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T O P I C R E V I E W
NickM
Posted - 22 Feb 2011 : 12:26:21 At the risk of re-opening a controversial subject, I would be interested to know how many Keel owners race, and how they get on on handicap. Has anybody ever won a significant handicap race in a Keel?
I am convinced that the Keel does not sail near its handicap in wind anything less than around 14 knots. Of course all dinghies have "optimum" wind conditions for their class, but the Keel is SO much slower in F1-3/4 that I think that over the range of most sailing conditions, it is unduly penalised. (That is mainly why I mostly race something else!) Some clubs allocate a different handicap to the Keel vs the C/B version, (e.g. Aldeborough has the Keels at 1098, about the same as a Wayfarer - sounds about right.) What do other clubs do?
The RYA tell me that they would consider a separate handicap for Keels if they had any data, but they don't: sailing clubs do not differentiate between Keels and C/Bs when they send in their returns. If Keel racers are interested in this (and there are enough of you) I suggest they might want to press their clubs to highlight the difference.
I'm sure the Class Association would not want any handicap differentiation introduced for class racing, and nor would I. There is already a separate prize for Keels at the Nationals and it would be unnecessarily divisive in a small class. (There are actually some precedents elsewhere - the Flying Fifteens have Gold and Silver fleets according to the age of the boat, for example - but this would not work for the Stratos unless the fleets were considerably larger.) So my suggestion would be to use a separate handicap only in handicap racing.
Thanks, Sandy, for the reminders of the Nationals and Training Day. I hope to make the Nationals at least.
