GBCA Discussion Forum

  Just read the NOR's for the J. Kevin Box Regatta. In 3. Eligibility and Entry, 3.3 Expected classes include PHRF Spinnaker, PHRF Non-Spinnaker, GBCA Club Handicap, GBCA Club Handicap Spinnaker, And Multihull classes.
  Someone needs to go back and read the Memorandum of Purpose for this J. Kevin Box Regatta,,, It states there are two classes, Spinnaker and Non-Spinnaker. Not these other classes.
  I am not trying to prevent anyone from doing this regatta. It's just that if you want to do this regatta, you need to come out and sail to your numbers, not some special numbers (club Handicap). As far as Multihull class, this never came up in discussions when the Memorandum was being written. So, the question around Multihulls is, How are they eligible for the overall winner as laid out in the Memorandum?    My thoughts. They have a separate class not eligible for regatta honors. BUT, in the future, the Memorandum, CAN be amended to include multihulls, in an open meeting of the membership.
  As I have stated, I am not trying to prevent anyone from coming out and having a good time and a fun race (I've done this regatta many times). It's just don't try to make this very simple instructions for a regatta more complicated.     

  I signed up for the 2025 shoe regatta yesterday. I notified my crew and included the wavier link. One of my crew went to the website, and got "We are sorry, registration for the event is not open at this time." REALLY!

  It's bad enough that we are required crew waviers even though maritime law states that the captain / owner is the responsible party while on the water.    AND the NOR in 14.1 states The responsibility for a boat's decision to participate in a race or continue racing is hers alone. etc.   

 Why can't I down load the NOR's for the Charge Cup 2025. There's no NOR's on the Regatta Network site as well. I get Forbidden 409 every time.
 Thanks in advance.

  Terry, it's not the first time this has happened. It happened several times last summer and also Icicle #3 this year. Some boats that finished behind me, wound up scoring ahead of me, submitting their times after the party. I just put it off as captains not having the correct GMT or didn't pay attention when they finished and submitting what time they think they finished. Anyway, I think of the Rum Races as just fun sails where my crew gets boat handling practice without any real pressure.
  A side note, I have only had two Rum Races in the past several years that I did not get fouled at one of the mark rounding, that I had to crash tack or jib to avoid being hit. So scoring in my mind is a minor problem, getting skippers to know the Rules of Racing is a bigger issue.
 

  I am not apposed to ORC rating system, but it must be done correctly. As I have read and understand ORC methodology. It requires multiple wind readings, before, during and at the finish of each race. Then, the rating is assigned per the average wind speed. I have not seen this done by any of the local yacht clubs. Last year GBCA had more then one regatta that no committee boat was even out to record finishes, much less wind speeds. If its not going to be done correctly why waste expense and time on the ORC certificate. Or pretend to race ORC.
  I am not saying its not a great handicapping system/method, it just needs to be done correct. Not just thrown out there to be used with no race committee fallow up wind readings, and handicap adjustment.   

  Thanks Chris

  Something needs to be fixed in submitting race results. The web site had the WRONG start time and would not let me correct it. I finally gave up and put in my finish time. The submit results had me on the coarse 37 minutes longer then I was. Only if I was to start early or late do you need to have a start time correction, All times are automatically adjusted to Zero meaning 1100 with a PHRF or ORC correction. Please get this fixed.
  Otherwise it was a fun day on the bay. 

  I asked my kid to look at the GBCA website/forum, with the question, what's going on. His reply was it coming out of Russia, that it was a bot dumping on the site, but didn't try to find the location. He has seen it on other  open sites. He said someone should be able to put in a patch/block to prevent that much take over of the website. 

  I am glad to see that the poster is up for the upcoming Icicle Series. I went in to the registration and noticed a NOR posted. The problem is it's 2023 NOR and dates. But thanks for the registration link.


 

  We are about three (3) weeks from the first Icicle race. Soo, when are the SI's coming out? Inquiring minds want to know.

  Stopped by the marina office this morning, and wound up having a talk with Stephanie (marina manager). She asked me to pass this on to the Wednesday Night racers + crew.     1st, there is still to many people driving to fast through the parking area. If they have to, they will add more speed bumps to slow the cars down.     2nd, is parking in spaces that boats/trailers are assigned. Basically, park in the marked car parking spaces only. She pointed out there is parking around the office that is open, just requires a little more walking, and by Q dock. If any car are found blocking an assigned boat space, they are planning to start towing those cars.
  I am just passing this information on, so please do your part and pass this info on to your crews.     

  With the Barge temporarily out of service, is there an alternate place that the awards will be held? I'm not so interested in getting an award, as getting together with the other skippers and crews.

  Also thanks Darrin and Amy for coming out and scoring the races!

  I am not against ORC being added to some regattas, but it should be administered as designed. That means accurate wind readings to adjust for the correct rating for each given race. It should not be a replacement for PHRF (as flawed as it is).
  As for the Racer/Cruiser class, it has its place but not the way it was designed for the Rum Races a short while back. The over/under of sail area vs displacement was too arbitrary, it forced me to sail against boats with two and three time the waterline and sail area.
  As for the cruising club handy cap. I agree it is a good way to get novice sailors into racing. But, it should only be for a limited time (say 2 years at most) and it should be adjusted after each race/regatta as designed by J. Kevin Box. If you placed in say a Rum Race, your rating was adjusted down, or if you came in last it was adjusted up. Forcing you to be a better racing sailor and learn the rules and tactics.     

  I got mine via USPS, but because you are on the west side of Houston, yours' may be tied up in the sorting machine change over. They started with the north side sorting center first.
  USPS pulled out there sorting machines at the main sorting centers to replace with larger ones. The new larger sorting machines are to large for the centers. They are having to knock out walls and reconfigure the buildings to get the new machines into the centers. According to press releases they are about a month behind on getting packages sorted, and out in the west side center.   

Never mind it is phrfgb.org
Not .com