CVRDA handicap relationship to Portsmouth.

[Wimbleball]

I have recently brought a late 1970s Fireball back into use and have been racing it at my club. I am conscious that the boat is not a quick as the plastic boats and wondered if their is any way of relating the CVRDA handicap to the current Portsmouth numbers?

[Rupert]

Numerically, yes. Multiply by 1.2 and then by 9.46. But all you get is a starting point, really, as the goal posts have moved over the years. The Fireball class may have some ideas for trial numbers for old boats to suggest to clubs.

[JimC]

The Fireball handicap was generally in the range 983-993 through the early 80s.

These days I'm wondering whether class racing tends to exaggerate small performance differences compared to handicap racing. I don't have any hard evidence for this, but consider how important clean wind is. IN a fleet race of very similar boats the boat that gets ahead is very considerably advantaged, and the one that gets a bit behind is n dirty air for every beat, whereas in a handicap race with the boats separated more clean air is a bit easier to find.

And then there are mark roundings too, whereat every mark rounding the boats tend to be forced in single file and the boat behind slowed just a little bit.

If this theory is valid it means that one probably doesn't suffer as badly if the boat speed is a bit off in a handicap race as in a large fleet race.

[trebor]

The committee at my club originally used Ruperts figures for Minisails, however they now use Topper handicap for all types of Minisail, including my Aquabat, this works ok with existing skill level of Minisailors, the issues would start when someone of Ruperts skill level sailed, they would soon revert to original py.

[Rupert]

Blimey, even the Topper has a gift handicap for a semi decent sailor. Add 2 feet in length and 2 sqm of sail and you really are in bandit country! Must tell them at Whitefriars next time they whinge...

[whacko!]

Hi Wimbleball,

In the Fireball world your boat will be viewed as a 'Classic' (there is a definitive list of 'classic' sail numbers on the UKFA website). Essentially, 'Classics' are narrow-bowed whilst all modern boats are 'wide-bowed' and markedly quicker. The Associaton makes no distinction between the two in terms of handicap numbers although prizes are awarded at the Nationals and major championships for the highest placed Classics in the overall standings.

At HISC we have assigned a club handicap figure to Classics. The base figure used was 1000 but then adjusted down a little once the club applied the methodology (reflecting local sailing conditions) it uses to re-calculate all standard PY numbers. For instance at HISC a wide-bowed Fireball races off 956 this year rather than the published 970.

Chris Turner
Fireballs 6 & 15111