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Board » General Discussion » 2017 SRC Programme

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Viva Huib,

Good afternoon.

During and immediately after reading your comments I thought to myself “well, Huib has a good argument”.

Latter and after thinking a little... Huib, that “majority” vs. “minority” terms were a bit…. how can I say this… they create a sense of division between North / South, West / East, unnecessary and above all, absolutely undesirable.
Please, don’t take me wrong, I'm sure your intention wasn’t the above mentioned one.

What I sincerely feel.
I, you, other persons, we belong to a global community: SOL.
Belonging to that community means - to me - I and the others don’t fit to any quantitative group, whether the “larger” or the “shorter” one.
Resuming something I’ve learnt as a young lad, for the good and for the bad, during my Army time: spirit of group.
A lesson from life that latter helped me, namely in RL sailing.

Sometimes there are improper hours to ourselves commit 110% to compete. It is a fact.
Others, we have the ideal starting hour for doing it while others don’t. It is no less true.

Fairness here is much more easy to get than we think.

A Big Hug
João / psail.
Sail Fair.
I said 36 hours and that is .......

The attached paper explains how the SOL Management Team got to the conclusion that a test on new start times experiment should be carried out.

It also contains the details of what racing exactly will be affected ( only part of the programme), details you did not have when started the debate a couple of days ago.

I have also posted the Championships NORs a few minutes ago , and I hope you ALL will find them interesting. They are the result of the same process that got us where we are for 2017.

I am sure you will appreciate the rationale behind things.

The Management Team is always available to evaluate any further suggestionas as well as accept any constructive criticism. The only thing we cannot do is to have decisions coming from the entire Community base. It just could not be managed, other than by full time employees that we do not have.

Will look here in next few days for your comments and constructive input ;)

ciao ALL my friends

WIN
Attachments
--- Last Edited by Dingo at 2016-12-24 06:04:26 ---

--- Last Edited by Dingo at 2017-01-17 11:54:58 ---
Merry X-mas. A couple observations. Not so much on start times, where I'm mostly indifferent. In part because I'm perfectly happy to skip a race if the big inconvenience happens 2 days down the road, not something that can be planned by the SRC... and at last starts are rather predictable. But the drop in race numbers and competitors.

1. Poor start/finish layout
Look no further than the upcoming Sydney-Hobart. See attachment. I think it's possible (pending final wx, and I have not run software yet) that on would need to start with a 5 minute straight line course, then turn on point. This for a 600nm ocean race. Skill involved - none. Annoyance - huge.

2. Races are too long
Look back at the Gray Whales. Four days of awesome racing, followed by nine days of parade. To be fair that couldn't be expected, and Mount Westdahl - Middleton Island was a classic, but tying up competitors in a race that is decided is not a good outcome. Same for many of the very long 3-4 week ocean races. One opportunity that takes forever to see through. Not good.

3. Too long breaks between races
I flat out disagree on the reduction of races. More races mean more opportunities, and should increase interest. Also it's just bad if someone stumbles on the site and has to wait forever for the next start. The average gap between races in Q1 - (sigma t^2)/(sigma t) - is 4.5 days, that's too damn long.

4. Too much focus on coastal races
So by my count for Q1, there's 8 short round the buoy races, which I like, but honestly have nothing left to prove, 3 long ocean races, 2 medium ocean races (H2S which is impossible for me and Cairns - Darwin), and 12 medium length coastal things.

Simply put medium coastal is probably the most router (software) friendly format, combined with the need to be online at specific waypoints. And those things make up half the schedule. IMO the best racing happens on 500-1000nm ocean legs, see BA-Rio, Abel T (thanks SRC :-) ), Gray whales, Sail Fiji (always), S2H (always) etc. December was great. Q1 is totally lacking.
Attachments
I wish a Happy new year to every one.

Only my opinions commenting on what others have said and to keep it simple!

1. Races should start at the local time of the race location.

2. Races should all be different as they are now, you can pick and chose which races suit you.

3. However, Races should also be chosen to reflect the general makeup of sailors participating in the majority of races, whatever that may be.

4. Maybe an option of an extended "P" flag period before the race start time.

Thank you.
Races that are matched with a 'real' race should start and finish where and when the real races start and finish.
I realize that this may be inconvenient for SOLers who live in 'other' time zones, but part of seafaring has always been that you must be awake and alert at the beginning and end of any voyage. Races rarely start or finish far out on the open sea. Rather they do so in the confines of a busy harbour, and SOL should conform to this as well.


--- Last Edited by Rod at 2017-01-09 19:05:43 ---
If it breaks, it's not strong enough--if it doesn't, it's too heavy.

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