"JHYC Saturday Afternoon Club Racing" - Objectives and Local Rules.
JHYC Saturday Sailing is open to ALL...
including non JHYC Members.
Almost every Saturday Afternoon, JHYC organiszs an “all comers” sailing race for local and visiting yachts. As all racing sailors know, most yacht clubs are affiliated with international yachting organizations and, to ensure standardization throughout the world, all international races are conducted in accordance with these international rules.
Most races require entrants to have adequate insurance and sign declarations that require them to be bound by the International Racing Rules of Sailing. Local Regatta organizers must produce “Notice of Race” and “Sailing Instructions” in accordance with international guidelines, and declare any changes to established rules.
However, JHYC intends to promote a more relaxed and social form of racing, aimed at sailing performance improvement and participation for all.
The JHYC Committee invites ALL participants in our Saturday afternoon races to enter under a set of “Local Rules”. It will be necessary to sign a declaration that releases the race organizers from all liabilities that may occur as a result of any incidents, accidents, injuries etc, whilst racing.
JHYC Saturday afternoon races will usually have downwind starts and upwind finishes due to start/finish lines being located at the entrance to Jolly Harbour Marina. The races will be differentiated from Regattas that are organised in accordance with International Rules by being designated “Club Races”.
“Club Races” should be considered as practical training for international events. Participation is intended to raise the standard of sailing and confidence sufficiently to enable sailors to enter international events without being a liability to themselves or others.
Although knowledge of the Racing Rules of Sailing is encouraged, the use of them by experts to intimidate novices is NOT an approved method of teaching. The Basic Rules of the Sea are, however, expected to be known by all.
For example:
The difference between being on Starboard or Port (tack or gybe) and your rights and obligations.
The difference between being “astern” or “ahead”, and the definition of an “overlap”.
Keeping clear, overtaking, windward & leeward marks & obstructions and avoiding accidents, collisions or groundings.
The JHYC Local Rules state:
1. Any incidents that occur during a “Club Race” should be resolved between the individual parties. JHYC accepts no responsibility or liability for deciding fault or setting up a Protest Committee with an International Judge. Persistent “rule users” are discouraged.
2. All yachts should monitor VHF CH12 for at least 30 minutes before their appointed start time.
3. In the event of a vessel restricted in its ability to maneuver entering or leaving the marked channel a delayed start will be notified on VHF CH12. The starter will be advised to begin the start sequence again once the vessel is clear.
4. At no time should racing yachts impede a vessel restricted in its ability to manoeuvre particularly in the marked channel. Common sense and International COLREGS should prevail at all times.
5. All boats at anchor, both inside and outside the Marina should be treated as obstructions and room given by competing Club Racers in order to avoid collisions.
6. Although “Luffing” prior to the Start is acceptable, after the Start Horn there will be no luffing within the channel until after the concrete octagon on the north side has been passed.
7. For all “Club Starts” (Start Line or Pursuit) boats over early should NOT turn back but are forced to take a penalty of 30 seconds for every second “over early” (starters decision and not subject to protest).
8. All entrants are required to sign the following declaration:
I understand and accept as follows:
• That by participating in the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club Saturday Afternoon Racing Series I will abide by the set of Local Rules as published on the www.jhycantigua.com website and will not, under any circumstances, hold Jolly Harbour Yacht Club responsible for incidents, accidents, injuries or any other occurrences that take place as a result of my participation.
• That I agree to pay the Entry Fees of EC$20 for JHYC Members or EC$35 for Non-Members for each week I participate and will be liable for these fees until paid in full.
• That I will forfeit any prizes I may be awarded if I am not present at the designated prize giving location (The BBR Sports Bar, Jolly Harbour, unless advised otherwise) by 6.00 p.m. after racing.
• That I will not be entitled to any prizes I may be awarded if my entry fees are not paid up to date.
• That it is my responsibility to view the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club website at www.jhycantigua.com or the Club Notice Board in the BBR Sports Bar, Jolly Harbour, to ensure I know the details of racing on any given afternoon.
• That if I am a non-resident Jolly Harbour yacht taking advantage of free overnight dockage for the Saturday night after racing I will present my free dockage authorization to the Jolly Harbour Dock Master or Marina Office upon arrival and vacate the dock no later than 12 noon on the next day. Failure to do either will render me liable to pay full dockage fees.
Print Name _________________________ Boat Name _______________
Signed _____________________________ Date ____________________
JHYC Saturday Club Racing is open to ALL including non JHYC Members.
The aim is to provide a weekly practice race for those interested in taking part in the Caribbean Racing circuit, PLUS a regular opportunity for Cruisers to pit their wits and skills against each other to help improve and fine tune their sailing performance.
Starts will vary between normal “Start Line” and “Pursuit”.
Courses for Start Line races will be published weekly.
JHYC Course “A” will be used for Pursuit races.
Course diagrams and GPS Locations of Club Fixed Marks here...
The nature of Start and Course of the Day will be published on the JHYC Notice Board, Jolly Harbour by 1 p.m. at the latest each Saturday, and when possible on this website.
JHYC endeavours to provide a Starter/Finisher each week to control Starts and take times. Entrants will be notified if this is available and, if not, will be expected to record own times taken from BBC Time or GPS Time. Times should be recorded in writing with date and name of boat and handed to the Fleet Captain or Club Handicapper by 5.30 p.m. after racing.
ALL boats will sail the same course so that relative performance between different types and classes of boats can be determined. Over the weeks, each boat’s JHYC Sailing Performance Handicap (SPH) will be fine tuned to bring improved competition to the each weeks racing. Initial SPH rating will be determined by the JHYC Sail Fleet Captain based on previous knowledge of individual boats performances and a “best guess” for others. Boats will be classified as:
The Club will provide Class Pennants.
 |
YELLOW – “Slow Group” for Cruisers, Live-a-boards and similar. |
 |
PURPLE – “Fast Group” for Racers and Racer/Cruisers. |
Flags to be flown from backstays preferably or somewhere easily visible to the Starter/ Finisher from either side.
Start Line races will start at 2.05 p.m. for the “Slow Group” and 2.35 p.m. for the “Fast Group”.
The Start sequence will be:
Horn for 5 minute warning.
Horn for 1 minute warning
Horn for START.
Flags may be used for Starts. Details of any flags will be given with the weekly Course of the Day notice.
Pursuit start times for each boat will be published each week on the Club Notice Board.
In the event of a boat “over early” 2 further horn blasts will be given and the offending boat will incur a time penalty of 30 seconds for every second “over early”. This will be the Starter’s decision and not subject to protest.
Results will be published in both CSA Rating classification (for current CSA certified boats) and SPH classification for all boats. The “JHYC Rum Ration” will be awarded to the best SPH boat on the day after racing at 6 p.m. Additional sponsored prizes may be available. Details to follow. Prizes will not be awarded on the basis of CSA rated results. CSA results will be calculated and published for information only.
From December 2007 JHYC will introduce “The Miramar Sailing Performance Championship” Sponsored by Miramar Sailing Ltd. This will be a series of 14 weekly races with 10 to count ending in March 2008. The Miramar SPH Trophy will be awarded to the best SPH finisher taken from all boats.
Details of other prizes to follow.
All competitors will be required to pre-enter the JHYC Saturday Sailing Series and sign a declaration.
Entries with details of boat, rig, headsail configuration and CSA rating (if relevant) should be made in advance to JHYC Sail Fleet Captain, Colin Jones at jonesc@candw.ag
JHYC SAILING PERFORMANCE HANDICAP RATING CHANGES.
The method used by Colin Jones, current SAILING FLEET CAPTAIN to determine changes in the SPH Rating currently being experimented with - for Saturday afternoon Club races is set out as follows.
*Note: SPH Rating system started on Saturday, 12th May 2007.
The first race was sailed with participating boats rated CSA jib and pole or a best guess rating for non CSA Rated boats, this is the initial SPH Rating. After the race, results were tabulated. And, as expected, there was a large difference in corrected times between the race type boats, the faster cruising boats and the slow genuine live-aboard boats. CSA Ratings are supposed to take care of these differences. But, in practice close winded, lighter boats end up sailing a shorter distance over the same course that gives them a distinct time advantage.
The method of trying to compensate for this is to determine the average corrected time of the participating boats, then applying a “fudge factor” to compensate for the many variables, to achieve a “base corrected time” for the race.
Boats with corrected times ABOVE the base time (slow) will have multiples of 0.005 deducted (up to a maximum of 0.050) from their SPH Rating. Fast boats will have multiples of 0.005 added to their SPH rating. If, in the race being assessed, 0.005 would have changed the finish positions, then .004, 003 etc. is used to maintain original positions.
The revised rating will be used the next time the boat races and is entered on the time sheet as the Current SPH Rating. Revised SPH Ratings will be given on the Club notice board prior to racing each week. Boats that do not race will be shown as DNS and will retain their last known rating.
It will take a while, but boats that compete against each other regularly will eventually have closer corrected time finishes.
New competitors whose performance is unknown, or boats that only compete in the winter season, may have to have more drastic changes to their SPH Rating based on comparison with established SPH Rated competitors to ensure that they do not come first (or last) in their next race by a large margin.
Finally, we must all accept that NO Rating system is perfect; all we can do is try and make it more interesting for all of us by trying to make the corrected time finishes a little closer than they are at the moment with all the different types of boat we all sail.
< Top of page >
|
