Wednesday and Friday evening racing
Racing takes place on Wednesday and Friday evenings throughout the summer and starts at 18h30 although in September we generally pull this forward to 18h00 to make sure we have enough light. For those able to sail a controlled triangular course.

Fleets
As long as we have sufficient numbers racing, and as soon as we can see how competent you are, you will be allocated to one of three fleets – gold, silver or bronze and we will keep the list updated for you to see. This means you should generally be racing against people of similar ability, but if you feel you are in the wrong fleet, let us know. During the racing those in the safety boat will offer words of encouragement and help to those who need it, and you may also hear additional shouting from the race hut. Races generally last about 60 minutes.

Handicaps
Faster boats have to finish the race in a shorter time than the slower ones. For example, if you are in a Topper and finish in 60 minutes, somebody in a Laser 4.7 should have finished around 6 minutes earlier to beat you on handicap! So don’t worry if they appear to be going much faster than you – you can still win!

Racing rules
These can appear to be quite complicated, but to start with you just need to know:

• A boat must give way at a mark to another boat overlapping it on the inside.
• If you touch a mark you should do one complete turn as soon as possible, even if no one else sees you! Do one gybe and one tack.
• If you hit another boat, you should do two complete turns as soon as possible.

As you get more experienced and if you start competing in different races you will learn that there a quite a few extra things you need to know, but don’t worry at the moment, we are all there to help you.

Buccaneer and Youth Facebook.
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