A Brief Summary of Racing at Bartley Sailing Club
Club Sailing and Series
A full program of club racing takes place throughout the year at Bartley SC on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday afternoon. In the summer months we add Tuesday and occasionally Thursday evening fleet racing as well as a Wednesday evening novice race. Saturday is our main race day, normally with three races, of both handicap and pursuit format. There are two handicap races on a Sunday, and a pursuit on Wednesday. Class racing on Tuesday evening for single-handers completes the weekly program.
We have a number of race series across the year in different formats to keep the racing interesting and exciting for all standards. Although there is keen competition between the experienced racing members, newcomers are really encouraged to take part. Experienced sailors are all too happy to help by explaining the racing rules and tactics. Taking part is the key, even as a complete racing novice you can learn a lot by just getting involved.
The formats range from Handicap, Pursuit, and Class Racing with quarterly club regatta days and series prize giving where we recognise successes and participation across all fleets and experiences. Link to the full calendar on the club website
Each racing day is run by a duty crew consisting of an Officer of the Day (OOD) and supporting rescue crew. Members are expected to do regular duties to support the race program. This is a really important part of club membership and all are encouraged to support in any way they can.
What is Pursuit Racing?
The objective of a pursuit race is that boats of different classes sailed by crews of equal ability should all cross the finish line together. To achieve this the boats start at different times relating to the Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) or handicap of their particular boat class. The race is run over a fixed duration, of 60, 75 or 90 mins, facilitating different start times for each boat class in the fleet.
What is Handicap Racing?
The objective of handicap or average lap racing (ALR) is to give fairer racing. This is especially important when boats from a wide range of PYs are racing together. By requiring all boats to sail for about the same time period, they experience similar wind and weather conditions. Based on the number of laps of the course each boat sails during the period, their elapsed times are factored to represent the times they would have taken to sail the same number of laps as the fastest boat. These factored times are then corrected in the normal way using the appropriate Portsmouth Numbers or handicap multiplier appropriate for each class in the fleet.
If there are a large number of entrants, the officer of the day will run several consecutive starts which enable more boats to compete in the same race. This format is ideal for Bartley SC and allows us to put on racing for a wide range of classes.
Fleet Racing
With a number of competitive fleets at Bartley SC we have the opportunity to run separate fleet starts where possible, providing the individual classes the most competitive challenge for sailors.
The Tuesday Evening Single Handed Series
From early to late summer we host a Tuesday evening single handed class series with the first start at 19:00 hrs. The format is an approximately 60 min race using personal handicaps.
The Wednesday P.M Pursuit Series
All year round we host a Wednesday afternoon pursuit series over 75 or 90 mins, which start at 14:00 hrs in the winter, moving to 14:30 hrs from late Spring to Autumn.
Open Meetings
We have a regular number of class specific events running from March through to October which are open to sailors from other clubs to race at Bartley SC against the home fleets. These tend to take place on Sundays, and provide the opportunity to participate in the event or as a spectator. We regularly host the Merlin Rocket, Albacore, ILKA / Laser, Streaker, K1, GP14, Solo and Phantom classes. ,
Open Championships
Bartley SC is one of the Midlands leading clubs and hosts National Inland and Regional Championships in addition to Area Championships for a number of different classes each year.
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Last updated 14:02 on 16 April 2024
