by Thanks everyone with the help on the racing courses. You may
be wondering what is all this talk about racing. Well, I am going to
try to put together a series of races in New England that will focus
on Short-Boards. Not longboards. I don't mean to be predejuce, but
most of local level racing has focused on Longboard racing and very
few have focused on Short Boards. The obvious answer would be that
local conditions don't dictate such races. I'm looking to change
that.
We have quite an abundance of wind on Cape Cod and would be a
great venue for a racing series. I find it somewhat embarresing that
in such a place there is no real racing going at any level. I know
there are races here and there for distance, but once again the focus
is usually on Longboards. Many people can't afford or don't want the
logistics of a longboard so automatically are left out of competition.
whereas most people own atleast a Giant Slalom, or a shortboard that
works in 6.5-7.0 conditions. I want to focus on these people.
Well there is one kicker in this focus, and that is we need
around 13-15mph of wind to kick a race off.
Here is what I propose:
Venue: Kalmus Beach or West Dennis.
Dates: 2 month period
Formats: Figure 8, Downwind Slalom, Course Slalom.
Starts: Beach, Standing, or Running.
Wind Minmum: 13-15mph.
Restrictions: Sail(none), Board(No Daggerboards)
Prizes: Millions of dollars! (just kidding)
VENUE:
I am trying to decide which is a better venue for these races.
Kalmus has about 3-5mph more wind, but W. Dennis has more room, and
less traffic.
DATES:
This is a key part. You know the Murphy's Law that when a
race is held the wind disappears. Well I am looking to break Murphy's
law with a little battle of the averages. I want to hold the races
each Saturday for a two month period. Out of a two month period we
should have a minimum of 4 racing days. If we have more then each
racer will be able to throw out his worst finish up to 3 if we raced 8
consecutive weekends (yeah, right!). This format will take the
pressure off of a single weekend and will hopefully defeat Murphy!
Having the races spread out over a two month period would
allow for no wind and schedule conflicts that always arrise. If you
miss a race, it is no problem because you can always throw it out.
At the end of the two month period we should have 4 to 5 racing scores
per racer that will determine an overall winner.
FORMATS:
The choice of formats will be one of the key ingrediants to
the success of the races. Success in my mind initially will be judged
by participation. Well, to spur this participation I want to make is
easy to race. When I mean easy I mean that Anyone who can sail in
straight line and jibe has a chance to do well. (We can even have
jibing and non jibing classes). No major Upwind type stuff at first.
I want people to learn about racing and how fun it can be.
probably one of the most used formats will be the Figure 8
(reach-jibe-reach-jibe...). Going upwind can be one of the more
frustrating aspects of racing for a beginner on a slalom board.
Eventually the racing will increase in difficulty where we will run
course slaloms and downwind slaloms. The goal to
remember is fun, and participation.
STARTS:
This is another sticky point. Don't you just hate it when you
loose a race because of a bad start. Well I am going to try to
minimize this by running a variety of starts and see which works out
the best. The venue will have alot to do with it as well. Here are
an explanation of the starting formats and their difficulty.
Beach(Easy) - everyone starts on the beach, gun goes off and
eveyone goes into the water.
Standing Start(Medium) - this is like the drop start were you
park yourself on the line and when the gun goes off you water start,
or uphaul, or whatever, and sail off. The hard part is getting to the
line and staying in place waiting to start.
Running Start(Hard) - this is the kind of starts used in yacht
racing and upper level windsurrfing racing. We also need a committe
boat to run the start. Usually it is a 5 minute sequence where you
have to time your starts.
The venue may also help determine what kind of start we will
use. A beach start format at Kalmus on a busy windy day could be
scary!
WIND MINIMUM:
The wind minimum is important in that it must be low enough to
get in enough races but high enough keep eveyone planing. I think
13-15 is a good range but some people can plane in 13 some need 15, so
we may need to go with the 15. I think everyone can plane in 15,
right? If the wind dies and one person can't get planing during a
race, it is called. (period) Holes don't count, I mean planing no
where.
RESTRICTIONS:
This is what is going to set this racing series apart from all
others. NO LONGBOARDS ALLOWED! Slalom boards only. This doesn't mean
you can bring your Equipe II with out the dagger board. It has to be a
board with no dagger board, and is a Giant Slalom (Xantos 325,
Seatrend 911, etc...) or smaller. This will help include everyone. I
don't know a single person who doesn't have a slalom board of some
kind but I know many people who don't have long boards.
PRIZES:
Well this has not been determined but I would love to get
support from the windsurfing community and have some decent prizes for
the competitors. Everyone will probably get a t-shirt to compete, a
small trophy for each race weekend, and then nice trophies for the
overall winners. Also, a drawing should be held for all the
competitors to wind stuff like boards, sails, trips, etc... Basically
anything I can get my hands on with the help of some sponsors. Now
that I sell Quiveracks, maybe I will donate one to be raffled off.
Th-Th-Th-Thats all folks! Sorry this was so long, but I
really appreciate your thoughts and input on this. I think racing can
be fun again. Please post your thoughts on this! And ofcourse if
anyone wants to help pull this off, it would be GREATLY appreciated.
L8rrr....
---
Marc Lefebvre (US-775)
Quiverack USA (508)862-3282
Gear: Seatrend/NeilPryde/Fiberspar/Finworks
URL: http://www.ultranet.com/~lefebvre/
Motto: "Windsurfing is life, the rest is just details!"