On Wednesday Evenings the courses are traditional, round the buoys. The one-day events normally involve the traditional courses, together with pursuit racing or beat and run (skiff /Twa-boobs) type courses.
Wednesday Evening races are sailed on handicap with trophies for both PY and PH (personal handicap).
Sunday races are class racing with individual starts at two minute intervals, Fireball and Fast Handicap, Laser, Enterprise, Solo , and Miracle and Slow Handicap.
Special one day events are normally sailed with a Persuit Race, a PY Handicap race and a PH (personal handicap) race, the PHs being worked out on the day.
PY Handicaps
In general RYA PYs are used except that adjustments are made for slower fleets.
Approximate 2% for Miracles. In order to try to give more equal sailing time
for faster and slower boats, Slow Handicap (Mirrors, Toppers and Optimists)
are normally required to sail one lap less than the other boats, the handicap
calculations take account of this and the
PH Personal Handicaps
Personal Handicaps are initially fixed by the Handicap Committee, but are changed
( up and down) after the calculations for each event. Personal Handicap trophies
are award on the basis of average points scored on results from the PH calculations,
but are normally won by the sailors showing the best improvement on their PHs.
The PH scoring rules
Discards are available for each 6 races sailed. To encourage competitors to sail [all] races a bonus of 0.05 is removed from the average calculated score for each race sailed. A declared entry for the series (Wednesday Evenings and Frostbite) of 50 is defined in the Closed SIs. The results for each race are calculated from the elapse time adjusted by the dinghy PY plus the helm's PH. (Good sailors have a PH upto about -130, beginners may have PHs down to about +100). Helm's PHs are adjusted after each race, -5 is applied to the 1st 20% of finishing boats, -2.5 is applied to the 2nd 20% of finishing boats, +5 is applied to the final 20% of finishing boats, and +2.5 is applied to next highest 20% of finishing boats. At the end of a series a 'reward' of -20 is applied to the winner, -15 to the 2nd place helm and -10 to the third place helm. For helms who do not have a PH, or are sailing a different dinghy, a PH will be set during the calculation of results for the first race sailed and completed. The PH will put the helm in the band for that race which has zero adjustment to PH. The new PH is monitored in subsequent 6 races and may have further adjustment if the helm consistently has high or low positions in those races.
Handicap Race Courses
On Wednesday Evenings the courses are traditional, round the buoys. The one-day
events normally involve the traditional courses, together with pursuit racing
or beat and run (skiff /Twa-boobs) type courses.