the day, regardless of your PHRF, in an upwind slog, you’re highly unlikely to really exceed hull speed in many boats in the current and potential fleet so finishing before cut-off in something like a 727 or a Tracker is basically unlikely to happen. What was the shortest LWL boat to finish inside the time this year? does any one know?

 

It’s nice to know that the race organizers are always looking for how to make the race even better and are aware of the difficulties faced by smaller boats. A delicate juggling act and a job well done.

 

SD, why aren’t the foilers getting Cat3? Is it simply that they are stripped down too much to reduce weight and don’t have cabin space etc? I did watch the G4 capsize the other day…

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...