Dartmouth Sailing Week 2012 will take place from Thursday 30th August to Sunday 2nd September.
Last year’s Regatta was a success and so many people commented on this that we don’t intend to change very much, other than to say we have listened to the PY fleet and this year all PY classes will get two races per day.
We have the same high class team of Race Officers returning this year and the format will be very much a repeat of previous years, with the emphasis being on giving you what we think is the best combination of serious racing afloat and a lot of fun ashore.
There seems to be no solution to the PY handicap problem as the RYA is still discussing it. Club handicaps work well for competitions within a regular fleet, but there are often huge variations in ratings when Regatta entrants come from anywhere in the UK. We have therefore decided that this year we will accept only Byron handicaps which, whilst not perfect, are the nearest thing to getting all competing boats rated using the same formula, without any crew or helmsman factor involved.
This seems to us to be the fairest way to run any competition, other than paying for a IRC rating. We are therefore giving everyone ample notice that a Byron handicap will be required for a PY entry in 2012. Applying for a Byron handicap is done on-line for yachts that are not currently rated. It is a free service although a small donation to cover expenses is appreciated and gets you a bit of priority.
The other anomaly we intend to correct in the PY fleet is that anyone opting to sail with a non spinnaker rating must use the same rating for all races entered, including the Passage Race.
The Notice of Race will be sent out to all 2011 entrants automatically early in the year and will also be published on the web site.
We look forward to seeing you again in 2012.