Flag Officer Series - Commodore's Race WED 7TH JULY

Every Summer includes within our club Racing Series what is known as the 'Flag Officer Series' Your Flag Officers are the three commodore positions within the club. Until April 2011 your Commodore  is Paul Leather, Vice Commodore: Douglas Bridger and Rear Commodore Trevor Pearson.

This year the series will be run as personal handicap races rather than our more usual 'pursuits' where different classes of boat start at different times. With handicap racing There is a warning gun (hooter) sounded at five minutes before the start. There are then two further guns; one at four minutes to zero and the last gun at one minute to zero. On the final, start gun, all boats start the race at the same time. It can be quite hectic. This is called a mass start...often referred to as a 'mess start' for obvious reasons! Over the duration of the race, usually one hour, the number of laps each boat completes is counted and adjusted by the helm's personal handicap and the handicapped results calculated accordingly. Usually the course is a simple triangle to allow for accurate counting of laps. All boats start together and usually finish close to each other, though some will will have achieved many more laps. Because of the individual handicap of each helm it can mean that less experienced sailors can win the race.

The Rear Commodore's race was held on Wednesday 2nd June and won by Andrew Prosser. The final race of the Flag Officer series, the Commodore's race will be held on Wednesday 7th July. See you there!