Remember your boat will need to meet cat 2 which can be quite involved and costly if starting from scratch.

Entry is for boats 52 feet and over!!!!

lydia said..
Entry is for boats 52 feet and over!!!!

Yep, great racetrack in principle, but a long way for a 40' with atypical Qld breezes.
I wish the idea was borne with the ma and pa kettle fleet in mind, but I fear this is more of a select few wanting to play on their really big expensive toys and bugger the little guy..

lydia said..
Entry is for boats 52 feet and over!!!!

LWL >7.5 metres (4.1.C)

lydia said..
Entry is for boats 52 feet and over!!!!

It's actually a minimum WL length of 7.5 metres. And what Jode said could be put a little more bluntly. The cost of bringing a boat up to Cat 2 from scratch is Prohibitevely expensive, particularly for old boats that don't have the design stability and scantling computations. Then there is cost of equipment and crew qualifications.

I might have have a look at entering the shorthanded division if the timing fits in with competing in the 2nd Australia2Fiji shorthanded "Laser" race.

The race was conceived to **** on the existing Brisbane to Keppel Race because a TP 52 could not get into the boat harbour and has to anchor outside.

Maintaining the cat 2 requirement is just to exclude people.

QCYC went to cat 3 upgraded for Gladstone which over the same course and got nearly 70 entires.

Just now saw a similar discussion as my post on that other sailing site by persons far more knowledgeable than myself..

Bananabender said..
I no longer race let alone Ocean Race but it seems to me Ocean Racing
has become a little bit too elitist and precious due partly to the over regulated safety requirements. In this years SH there were only 6 boats under 40 feet whereas in 2000 ( arbitrary year picked ) there were over 20. The seas are no worse and aside from the 1998 SH ,which IMO was under regulated , there have been very few fatalities. I don't buy that boats were more seaworthy back in the year when the only communication was HF . Are we pricing the sport out of the market?

Yes.
I love racing, but I love racing more when the small family boats in the fleet have a real chance of winning. I think what we are seeing is the we've dropped the ball on the handicapping formulas. When there is little, or zero, chance of a backmarker in the fleet never even coming close to a podium finish, even when they've sailed incredibly well, I think we have a problem.

I love the pure bred race boats, I wouldn't own one but they're awesome to crawl over and race against. But when the handicap winner of most well known yacht races is also a > $ 1million dollar race boat, we're doing it wrong.
I thought that the line honours trophy was for the out and out racers. I thought the handicap trophy was to prevent race wars and allow the average boat a real shot?

I can't remember the last time I saw a Davidson 34 or an Farr 40 win on handicap against a current shiny new toy. Why do we penalise the older boats when they are the mainstay of our sport?

If racing isn't fun because they are all pro sailors that dont even stay for a trophy presentation and catch the next flight out, if its too dear because the grand prix level means you have to spend the purchase price of your boat again just to stay competitive, and we allow abuse of committee positions and club funds chasing more races biased toward the $ million dollar race boats, we'll kill the sport in a generation.

Like what we have done since the trailer sailor boom in Australia, or the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 tonner evolution. That was brilliant racing with family hacks on lead mines, we raced as hard then and the sport was never stronger.

Shaggy, double that you forgot the family holiday after the race to make up for the time away getting ready.
Sapphire is about $2.5k a night that time of year.
A wise investment for you!

twodogs1969 said..

shaggybaxter said..
Just to add in a real world example, I just finished my budget and plan for next Years Hobart, and i wont see any change from $50K.
That's a lot of money for a single race, and that's with a 3yr old boat which is a bit of a head start compared to normal.

I see gosford sailing ckub are running a 1/4 & 1/2 ton regatta

Twodogs, that would be awesome to see. Bloopers!

Will look into the 1/2 ton race. Shame, got rid of my blooper a couple of years ago when all we seemed to do was catch prawns instead of wind.

shaggybaxter said..

lydia said..
Shaggy, double that you forgot the family holiday after the race to make up for the time away getting ready.
Sapphire is about $2.5k a night that time of year.
A wise investment for you!

Hi Lydia,
Do I have to tell Mrs Shaggy? Can't I feign a sick relative for a couple of months?

Your closest friends will make sure she knows
L

lydia said..

shaggybaxter said..

lydia said..
Shaggy, double that you forgot the family holiday after the race to make up for the time away getting ready.
Sapphire is about $2.5k a night that time of year.
A wise investment for you!

Hi Lydia,
Do I have to tell Mrs Shaggy? Can't I feign a sick relative for a couple of months?

Your closest friends will make sure she knows
L