-> On 07-24-96  15:37, Richard Wheet got back to Dan Ceppa 
 RW> Could you list a bunch of "fun" type (gimmick) races you use and how
Kinda hard to say, as my skipper and his crew like to sail hard...  
 RW> they work... the only races they know on our lake is mark A - mark B -
 RW> mark C.... and the gimmick races they come up with simply means the "A"
Probably the best "gimmick" race will be the _Man overboard Race_  
The object is to retrieve the man overboard in the least amount 
of time.  If I understand it right, the man overboard _must_ be 
the normal skipper.  As the water in these parts is cold, it 
does the best thing that any skipper can do:  Teach his crew 
to handle the boat safely.  Can' be any better than that!  
On that one, the winners should be the ones that actually do 
have their skipper go overboard.  I'll try to let you know how 
that one works out.  
 RW> boats (low handicaps) win due to speed anyway....
We've been steadily working at it, and I think we have the Race 
Committee convinced to let the slower boats off the line first.  
They've been doing a pretty good job of at least giving them a 
shorter course to finish close with the faster fleets.  (see 
below)  
 RW> I'm thinking of gimmick races even a cruiser without spinnaker can
 RW> have a snowballs chance it hell of competing in ....
PHRF helps keep it close.  As above, the flying sails will 
generally finish ahead if they start first.  
 RW> The way they run PHRF here.. no spinnaker.... no hope of competing..
Well, we alos have a "Duck Dodge Rating".  If you have someone 
that knows handicapping and can adjust the figures to keep it 
close, go for it!  
I do recommend something that is not "Full Handicap", though.  A 
percentage knock-off of, say, 85%, will allow the slower boats 
to be competive but not allow them to take first without sailing 
each race a bit better.  Full Handicap allows the really poorly 
sailed boat to notonly be competive but to make them the "winner".  
The percentage adjustment "forces" them to work a bit harder, 
with the goal of reaching their real rating.  
As to the above, the last race we had was close all of the way 
around.  (What can I say, we got first!)  However, virtually 
every boat in the 3 fleets were close to each other on most 
all of the course.  I'll have to check, but I do think that 
the C fleet corrected out...  
More on this, next time, as my fingers are tired and are 
not on a tiller!  
... An afternoon on the water is better than therapy. 
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
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