Question 2
2. What happens if or when the blue fleet entry sheet rises above 20
With the popularity of the blue fleet and the excessive cost of a new red fleet yawl, there may be a possibility that the blue fleet racing list may rise above 20 which is more than is allowed on the start line. Do we look at seeding/promotion/relegation? Do we reassess the status of some yawls above 141? Numbers would not be sufficient, nor demand exist for the reintroduction of a green fleet.
Enter the debate.
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Big Debate Question 2
I am hopeful of having Y110 back on the water for racing next season and am in favour of flighting and allowing boats/helms to move up and down fleets.
It seems to be the most equitable way of keeping everyone in the right company, although I can see it may create a need to re-think how some of the trophies are allocated – you might be a good enough sailor to make the top flight in a competitive Blue Fleet yawl, but you’ll never win any silverware, unless the trophies are allocated in such a way as to take this into account.
With red fleet boats not being built and new owners seemingly encouraged to buy blue fleet boats the “what if scenario”of more than 20 blue fleet boats is a real possibility within 5 years. We need to look ahead and address this situation.
In my opinion the health of the class is all about motivation of the sailor/yawl owner. I appreciate it must be hard to provide good competition in a development class – to match different abilities and aspirations and pockets is a tough one. (some helms want to be seriously competitive but have older boats and some inexperienced new helms may be able to afford to buy a more competitive boat but feel intimidated in a higher fleet). In the horse world there are also partnerships between horse and rider and courses are set and there are partnership restrictions (track record of horse and rider together make that partnership ineligible for smaller classes to prevent pot hunting). This means by and large that an experienced rider can bring on a young horse or an inexperienced rider can develop confidence on an established competitive horse at the lower levels and progress when they feel confident to enjoy a bigger challenge. By and large competitors enter a level at which they are comfortable and progress of their own volition from there. This seems to work well to encourage good participation and competition.
We already have a gold fleet for this reason
When this happened to me before …long ago now..we were moved up to the
‘Faster’ fleet.
At that time the ‘old’ boats had not been rebuilt or re-rigged
….
Maybe now the top helms in Blue might enjoy the challenge more than
I did.
Maybe they are better boats, sails, rigs…as well as helms ?
One problem was loneliness at the back! Maybe if the top four went up at least they would feel a group…..
… and the Committee could seed helms down ???
I still feel the ‘designer ‘ division is broadly fair, but where an old boat
Has now been re planked, made stiff, re-rigged etc.,,maybe a change
?
When was the last time that blue fleet boats numbered more than 20? Most SYC regattas in recent years have seen something in the region of 15 – 18 boats out. This years regatta only saw around 8 – 10 boats on the water which was disappointing. Not sure this is mush of an issue.