Dart 15 Forums

Pat Moore wrote:

I want to introduce a Novice Series at Gurnard to inject an additional competitive edge for those of us who have just entered the sport and who, at the moment, spend each weekend at the back of the fleet gazing at the leaders disappearing into the distance. The hope is that by adding an additional element of competitive excitement at the back, standards will be raised more quickly and the best of the rear fleet can be rewarded as they progress to join the leading pack. I do not want to reinvent the wheel, so is there anyone out there running a similar scheme at his / her club? If so I would like to hear from you. A sound definition of a Novice would be a good start! If you do not want to e-mail me / post to the Forum, I can be contacted on 01983 295585 after 8pm most evenings.
Pat Moore

Jonathan replied:

Hi Pat,

You've raised some good points there. As a newcomer to Dart 15 racing, I'm still well in the rear fleet, and know exactly what you mean.

You could look at a handicaping scheme - the Dart 18 crowd use one at their open meetings, and they have a good description of how it works on their website.

For me, the shape of the race course makes a big difference. At Grafham, on Sundays there's often a big square course for the cats, and those of us at the back just end up sailing on our own for most of the race. This means its just a battle of will over cold and you don't learn very much. It just gives you plenty of time to think about buying a monohull...

I've basically given up on the Sunday racing for the summer and switched to Wednesday evenings, which is run in a different way and I think leads to much more interesting racing for those of us near the back. The cats go in the first start, along with all monohulls below PY1000, on a smaller Olympic course. This means there's always boats around you, and you've always got another boat within range to overtake (even if they're obviously slower than you - the fact that you can overtake another boat makes a big difference to your outlook).

I'm convinced that you only improve with close racing, and you don't get that at the back with big square courses.

Jonathan.

Pat Moore replied:

Jonathan,
your experiences are almost identical to my own and I agree totally with your comments on the benefits of close racing with regard to speeding development. I am anticipating working within the constraints of the courses set by Gurnard Sailing Club and therefore I will have a look at the Dart 18 handicap methodology. As a footnote you might be interested in the Improver Weekend at Stewartby on 30th June / 1st July. Graham is concentrating on short, one lap courses to maximise learning opportunities. He has got me hooked!
Pat

Chris Black replied:

As a novice Prindle 16 sailor in Texas and a former Dart 18 sailor who was freqently at the back of both fleets I have experience of two approaches to this, both of which worked well.

In the Texas Prindle 16 fleet we had two groups, the "A fleet" and the "B fleet". At the end of each series we had prizes for each, and if you won the B fleet prize you were automatically promoted to the A fleet. You could of course opt to be in the A fleet if you wished. This meant that you were always measuring yourself against the "B fleeters", but could also compare yourself against the A fleet sailors during the races.

The Dart 18 handicapping also works well, and it is very encouraging if you do well for an individual event. However the handicap system works to reduce your handicap very substantially if you do well in a single event, and so does not give continuous encoragement over a period as the Prindle 16 scheme did.

At a club level I would suggest that an Novice (or B fleet) system would probably provide more encoragement to the Dart 15 sailor who has limited racing experience. You would, however, need to ensure that the novice turnout was consistantly above 2!!.

Regards Chris

Bob replied:

Hi Jonathan,
I'm sorry you are in the process of giving up on the Sunday Racing. It is a real problem being left behind and not seeing the leaders for dust. I remember it well. Giving up is not the answer. We have lots of sailors of a similar ability to yourself and we need to get them racing on Sundays. You should then be getting your kicks from beating Joe or Fred - not from winning - for a year or two in anycase - it will come in time if you try hard enough. The challenge is to get a number of the less experienced sailors sailing regularly. A year or two ago I pioneered a campaign to get more of our sailors out on the first Sunday of each month. It met with some success but we now have more new Dart 15 sailors at Grafham who could give it a try (e.g. Richard Whitelock, Frank Sandells, Tony Bolton, Bob Robinson, Simon Baynes, Keith Dunning, Peter Bracher, Dave Bennion,Guy Humphries,Trevour Arnold, etc, etc, - eat your heart out guys!). I'm happy to give it a try again or one of you could even offer to be the coordinator of the attendance of the 'B' fleet. It is also helpful to do the odd open meeting - the winter ones are only 1 day which helps for those of you with young families. I always offer advice whenever I can.
Short courses help a lot. The leaders lap the back markers quickly but at least they remain in touch and can see what the leaders are doing. That is why Beaver have been so successful. We cannot do it often at Grafham due to the conjestion but the training course and some of our opens use short courses.
Anyway keep all these in mind. Sail on Wednesday's in any case but don't give up totally on Sunday Racing.
Other views / suggestions welcome.

Cheers

Bob

Pat Moore replied:

Chris,
The two fleet approach is an approach worth investigating further ( I am stil trying to get my head around the Dart18 handicap system ). Did you have any criteria for dividing the fleet up or was it all fairly informal?
Pat

Chris Black replied:

Pat, Yes it was quite informal.

Both at club level and at Texas Prindle 16 open events the racing was divided into A and B fleets. Experienced cat sailors new to the club or new to the Prindle 16 usually preferred to race in the A fleet. There was always the safeguard that if you won a B fleet club series or a Texas B fleet open event you were promoted to the A fleet.

There were usually about equal numbers in the two fleets. Prizes were awarded for each fleet: I still have on my windowsill a trophy for the 1981 Texas Prindle 16 Labour Day regatta for second place in the B fleet !!

Regards Chris

Pat Moore replied:

Thanks Chris. I have a few ideas how this might work at Gurnard so I will get on and give it a go.
Regards, Pat