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Post what you want to say here? Ref Ian Renilson's comments re. the Endeavour and handicapping. Like it or not, handicap racing now represents a higher proportion of our racing than in the past, particularly in these days when the greater number of classes have fragmented class racing. I race my National 12 every year in the Chichester Snowflake, where racing is split into a Fast, Medium and Slow fleet, usually each fleet has in excess of 30 boats on the line.

This works well, as the trapeze/asymmetric boats are largely split out from the non-asymmetric classes. Also boats sail in groups of similar speed, giving good boat-on-boat racing, when you finish you have a fair idea of where you came overall. Over a series, the anomalies of the handicap system tend to even out. It is also important that race officers set courses that have a good mix of beats, runs, tight and broad reaches as some boats will excel in certain conditions. The biggest problem now, is the widely different performance bands of asymmetric boats in different winds and course settings, in light winds the asymmetric boats are buried, in planing conditions expect an asymmetric whitewash.

For handicap racing to be meaningful it is essential that clubs make returns to the RYA, the more returns, the more meaningful the database that they have to operate on. Our experience is that over a series, the people who beat us are better than us, and that we are better than the people behind us. We also did the Weston Grand Slam, they had sufficient numbers to strip out the Asymmetric Classes completely and have medium and fast "traditional" fleets, this arrangement was very satisfactory. Large events, with one race over a long elapsed time, such as the Bloody Mary, should be accepted as fun, novelty races, though a look at the previous winners will reveal that the cream usually ends up on top. To my eye, the Endeavour is becoming as RS event, I note that there were plenty of national champions who didn't turn up, perhaps they should try to rotate classes as they used to in the past.

From Jim Champ
Reply to Ian Renilson of boat is 'fair' because everyone starts with the same equipment and the boats have the same capability to go the same speed in any conditions. That's one opinion. Another is that the Endeavour trophy only tests the skills required to sail whatever boat is used, usually something slow and not challenging of boat handling skills. If you look at the results in Endeavour trophies successful sailors in the event are always those who sail in the general type of boat the event is held in. To take an extreme example no International Moth sailor has to my knowledge done well in the Endeavour in recent years because their skills aren't tested in the boats chosen. Hold it in International Moths and most of the fleet wouldn't get to the startline. A handicap event tests the skills of the Sailors in their chosen boats, which is what they are champions at. A one class event only tests a limited set of skills in one particular class. Each are equally imperfect, but in different ways.

From Rennie McArthur Miller Scot
What do you think of the RCC format? I believe the winning team should host the event. We could then see a CC on the Clyde, Cork - Dublin, Channel Islands, Germany, France Holland, Key West etc its time people including the RORC realised their is life out of the Solent and it would help the sport if the winning Yacht Club be it Burnham or Brixham had the choice to host the event. Or are we frightened we would never see it again, if so we don't deserve to invite Foreign Nations and should just call it the Solent Cup. The Farr 40's got hijacked to a whole season's sailing in the Solent so GBR25 could get as much practice on the same patch of water that the AC was going to held on look what happened to the AC and look at what a few Swiss and helping Kiwi did on water they had never sailed in during the F40 Worlds. If the One Ton Cup can go to Wales then the CC and for that matter the AC (all be it sponsored and run by the RORC) can be relocated to perhaps more Media attractive venues that might also help our sport.

From Roger Eastham
How was your Hainan race? The Hainan race was a blast. A day and a half sailing at around 145 - 150 degrees true in 18 -22 Knots of warm breeze (Yes, I am sorry to report that the average speeds referred to in the main story refer to the wind, not the boat!) I was lucky enough to be sailing onboard Stella, a Sydney 38 with a great crew, and had an absolute ball. We had a couple of nice surfs at around 16 Kts but generally were sitting in the high 10's to 12's. One memorable event was a savage knockdown in a tropical rainstorm (from 17 Kts of wind to 35 Kts in the blink of Mr. Gatehouses eye), followed shortly after by sailing within a few hundred metres of a waterspout which was in the process of genesis - a surreal and truly humbling sight. Arrival on the beach in Hainan (which incidentally is a superb place to finish a yacht race) by kamikaze water taxi was probably the scariest part of the trip (make sure you keep the locking pin off your outboard when approaching the beach at over 20 Kts!!). Thanks principally to Fred Kinmonth for putting together a great campaign, and also to all the team at the RHKYC for their efforts in putting this event together - hope to be there again next year.

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