Fast Handicap Fleet Captain’s Blog
Slow Handicap Fleet Captain’s Blog
We have a Fast and Slow handicap fleet at Bewl today with dinghies with a PN (Portsmouth number) of 1091 and above being classified as Slow Handicap. The Fleets generally consist of a selection of modern boats which suit a wide variety of abilities but with just a few of any one type.
Handicap sailing has for many year attracted masses of attention for being complicated to understand, biased to some boats and not others and, for the purest, something that does not make sense at all. But and there is always a but, loads of people still love to race in handicap fleets and find this a very attractive and equally competitive form of racing. Many classic races across the country attract healthy numbers, the Hooe Freezer and Round Sheppey race being just two.
Whilst we have a mature selection of classic adopted fleets at Bewl we have fallen some way behind other clubs over the past few years by not reaching out to some of the more modern classes. We have evaluated the RS 400 over the past months and have now decided to give the class adopted fleet status. More details of this development will be on the RS 400 section on the website in the near future.
Many new racing dinghies have been produced over the past 10 years especially with the advent of modern materials and production techniques. There seems little to choose between the top three manufacturers who have targeted pretty much the same market at the same time. I guess this goes to show how vibrant and healthy dinghy sailing is in the UK today. We will keep an open mind to adopted classes over the future and who knows perhaps another class will emerge as a classic.
For photographs of Phantom & Solo Open 2010 please click here
For photographs of Comet & Laser Open 2009 please click here
RS 400 Open 2008 Photos please click here
Phantom Open 2008 Photos please click here
Phantom Open 2009 Photos please click here
