Timing Clock – Dinghy Pursuit Races

My home club run three or four pursuits a year but 6 handicap races* nearly every week during the season and two races every Sunday most of the winter.

When I was helping run club racing for Raceboards (windsurfers) we had about 8-10 racers on a Thursday night. We avoided the problem of duties by running gate starts on the water, 3rd in the last race was gate and off we went. Pursuit races are easy to organise for casual handicap racing in a similar way but equally benefit from a suitable mindset from the racers

Really enjoyed my pursuit race today , the fact I started a whole lap behind most of the other boats in no way reduced my enjoyment. Or caused the RO any problems. 

Just caught up with this thread. I sail at the same Club as Grumpy Cat. Interestingly on the odd ocassion we don't run a pursuit race, RO's and competitors all start getting nervous and asking questions. They really do run like clockwork for us.

Originally posted by 423zero The Moo, probably one of the most amusing posts of 2021  , can picture your members lighting cigarettes to calm their nerves, Alex Higgins springs to mind.

Not quite like that, but on the odd ocassion we do not run a pursuit race the competitors have to think about remembering to write down finish line, no of laps, possibly counting laps, especially if finish line is off the course and a shortened course is unlikely, a different start time to normal, more boats on the start line, longer start lines etc.

Similar for the race officers too, lots more to think about, although now our bespoke race machine now does the handicap calcs for them. Those doing the catering have to cope with people coming into Clubhouse at different times to normal.

In a pursuit race we all finish at the same time and get into the bar at the same time for the "apres sail" which is great for both competitors and duty teams. (We are by and large a very sociable Club)

I accept it is not for everyone, but at our Club, pursuit racing is what we have done week in week out for many many years ( more than I care to remember) and it is so easy for us to administer and works well in our multi fleet environment, anything else seems a bit alien.

I can't imagine we will change things anytime soon.