Bandit Watch - A thread long overdue.

The difficulty in all this is what you decide is the correct yardstick that others be judged by, what craft at say PY of 1000 should be the 'standard', if you assume the RS400 for instance has a pretty good handicap and is sailed to it, should it be beaten week in week out by a Merlin upon which it is allegedly based?

A boat that has been around a while, like the Contender and is also about right and is commonly accepted as a boat that folk need to be on the wire to sail to handicap, then you start seeing that get beaten when previously it wasn't, due to the increasing seconds that the laser has been gaining of late, the sailors haven't changed they're the same folk doing the same thing they did last year... That's the judgement, the boats haven't gotten any faster or slower, the returns have just varied from different sources.

So the Banter in the bar varies accordingly, but no small club on the sea, is going to do much else about it but banter in the bar and post crap on forums for the craic. Just as long as folk don't go believing their own press when they win all the time, everything is cool.

It's a shame there aren't more RS300s around.  They're about bang on the money with a c.1000 handicap. 

You can really see a sailor's skill around that number in those boats... a muppet or newbie will not sail near it, whereas a very good sailor can out perform it quite convincingly.... and that's kind of the point isn't it?  I was always happy with a 1000 handicap in an RS300.  It felt fair and more to the point, it feels fair to race against it in other boats.  I've done this at two clubs now, both with mixed skill 300s sailing and I can't remember ever feeling they were generously handicapped, or hobbled.   If you're really blighted by spreadsheet racing, then it's good benchmark to have in a fleet.

As an aside Graeme, I do wonder if that small eclectic mix of random processions you guys call club racing really isn't delivering good racing, why don't you all sell up and buy Lasers?  Our Laser fleet has grown massively with the economic downturn and the racing looks really good throughout the fleet.  If I was 15kg lighter I'd be eating my words now and be sailing one, purely for the quality of the racing.... we've got folks who've sold 700s and fast double handers now racing them, and they go out whatever the weather, so they're really making the most out of their membership and time away from the domestic bliss.  But at 100kg... inland.... no thanks, I'll stick with calling a turd-arse piece of sh1t, someone has to remind everyone that while the racing might be great, the boat is terrible.   

 

Fleet racing may be the best but for those of us that aren't the right size/shape/ability for that boat then fleet racing is just a disappointing mess whereby lighter sailors win because of weight or those willing to spend 1000s on new sails/hulls do better.  Whilst in theory its all good if everyone uses the same kit, in reality its based on skill a lot less than you think.

 

Also why base the yardstick on a boat that has wildly varying capabilities dependent on where its sailed, surely using a 300 or 400 that performs very well to handicap across the board would be more suitable...

 

+1. It's illuminating to look at the results from the Draycote Dash this year. On the Saturday the breeze started light  (around 8 knots) and steadily increased during the day until it was fully depowered conditions upwind in the final race. Charlie Cumbley was sailing his Phantom - his results were 1, 2, 5, 7, 10 clearly showing the effects of the wind increase during the day.