HYC Leukemia Cup Regatta 2010

[Burns]

78.5? For the Weta, wonder who issued that PHRF certificate.

[Christopher]

Some guy named portsmouth...

[hayesrigging]

Why is there a phrf sym and a phrf asymmetric class??  Why not combine them???  That's crazy. Key west doesn't do it they didn't do it at mexorc. We are scratching to get boats out and now some boats can't race because a class doesn't form?  I'm confused!!!!

[Bee]

Those big nasty old symmetric boats just love to hate us little bitty a-Kites.  Its the angles man, the angles.

[marc]

Modern Asyms can get so deep now that there's little downwind difference between a non-planing sprit boat and a conventional symetrical boat. This class split for me has never made much sense and I've seen it in places other than Galveston Bay, too.

On a somewhat related note, it would help what's left of the PHRF fleet immensely if some of these 3-5 boat one-design classes were rolled into a PHRF class and then also scored as a sub-class for their one-design fix. I think it would make more interesting racing for everyone involved. Honestly a one-design class of 4 or less isn't all that exciting to begin with and you tend to see the same one or two boats winning each race with another boat DFL in each race and it turns into a match race for the top 2 boats. At least in a bigger PHRF class you could mix it up a little bit more with other boats to keep it interesting.

Wouldn't a PHRF class of the J105's, J109's and Level 70's along with the 1D35, the J145 and the Andrews have been fun. That's what, 17 boats in a class? Sounds more fun to me and then the subclasses still get their trophies and tight one design racing.

While I'm on my soap box, showing potential class splits on the entry page probably isn't helpful to participation. If I was looking to sign up in PHRF A last Wednesday and only saw a J145, a Melges 20 and a Trimaran in my class I would make other plans for the weekend. It also helps to stay flexible on these things. Once it was obvious that both PHRF Sym and PHRF Asym were lacking in boats, roll them in together. I'm sure it would have been slightly more interesting to the J145 and the 1D35 to race each other as opposed to each putting up a string of bullets.

But, hindsight is 20/20 and I'm glad I didn't have to be the one to decide those splits. It was going to be ugly, no matter how you did them.

Marc

[Leigh Ann]

Actually, before regatta network, etc. it was exciting to go to the skippers meeting where you saw the class splits for the first time.

[Bee]

I totally agree with the comment that the new A-Kites can dive as deep as the Syms, but that assumes winds up above 8 knots or so.  However, most of the 105's do not carry PHRF sails.  They sail with a jib (102% max) a Dacron main, and an 89 sq mt Kite instead of a 155 and a 110 sq mt kite.  In really light air the smaller kit is a real killer.  In heavy air its a delight.

105's with PHRF sails rate 78 while those with class sails rate 87.  Most of the most intelligent sailors on the Bay get quite irritated with a 105 sailing class rated at 87 when his certificate says 78.  Forced to use class sails at 78 is not my cup of tea.  I cannot see any kind of combination that would make this reasonable.

[Jonsey]

marc, +100

As an example;  I think most of our viper fleet will be in favor of what we did this past year at Lakefest - setting up a 20' sportboat fleet, racing for awards under handicap conditions - any design that gets more than 5 boats on the line is also scored as a OD.   Gives everyone the opportunity to play (be happy to include of those I550 builds in this). Not to mention that it's cool to see how your boat performs relative to other designs.

Racing in a 3-boat fleet is pretty ho-hum IMHO. 

Splitting Assy and Sym boat's might make sense if you had a few dozen of each.   The most exciting part of racing happens 2 min before and after the gun goes off.   Mo boat's on the line with you = mo fun

[Trent]

Here are a few pictures I took on Saturday. They're mostly pre-start, because, well, I had to start sailing at some point...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2328639&id=37500636&l=064a66f923

And three videos, just for giggles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYZZcc9miuE&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4W7Ozd-a1M&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCrpBqmB3Iw&feature=channel

[Scoundrel]

are there results posted anywhere?

[edthemainsailguy]

http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=3003

[CHull]

After being out of the racing on the Bay for a couple of years the recent message thread about the classes for the Leukemia Cup has been intersting.  (FYI I am the owner of the Andrews 30).  Thanks for the reference Marc.

I am most likely at the end of my racing time on the Bay and was looking to make the Leukemia Cup my last regatta.  The plan was to get new sails (which we did) and a good crew to go out with a bang.  And thanks to Mr. Scott Tuma for helping me make that happen (But after this weekend there could be a renuinon tour!).  Great sails Terry, and the main and med/heavy 1 worked exactly to the specs.

We were dissapointed that the PHRF A class (Spin) was only two boats, Bondi Tram and Revolution.  We were stoked up for some really good class racing.  And the crew on the ID35 really sailed well both days. We thought that we could put some soak on them in the light air, but they just locked in and sailed away.  Congratulations, it was fun (and we got our aggresive starts back on Sunday for you!) . But in I was suprised to see that a class was allowed to sail with only two boats. 

All that aside: What happend on the boat last weekend was probably one of the best sailing / racing experinces I have had in over 25 years of racing in Galveston Bay.  We got the rust out on the first two races on Saturday and then got down to some serious crew performance in race 3 on Saturday and and both races on Sunday.  I am sure everyone has had a day when you get back to the dock and then realized, "what were the guys doing in the middle and front of the boat?" (Scott, Chris and I are the fantasy island team in the back of the boat.  Tactics, Main and Helm).  The guys were outstanding.  Communication, working on techniques for fast roundings ( Tom Suttons boat can attest to that) and just looking for opportunites to improve at every upwind / downwind puff and mark rounding. A quiet and serious boat.

No boats around, the J-145 doing a horizon on us and the ID 35 sailing ahead, but who cares? We just decided to race Bondi Tram as hard and as well as a boat can be managed.  And the crew on the boat was without a doubt the best team that I have on her to throw that little 30 footer around a course.  And that includes comparison to many MORC crews and international regattas.

Thank you :
Scott
Chris
Greg
Kelly
Mark
Marcus
Pablo

Not to mention how wierd it was to have a history lesson in MORC racing form Pablo, and I hope your daughter had fun!  Christina, you are a class act darling, thanks for the dock party.

Gentlemen, thank you very much.  This was one special weekend.

Clark Hull

[STuma]

It seems there is a general agreement with the boats... Unless the A-boat can jump up and plane to dramatically increase their speed (the Melgi, Viper 640, etc,) the split of A-Sym and Sym boats does not make much sense... I remember this starting with a certain class not wanting a certain design of boat racing against them in the NOOD... If the #'s are correct, then the two breeds should be able to play together in harmony, if not, change it...  When one boat can increase their speed dramatically (like 5-10 knots) from a different type sail plan (A-sym chute), it makes it difficult to rate them against a displacement boat?  There are some boats that fly a sym chute and can move very quickly downwind?  We ran across this debate when we raced the Express 27?  We were labeled a sport boat and kicked into different classes?
We do not have enough boats out on weekends to make these class preferences... We might be driving people away with the multitude of small classes... I would have much rathered grouped all the spin boats together and had a large class on the line? I also suggested getting back to the fleet trophies as well (or at least fleet scoring)? beggars cannot be choosers, and we just cannot be picky on who we race against anymore... for the most part, all these boats racing are displacement boats...  I agree with Jeff that a Sport class is needed... There are a lot of sport designs out there and we need to tap into them... they are going to be the future (personally, I think multi's are the future, but I'll roll with it)...  There also needs to be a focus on race boats in the < 30'-ish range... this is a realistic size boat to race competitively...  Something we might have to consider is running 1 day events?  With a 2-day event, nothing gets done domestically that weekend? I think that is where much of our crews and boats are?
I appreciate HYC putting on the event and hope we can increase the participation a bit more next year so we can raise more money?  Thank you to everyone that donated, and corralled funds, for the cause?