AC 45 Courses

[Bee]

I have been paying attention to the AC45 races in SF.  Wondering what it would be like to race one of the courses they do.  Basically a blast reaching start followed by n W/L legs and a blast reach finish.  Double gates at each end. Requires too much resources?  Comments? 

Would certainly be a bit different then the usual W/L we do.  Would be nice to hit the line at full speed at a fairly straight angle.

[Big John]

Take a look at Scott's Wed night race course no 1 for the keel boats in winds blowing E-W along the lake.  Reaching start across the lake to a turning mark, Leeward run to rounding, upwind to a gate mark then back to a turning mark near the starting area and repeat, which means a screaming reach again.  It all sounds interesting, but the reality is that over half the boats have no idea how to do a reaching start, despite practice on rum races.
We don't have all the features, but enough for me to say that it is not overly popular.  Might work as a special for some Jsprit w_t dream. but most folks prefer a challenge like W/L.

[Bee]

Never looked at the courses on WN since I don't race there anymore.

I have heard rumors of bumper car starts on WNR.  Maybe this is the cause.  It seemed to me that a reaching start with a reasonably long runway would give boats an opportunity to line up more or less in a straight line, avoid bumper car aspect, and go for it.  Guess not.

[Bee]

Its certainly true that the AC45's don't line up but there seems to be a lot fewer bumper car antics.

[Charles]

Part of the bumper car problem on WNR is that the start line is sometimes fairly short and is a little too close to the shore so when you have 8 or 10 boats on the line, and are having to dodge bulkheads and other non-starting boats, you can find yourself out of position and not having room to maneuver.