Race Officers Briefing

Before coming to the club

Get a weather forcast, its worth knowing what the wind is likely to do during the day, remember that 12 hours out the forcast can still be out by a couple of hours either way so when you arrive try to work out if its behind or after. as a rule GFS22 is the most reilable forcast model at stewarty which you can get on www.windy.com

its also worth at least skimming the club SI

Before the race

Collect the duty crew its worth checking at this point that they know how to stream the pin

put a sign up sheet on the hook on the summer house, you can set the course ashore but its best to do it afloat using the course board as it give you more time to see what he wind is really doing.

In terms of setting a course here are a few pointers:

• the first mark should be if possible left to port (this avoids a awkward rules situation where everyone wants to get round windward on port but can't because of everyone else piling in on the starbord lay line)
• Park the comitee boat up as close as you can to leward this give you the longest first beat that can be achived
• The start line should be long enough for everyone to start on the front row about 1.4 times the total lenght of all the boats is about right any longer will magnify the bias shorter is generaly better for a club fleet where not everyone is going to start on time
• you want to include a good mix of legs beats and runs are tactical reaches aren't (but are good fun) with the shape of our lake we tend to end up with course that are reach heavy
• if you can avoid setting legs under the windward shore as the wind there is usualy pretty chewed up

and some sugestions

collect the following from the Race hut:

• The race timer
• Lap record sheets
• Pens and pencils
• Mark flags
• Horn box
• Toot horns
• Hand held radio

and the pin from the garage.

and get afloat in the comittee boat.

Starting a Race

Turn the race timing clock with the black button on the side press the mode button twice to select program 2 press start to set program 2 which is 5 minutes count down then count up in seconds press start again to begin the count down.

The starting sequence is consists sequence consists of the following flags and sound signals:

5 minutes flag K up and 1 sound signal

4 minutes flag P up and 1 sound signal this means no penalty is required if a boat is over the line

1 minute flag P down and 1 sound signal

0 minutes Go Flag K down and 1 sound signal

If boats are over and you can identify all of them 1 additional sound signal display flag X this must be done within 6 seconds or a general recall issued , Note as RO you may not tell a competitor if they are over the line unless they return you should mark them as OCS on the results sheet.

If you cant identify all he the boats that are over or its too late for an individual recall display first substitute and 2 additional sound signals.

Recording a race

as soon as the support boat has layed the pin its a good idea to ask them to fetch the signing on sheet, so you can match competitors up to the sheet. I advise the following steps:

1. Check each signed on entrys sail no and rig is correct its not uncomman for there to be mistakes particulary in laser where people changes rigs and may have diffrent sail numbers on diffrent sails. its worth noting that a laser radial is identifed by a blue patch at the sails clew

2. Add anyone to the sign on sheet anyone who hasn't if you dont know who they are you the SIs specify you should make your best endevour to do so so use the support boat to ask them who they or to come and find you when they get ashore if they want the result.

by the time you have don that it will be time to start logging the boats round on the timing sheet.

you should log each boats time crossing the line after lap 1 in the lap 1 column (you should try to get the times accurately but dont worry if you cant on the first lap). personaly I prefer to log the boats by QE code for example DHL 1234, most people do it sail number though if you do record by sail no you should also fill in the class of each boat and dont truncate the laser sail numbers! this makes it far harder to work out at the end.

its best to do this on the first lap as the timings at this point do not have to be absolutly accurate its more important to make it who is who it was so you dont have your work it out at the end on subsuquent laps you dont need to record the class as diligently.

so after lap 1 you record sheet should something like this:

at this point you can start thinking about how long to run the race for your aiming to get everyone finished between 45 minutes (2700 seconds) and 1 hour (3600 seconds) but you have some discression over this if its a nice day and the wind is good you might go more towards the hour, if it looks like its going to drop or its fliping windy and everyone looks knackerd finish earlyer is fine! so its time for a bit of maths: the fastest boat went round in 796 seconds so say 800 for easy reckoning so you would expect him back round at about 1600 then 2400 then 3200 (if the wind doesnt change!) so you could finish him at 3 or 4 laps. the slowest boat went round in 1346 now its likely they had a bad start or where late as they are last so they might speed up over the next couple of laps so you might want to apply a bodge factor of taking off say the 300 seconds you know they where late by so they went round by 1150 so you would expect them at again around 1050*2 + 300 = 2400 seconds and then 3450 so they are going to be on 2 or 3 laps.

so after lap 2 you record you have logged everyone through again:

so now we repeat our maths again, the leading 300 has gone round a bit slower than we expected as have the the 5 boats behind it, the albacore in mid fleet is doing a very conistant 1050 per lap. the previous slowest boat has sped up a lot doing a lap of aproximately 800 seconds as have all the boats up to the albacore. this indicates the breeze is not particualy even across the course, so you should be watching it on the next lap and considering when to shorten. as the lead boat towards leward you have to make the decision, to shorten course or not for them or for a boat farther back. in this case the RO chose to shorten from the leading boat giving him a spread on the race of 2347 to 2891 from fastest to slowest so a little short but of the 2700 to 3600 target but he took the decision the breeze was looking unreliable and sensibly finishes it early. to finish a race you make one sound signal and fly S the take down the times as they cross the line.

Last updated 20:31 on 26 October 2023