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The
Sutton Dinghy Club racing season runs from May to
October, with Club Racing on most Sundays
and generally on Wednesday evenings when daylight
and tide permits. Club Racing is based on Class of boat,
with competition results based on the performance of
each boat against others in the same Class. The classes
currently raced at the Club include GP 14, Mirror,
Laser, Optimist, IDRA 14 and Laser
Pico dinghies.
Sailing also takes place through the Winter months,
although the winter racing programme is run separately
and does not count towards the Club Racing points. All
members are free to use the water while racing is in
progress. However, members not competing are asked to
keep clear of the races. Safety cover is always available
when racing is taking place (i.e. Sunday mornings and
Wednesday evenings). The Rescue boat is also available
at other times but without a formal rota to provide
a Driver.
Working with information from each Class Captain about
the relative abilities of sailors in their Class, the
Sailing Committee may publish a Personal Handicap
for each helm registered in the Club. The Personal Handicap
under which each person races is normally based on the
performance of that sailor in the previous season. New
Members will either sail off "scratch" or, once they
have completed a number of races, a provisional Handicap
will be issued. A boat with experienced sailor(s) aboard
is rated "scratch", while boats sailed by less experienced
sailors are awarded additional "minutes in the hour"
in each Handicap race they participate in. This means
that less able sailors are given more time to complete
the course. Final results are calculated on the basis
of "corrected time". Personal Handicaps will
be adjusted during the season if necessary.
For each race, the Race Officer records the start time
of each race, the sail numbers of the boats that start,
and the finishing times of those who complete the course.
These results are used to calculate the time taken by
each boat to complete the course, and are then corrected
to take account of the handicap applied to each boat.
In theory, this gives everybody an equal chance of winning
the series. In essence, it is the person who maintains
the greatest improvement compared to their results last
year that will win the series. This tends to favour
the weaker sailors as they have the greatest potential
to improve and ensures that the Club champion does not
walk away with every trophy at the end of the season.
In order to provide short-term goals for Club sailors,
as well as rewards for overall performance during the
season, the Club Sailing Calendar is divided into many
"series" of races, with prizes for the winners of each.
Apart from the Championship series, the results
of all other series will be based on race points accumulated
on Handicap (i.e. corrected times) with appropriate
discards to take into account occasions when a person
is unable to compete.
Each Class may nominate a number of away events (National
and Regional Championships, regattas etc) in which boats
are encouraged to participate. Any boat participating
in one of these events will be awarded the average points
(i.e. the average of the points gained by those who
did sail) for each Sutton race missed. Average points
will also be awarded to sailors who are rostered for
race management or rescue boat duties.
Races are scheduled to take place on Sundays
(aim: 3 races, mornings starting at 10.30 a.m. or
afternoons at 3.30p.m.) and Wednesday evenings
(aim: 2 races, starting at 7.30 p.m.). Races
abandoned will not be re-sailed. For each race which
is sailed, each boat will be awarded points according
to its finishing position. These points will be used
to determine the results of the series shown above.
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