MYA “RA”
Nationals Fleetwood August 5th-7th 2011
I enlisted the help of Richard Price as Assistant Race
Officer and my nephew, Adam Kissick as Chief Scorer. The basic paperwork and
organisation was done prior to the briefing meeting so we could start on time.
The meeting was slightly controversial, in that I had made a decision not to
use Race Observers. Further on this theme later.
Taking the wind direction into account, I also made the
decision to use a transit as a start line, using a pole on the bank, and an
‘inner distance’ mark. This had the effect of a maximum length start line,
coupled with a very easy and quick line adjustment. I have never yet come
across RC Sailing using the Round the Ends rule, so you would think that it
would not be a problem.
We were fortunate with the wind direction; it was straight
up and down the lake. Although on the Saturday it swung 180 degrees around
lunchtime, we were again fortunate with our timing and the necessary course
change. Apart from that one directional change, we managed with a simple
windward-leeward course for the whole Championship with only a little tinkering
with buoy positioning.
31 skippers attended the first briefing to find that they
had been split into three fleets.
Their first shock was of course the realisation that there
were to be no Observers. It is my view that as sailing is supposed to be a
self-policing sport, then additional officials specifically tasked with rules
monitoring should be unnecessary. The majority of the skippers had raced with
me before, and so were aware of my views on the rules and rule observation in
general, so it ought not to have been such a surprise. I offered the opinion
that as there are already 11 or 15 Observers on the water, we did not need any
more. I believe that every skipper in the room has at some time been called by
an Observer when they ‘knew’ that no infringement had taken place. I believed
that the lack of Observers would lead to a quieter race, with much quicker turn
rounds between races; it is also less onerous on the skippers themselves. I
did, however, make it clear that I would be walking the bank in an Observer
capacity and if I felt that they were not behaving, then observers would be put
in place. With some muttering that it wouldn’t work, this was accepted.
With a little flexibility taking into account the distance
we had to walk from the finish line to the start line, I started a three-
minute countdown as the last skipper finished.
To make this easier, we ended up with the start and finish
lines towards the middle area of the lake rather than at opposing ends.
Skippers were generally grateful for the shorter distances we had to walk. This
quick turn around gave the opportunity to hold 54 heats totalling 18 races in
all.
By the end of racing, at approx 2.15 on a windy Sunday, the
majority of skippers seemed happy with the way the event had unfolded.
Prizes were awarded to the top six skippers, as follows:
Position Skipper Sail No Club Score
1st Graham
Bantock 95 Chelmsford
23
2nd Peter
Wiles 59 Poole RYC 41
3rd Robert
Walsh 25 Fleetwood 48
4th Derek
Priestley 67 Fleetwood 48
5th Ken
Binks 83 Eastbourne 62
6th Chris
Harris 92 Bournville 92
“Team of Two” Winners
Arjan van der Cingel WSV 7 Wolden (Holland) and Trevor Binks
(Eastbourne)
(Teams of two yachts were drawn at random during the first
day of racing)
Andrew G. Kissick
PRO
