Portsmouth yardstick

[Colin Morley]

Hi all you racers,
I am being encouraged to race my Bayraider 20 tomorrow in a handicap race. We are well up for it. The question is does any one have any idea of what the Portsmouth Yardstick might be or how best to fudge it?

[Peter Taylor]

For the Swallow yachts Raid 2016 the"initial" PY numbers set by Swallow Yachts (Events) were: Storm 17 1205; BR17 & BC20 - 1175; BR20 -1145; BRe & BC23- 1085; BC26 & SR23 - 1025. "Consideration has been given for the BC's lack of oars"

How those numbers were arrived at and whether they are "relative" (ie purely one Swallow Yacht to another) or "absolute" (ie would hold for swallow Yacht v non-Swallow Yacht*) I have absolutely no idea!

Peter

* Amazon?!

[Colin Morley]

Hi a PY of 1145 seems a bit tough. It puts the BR20 up with the Europe.

The plan for tomorrow is that I am going to race,without ballast, on my own start at the beginning and see how I get on compared with the rest of the handicap fleet. We will then use this to start to see what sort of yardship the BR20 should have. 

[Peter Taylor]

When my BC20 inadvertently found itself amongst a handicap dinghy race I was surprised to find I was keeping up with Merlin Rockets and the like. But then I realised that the wind was too light for them to plane so Seatern's 20' gave her the potential for higher speeds than dinghies in the 10' to 15' length range (and I suspect I had the ballast tanks empty at the time which would help).  Of course as soon as they could plane they would disappear into the distance - no chance of Seatern planing unless I leave the fridge at home!  Getting a representative PY would seem very difficult for such different craft.  However a BR20 is a lot more dinghy like than a BC20 so it may be possible!
Peter

[Colin Morley]

Thanks Chaps.
Just as feed back it was all a bit of a disaster. As we were raising the main something fell of and I realise it was the springy piston on the gooseneck fitting on the end of the boom and then we saw the gooseneck screws had almost pulled out of the mast! So we dropped the main and as it was very windy we decided to sail on jib and mizzen. Although tacking with a jib and mizzen can work when cruising it is not easy for tacking in close quarters, a strong tide flooding into the creek, in gusty conditions. Just to make matters worse the jib sheet attachment to the jib boom pulled off. We were very grateful for our trusty motor.
So I am now further ahead in working out the Portsmouth Yardstick. Sorry about that.

[Tony]

When I was a kid, the Portsmouth Yard stick was how long it took my dad to get from the "Still and West"  (Smiths crisps and lemonade - and porpoises in the harbour) to "The Cormorant" near our house in Porchester. (Weak shandy made from my dads pint.) That's my kind of racing! 

[Rob Johnstone]

Peter,
I assume that you are (as I type) working on a set of extendable foils for Seatern which (when deployed) will counter the planing of the competition, and allow you to leave your fridge secured below?

[Tony]

Now, that would really be something else.
A foiling BayCruiser!
(I dare you, Matt!)

[Peter Taylor]

The main problem is that to apply foils to my BC20 means changing the Centreboard into a Dagger Board (see thread http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,1362.0.html ) and I can't work out how to do that and still have full use of the table in the cabin.
Peter

p.s. I've looked at some of the YouTube videos of foiling Lasers and, as you might expect, there's an awful lot of wind blowing at the time!

[Rob Johnstone]

How about leaving the cb in place and having a couple of folding  boards which could be extended as required?

[Rob Johnstone]

sorry, incomplete post. I had in mind a pair of wings that folded a bit like those on that lovely ugly Fairey Gannet......

Rob J

[Tony]

Its all getting a bit "Thunderbirds are Go!" aint it?
But I cant think of a reason to prevent someone putting foils on a BayRaider - apart from the appalling drag at low speeds.

[Djillings]

My club (Pin Mill) has given my Baycruiser 23 a PY of 1050 and asked me not to sail with empty ballast tanks as that will complicate things too much.

David.

[maxr]

Has anyone worked out or just adopted at club level a PY for a BR with the fully battened Bermudan rig (and perhaps convention jib)?