Waterside, Brightlingsea, Essex,  CO7  0AX

Friday 25^th May         Evening Pursuit Race

Saturday 26^th May   Spring 7 Race 1400hrs    Followed by skippers forum see below

Saturday 2^nd June    Summer 1 Race 1000hrs

Friday 1^st June  7pm - Red White and Blue Jubilee Celebration – please wear something red, white and blue! Click here.

Skippers Forum to review Handicap System on Saturday 26 May after Spring 7 Race

The Sailing Committee have been asked by several  skippers to review the handicap system and to allow SB3s to race with the cruisers again.  We have begun looking at alternatives and the only thing that’s clear is that that no handicap system can be fair on every boat in the Colne fleet for the type of racing we do. There appears to be general agreement that we should re-introduce a second championship based on fixed handicaps for the Summer and Autumn  series to cater for the hard-racing teams, run in parallel with our existing CYC Handicap championship.

The  SB3s should be able to race with the cruisers using the same start and same courses but there is less consensus about whether they should be eligible for the cruiser prizes. SB3 issues that concerned the cruiser skippers before  were 1)  the SB3s are dry-sailed so always have  the advantage after the cruisers have been in the water a few weeks and 2) have a speed advantage on reaches which helps them at CYC because we can seldom set courses with significant beats and downwind legs to even things out. The solution was that SB3s would run their own races but now there are not enough of them. We have looked at other clubs and can’t find any apart from WMYC Regatta  and our own regatta that let SB3s sail with cruisers for the same trophies, although they do compete on the same courses at Cowes and many other venues.

My proposals as Sailing Secretary are that we should:

·         Allow SB3s to sail with cruisers so long as they do the same course and same no. of laps. Their finishing times will be recorded as a separate class so their performance can be directly compared to the cruisers, but they are not eligible for the cruiser prizes. The SB3s should compete for a trophy of their own.

·         Continue with the current CYC handicap system for all cruisers (including J80s & ¼ tonners) for the CoR main prize, Spring / Autumn series, Regatta and passage races.

·         Run a fixed handicap system in parallel for separate prizes in Summer / Autumn series and the Regattas.

The  remaining issue to be decided at the forum is  which fixed handicap system to use. None of them cover all boats regularly raced at CYC, all have inconsistencies and one of them would cost skippers quite a lot of money to operate.   The attachment is an analysis of the commonly available handicap systems. Can all skippers who are interested in these issues please attend the forum in the clubhouse after the race on Saturday26 May, or nominate a representative.