Home Forums Forum Dinghy Relay racing anyone?

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    • #52114
      PETER ABRAHAMS
      Participant

      Good afternoon, all you experienced and knowledgeable club racers.Hope someone can please give me some useful advice on how to run a relay race for dinghies on a small lake with pontoons and a launching beach. It will be a handicap event with possibly 15 dinghies (more or less).It’s been suggested that I should organise such a race at my club but Im not sure exactly what to do that would be as simple and safe as possible. I’m guessing there are at least two different ways but I think I should hear from the experienced amongst the group. Can anyone help please?
      Peter Abrahams GP 4249

    • #52191
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      I like the concept, but it seems a little bizarre to do it in dinghies. And I can imagine that there would be concerns about safety in passing the baton between boats; and perhaps also a decision needed in advance as to whether collisions between boats in the same team while exchanging batons would be excused, or penalised.

      In a very different direction, the concept of bizarre dinghy races reminds me of one which my club used to run many decades ago, titled “By Guess and by God”.

      We sail on the Mersey, which is a very major tidal estuary. This race had a simple course; start and finish lines off the club, and only a single mark, many miles upriver. Choose your own time of start, the race results to be decided by total time for each boat.

      Naturally the skill and judgement (or perhaps guesswork) in choosing one’s start time would involve making the best use of the tide, as well as other considerations (of course). In the simplest theory, one would aim to carry the flood all the way up the river, reach the turning mark at local slack water, and then carry the ebb all the way home.

      Then decide how long you need to reach the mark, carrying the flood, and what time is local HW at the turning mark (which will be later than HW at the club, which is later still than published HW times for the port). That informs your decision about start time.

      But then one might wish to tweak that theory slightly, particularly since in the upper estuary the tidal curve is a saw tooth, rather than the more usual approximate sine wave.

      Hence a lot of guesswork, and even with the best assessments of the theory the actual weather conditions on the day can dramatically change one’s projections.

      Hence the title, “By Guess and by God”.

      Oliver

    • #52208
      PETER ABRAHAMS
      Participant

      Oliver, thank you for your reply with your gung ho description of tidal estuary sailing. Just the situation I would never like to get in to. We sail on a small, rather genteel lake in the Sevenoaks area. Occasionally we have a bad squall. That’s excitement enough, beyond the frequent strong and shifty winds we also get here. Our more muscular and younger sailors have suggested the relay race be run at a fun day we are having in May. We have an enormous cup gathering dust in a cupboard in long retirement and this is to be repolished and presented on the day.
      Naturally, I would like to go along with this idea, but feel that as we are not all tough guys and gals, the potential for any peril should be avoided. Hence my asking for ideas on how to organise the relay. Though I wasn’t specific when asking, not with on water baton exchanges. Apologies for my deliberate vagueness, I was hoping that someone may have other suggestions. I throw this back in to the forum as I hope to be able to make some suggestions before having to meekly ask aforementioned muscular, younger sailors for their potentially perilous ideas.
      Trust you get my drift, fellow sailors.
      Peter.

      • #52220
        Oliver Shaw
        Moderator

        Another thought about baton changes, or alternative.

        The West Lancs 24-hour Race usually involves teams (think 3 helmsmen and 3 crews) sailing in turn in a single boat, with the boats coming in to a docking area for crew changes. (I say “usually” because there was one recent entrant by a single helm and crew who sailed the entire 24 hours without a change, as a charity fund-raiser; but that was exceptional.) Many teams seriously practice their crew changes, to get them as fast as possible. (I don’t know whether any team has ever perfected the ultimate crew change, in which the boat never stops moving; perhaps someone more closely involved can tell us.)

        The concept could be adapted to your relay race. Teams each competing in a single boat, with crew changes after each lap, perhaps?

        Oliver

    • #52224
      PETER ABRAHAMS
      Participant

      Oliver, that idea seems most feasible. I’ll develop that one. What I’ll suggest is that the helm stays the same, but the crew will change. It will only need two crew members alternating for it to work. Thank you, Peter.

    • #52225
      PETER ABRAHAMS
      Participant

      I just needed that bit of input and assistance in thinking and the job was done, thank you again…..

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