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he "handicap" results are done as a way to encouragej young and/or less well off sailors to still come and play.


Exactly...! they are racing the entire fleet.... The one guy with a classic is racing everyone with his handicap.. He is not there to collect his trophy for racing a classic A cat. I suspect he does not give a damn about that.. He is there to compete and the handicap leveled the playing field enough for him to spend his time and money.
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The event is still scored primarily on scratch.

The degree to which the top guys poo pooh his result will just undermine the idea of growing the fleet.

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At their nationals the kiwis give out praises for A,B and C grade boats to do the same thing and for years the Pussies have been giving a prize to the first pre-flyer boat.


Now that is useless!. ... If you think anybody is going to travel and spend money on making their boat race ready PLUS the expense of going to a regatta so that they can collect a B grade trophy, well... the Pussies are dreaming. (who are the Pussies?)

Just giving out trophies does not mean that you were involved in an actual race worth your time and money... The classic guy is the only boat IN the Pussies race. Why Would He Bother? just another chotchkey to fill the house up with??

Adults are there for the fun factor of competition... the trophies are not why they compete. No competition... no competitors.. Deciding you are giving trophies for all these divisons is just like how they try to manage kids in the Opti class..

they RACE one through 50. The Opti class organization does not want you to split them out by division. there are no division ribbons on the boats. ... they want Opti racing to be about competing for place in the 50 boat fleet. At the end of the regatta... they want you top publish fleet splits BUT your points remain the same... (they just resort the score sheet)

The Kids and their parents disagree... they are absolutely focused on the Red White and Blue age group score, The mid fleet prize, the youngest in age group prize, top girl prize .... All hell breaks lose when you don't score them properly... Don't ask me how I know!




















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