By Chris Thompson, Race Director, NESC.
The following changes were proposed at the 2019 AGM:
Next season's calendar is still awaiting finalisation, because we are trying to ensure that we do not clash with other significant regional events. Some of the changes that I propose for next season are;
1) Calculating and scoring every race on both yardstick and personal handicap, although personal handicapping would remain the main emphasis for all events other than the club championship.
2) Running more training sessions. Following up a suggestion from Ed, we could schedule a training session on each Club Championship day. The training schedule may encourage more less experienced sailors to attend, and therefore make the Club Championship more of a major event. The coaching session can end with some sprint races to allow everyone to put anything they have learned into practise.
3) More handicap starts. These were very popular, across the fleet.
4) The arrival of world champ and Olympic medallist Andrew Landenberger Snr in our fleet has made it very clear that catamarans do not have a fair chance on Malpas under the standard yardsticks, which has led many people to stop racing cats. We could therefore;
(a) change the yardsticks for all catamarans by about 10 points, to give the cats a chance;
(b) encourage the catamarans by having a separate catamaran challenge. The problem with setting specific dates is that many people would rather sail monos if the wind is light, so I propose that we count any race where three cats start, and get the catamaran sailors to try to arrange when they will get their cats together.
5) More sprint race days, with up to five races over a very short course and including handicap starts when possible.
6) Course alterations to try to take into account calm patches in the lee of the land.
7) Possible start time changes.
8) Fortnightly Thursday night sailing, including fun races and training.
9) Formalising the Race Officer schedule.