Our club is friendly, fun and helpful. Please contact the club commodore before race day if you would like help getting your boat ready for racing.
On each of our 4 scheduled race days “Go”, “No Go” status and starting location will be announced via group text at or before 10am Saturday morning.
Please make sure the commodore has your cell number!
If racing is a “Go” the scheduled race will start promptly at 11:30am, (except 2:30pm on the day of the annual Association meeting).
Please arrive at the starting line at least 15 minutes early.
Sometimes we will have a Committee boat assisting us and sometimes we won’t.
We have six standard race courses identified as “O1”, “G1”, “T1”, etc.. When we have a Committee boat they will display the course name on a white board immediately prior to the race. Please keep a copy of the different courses and their names in your boat, (The club commodore can email you a course chart).
The white board will also have a Port (counter-clockwise) or Starboard (clockwise) designation to indicate the direction boats are to circle the buoys. (The Port course is depicted on our handouts and the Starboard is its mirror image). The course for race 2 may be different from race 1 so make sure to check with the Committee Boat for the course layout prior to race 2.
When a Committee Boat is available they will do their best to adhere to the following starting sequence. Be considerate if the sequence gets messed up: it’s not so easy as it might seem and we all just want to have fun. Please let the committee boat know how much you appreciate their time!
The Start Sequence
Six minutes:
Three horn blasts
White Flag Raised
Three-and-a-half minutes:
White flag lowered
Three Minutes:
Two horn blasts
Blue flag raised
Thirty seconds:
Blue flag lowered
Start:
Single horn blast
Red flag raised
If no committee boat is on station one of the more advanced racers will conduct some semblance of a start sequence. Typically a horn blown at 6 minutes before the start, another 3 minutes before the start and finally some friendly shouts at Go. Feel free to ask passing boats how long before start.
Self Start Quorum Racing:
When a scheduled Regatta start is canceled due to weather it immediately is elevated to a “Self Start Quorum Race”. Three c-boats can hold a trophy race at any time after “No go” (canceled) status has been announced. There will be no buoys, no committee boat and no oversight. The air can be super light or super heavy you just need three boats. Courtesy dictates waiting for, or sailing toward, approaching sails so they can join your race. If you want to call a Quorum race please text the fleet of your desire to race with as much advance notice as possible, ideally, before you leave your dock. How you start, how your finish as well as what constitutes a buoy rounding will be up to those present. You must text the commodore race results within 45 minutes of race completion so the fleet knows a race was completed. Please provide sail numbers finish order and crew names, (bring paper and pencil). The first race that sends in results will be the official race. Feel free to hold the second race immediately after the first.
Contact the commodore if you would like to set a course using club buoys.
Sailing Rules
We all want racing on Ten Mile to be fun for everybody. Nationwide, it is nice to know that C Scow sailing fleets are wildly considered to be the most congenial of racers. Patience with those new to racing and an effort on the part of new sailors to learn fundamental rules will make each race day a success.
A few basic rules and club conventions:
- Starboard tack, (wind coming over the right side of the boat/boom on left side of boat) has right of way over port tack boats.
- Please understand the rule against “barging” at the starting line: boats close-hauled on starboard tack have right of way even if it means you need to tack away or cross the starting line early to keep clear, (you can’t “run down” the starting line waiting for the horn to sound).
- If you cross the starting line before the horn sounds you must re-start by going around one end of the race and re-crossing the line in the correct direction. The committee boat will attempt to hail you to tell you that you went over early and will generally blast a horn once and yell out a sail number for each boat that started early. While restarting you must stay out of the way of all other boats.
- If you foul another boat or hit a buoy while racing you must immediately pay a penalty: specifically your boat must turn two complete circles. Once again you must stay clear of other boats while taking your penalty.
- If someone fouls you and does not complete the penalty turns, or if there is uncertainty if a penalty applies, simply fly a red flag off one of your stays and the rules committee will consider the merits of the case following the race. If it is determined a penalty indeed occurred the penalized boat would drop two positions for that race.
Committee Boat Reminders for our most favorite people: (we love training new committee boat royalty)
- Confirm starting line is still reasonably close to perpendicular to the wind, if not move committee boat buoy accordingly, (a favored port side is better then a favored starboard side because it will spread the fleet out).
- Log the time, weather, sun, temp, wind speed and direction.
- Secure course information from commodore on radio channel 1.
- On the white bored print large and bold the days first course, (use course letter/number designation found on the “course key chart”) and the direction boats are to round buoys, Port or Starboard.
- NOTE: it is generally a good idea to set the course “buoys to Port” because that way as boats approach the mark they will be on starboard tack and thus, having right of way, the general mayhem and collisions that can arise with buoys to starboard will be minimized.
- Hold up the whiteboard for boats to read when they arrive at the starting area. At the same time write down the name and number of each boat as well as who is skippering and who is crewing.
- On queue from the Commodore start the race countdown sequence.
- Countdown the start as one person looks down the starting line ready to sound a horn and shout out sail numbers of boats over early. Please do not comment on rule violations but take note of the situation and boats involved in any conflicts.
- Once all boats have started, record any issues and relocate to the windward mark.
- Observe boats rounding the windward mark noting any that touch the buoy and if they take their penalty.
- Relocate to the finish line. The side of the start/finish line that the committee boat is anchored depends on if the course was run Port or Starboard with the objective being to make sure the committee boat buoy is “outside” the course, (so the boats do not have to negotiate past the committee boat buoy as they sail through the course).
- Record the order boats finish the race.
- Set up white board for the next race, (course changes?)
- On signal from the commodore start the countdown for the second race and begin again.
- Have Fun! We all really appreciate you!
