Up to ten US teams registered for the Miami OCR: http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubm...?regatta_id=7500&custom_report_id=41

Nice! Where's Easton???

Mike

Addendum - the top ten boats as of race #10 usually race on Saturday. Maybe we will have two or three USA teams on the stage Saturday morning.

Not currently sailing 17s.

Interesting, guess I'll get the story from the horses mouth next weekend...

Too bad about Easton.

Looks like registration closed two days ago, so unless there are late updates, this should be the final lineup.

I took a look at the NOR (thanks for the reminder Jeff), and it is interesting that some of the fleets have 10 races plus the medal race, while others have 15 plus the medal race. I'm sure that has more to do with logistics (the larger fleets seem to have the fewer races), but the medal race would weigh differently for the 10-race series fleets.

Also interesting that winning a race results in zero points instead of one (I believe that's not really new, just interesting).

Mike

It is logistics, but not because of larger fleets - its because of different target times. Higher-performance classes tend to have shorter target times.

The dinghies have 50 minute targets - 2 races/day
Skiffs and catamarans have 30 minutes - 3 races/day
Boards have 20 - 25 minutes - 3 races/day (longer rest periods btw races)

(those came from the SIs for the ISAF World Cup - Melbourne)

I am unfamiliar with this regatta sight. Where would you be able to watch the N17s from shore?

The racing takes place in Biscayne Bay - out of reach for shore spectating, except one might enjoy a brief panoramic view of all the courses in action.

Perhaps there might be powerboats for charter, for spectating, somewhere in the Coral Reef Yacht Club (Coconut Grove) area.

On the water spectating is doable - just remain outside the picket for the coach boats (moving around the course) and shoot as much video or take as many photos as you like.

I believe the Nacra 17 course will be pretty close to Hobie Beach and the Rickenbacker Causeway- might be able to snag a view from there. Boats are launching from the Miami Rowing Club.

Any ideas why the target time is so short for the cats? PU used to go for 50 minutes for all of our major events, presumably from his Olympic experiences.

Mike

Easy, our generation has the attention span of a gnat. But seriously, I think it's spectator/tv driven...which I still think is silly.

Yeah And whats up with 3 races a day?????? I think they should start at 9am and sail til at least 4 maybe 5pm. After all they are professional/Elite level sailors for the most part.

Keep e'm on the water til their arms fall off!!!

Said the dude who sails a two string boat with no loads.

Since I don't have to do it I'm all for it!

I doubt that's it, because there are other classes with longer races.

I've probably spent as much (or more) time working on RC with PU as anyone, and while I can't explain everything he did, I do recall quite a few conversations about target times. 50 minutes seemed to be the Olympic consensus (at least for Tornados) of what it took to have a fair race, where if a top team got a bad start, they could get back into it, etc. I can't see the Nacra 17 boat and/or competition being that much different to change this by 40%...

And Tommy, we still get 50% more per day than the America's Cup (on their good days)...

Mike

I remember the 50 min target times when PU was PRO, I also remember doing up to 5 races a day if the wind was good. As I recall at least one NA event we had over 20 races for the 5 day event. People were popping Aleve like it was candy.

It's a truly thankless job, that's for sure. The entire goal is to run a good number of fair races. Sometimes, weather does not cooperate, and you get boxed into corners that involve sunrise and sunset. People very often take things out of context, and make up some very strange conspiracy theories of what drives the RC. Sad, because all you need to do is ask, or better yet, volunteer and see for yourself that there is no evil empire on the signal and mark boats.

Mike

Mike,
The thing to keep in mind is that unlike the independent Tornado Class... the N17 class is wholely owned by ISAF and Nacra. The T class Sailors had a set of Seperate Championship Rules which allowed for two races per day with 10 in the series (If memory serves). The length of the race was guaged to the number of starters with the goal of spreading the sailors out on the course so that sailing skill determined the order. The number of races per day were set at two for worlds type events and were set to minimize the impact of a breakdown. (aka bad luck) eg you could eat a throwout and still do well. The story was that it was tougher to win the worlds then the Olympic Gold.

The Olympic rules were always set by ISAF who limit the regatta to 18 slots and ISAF changed the championship rules as they wanted... eg for china... there were no wind mimimums which the class used instead of weight mins to maintain a fair playing field.. Today, ISAF has taken control of the world regatta circuit and created the world cup (gold cup... whatever) circuit with the stated goal of restricting the fleet and trying to focus on fewer athletes for the sports marketing. They also control the N17 class. So.. they run the show. They argue that more races of shorter duration give you more finishes and supposedly more media interest as the final race which is scored double points makes the winner very much in doubt. It's just a different game. In my opinion... they have increased the Luck factor in getting a winner.... and from their perspective.. that is OK because it will sell.

What is different for the N17s is that ISAF calls the shots.. not the sailors.... and PRO's now answer to ISAF. PU would not fit will in this brave new world.

And back in the day, PU's favorite way to end a Regatta, was double #7's.