Update for Race Officers & Sailors
We are making some minor adjustments to the way racing will be run from the Early Spring Series (Sunday 12th March) onwards. I will try to make this as clear as possible below but if you have any questions then please contact me on sailingsecretary@shotwicksailing.org.
There are 3 changes being made, they are:
The Junior Fleet Class Flag
We will be swapping the junior class flag from the O flag to the K flag.
This is to prevent any confusion with the H (general handicap) flag whilst out on the water.
The Starting Procedure
Last season we updated the starting procedure to include a separate start for Juniors. If you are already comfortable with how this works you need not read on.
The starting sequence for both the Main General Handicap & Junior Fleets is, 5min – 4min – 1min – GO.
As a General Handicap racer nothing changes for you. for Race Officers, the 5 minutes signal for the Juniors will happen at the GO of the Main fleet. You will then need to manually sound the horn for the remainder of their starting sequence.
A quick reference guide for starting a race.
Shortening the Course
This is where the biggest change is happening and the main reason for changing the Juniors Class Flag.
Often during racing we find that we shorten the course for the main fleet earlier than wanted to to try and save the junior sailors having to go around the course again adding potentially 20mins onto their race. Therefore, we are giving the race officer an option to shorten the course for individual fleets.
Just flying the S flag signals that the race has been shortened for all sailors and they will finish on their next passing through the start/finish line.
Flying the S flag alongside one of the 2 Class Flags signals that only that fleet is finishing.
If you shorten the Junior Fleet first then you would be flying the K & S flags. When you wish to start finishing the General Handicap fleet, signal the shorten course as the first boat reaches the penultimate mark as normal and then raise the H flag. This will mean that all 3 flags are now flying and every sailor is heading towards the finish of their race.
As I said at the top, if you have any questions or want further clarification please contact me on sailingsecretary@shotwicksailing.org.
Happy Racing,
Gaz Henshall – Sailing Secretary
