Handicap Racing

By Doug Peckover

• Purpose: good for beginners, experts, and mixed classes
• Duration: 20 minutes per race pair
• Setup: small starting line with a windward course set for a 10 minute race

Operation:

1. Races are held in pairs – the first is a "scratch" and the second is a "handicap."
2. The scratch race is a normal race with a 3-minute start. In this race, the fleet spreads out. Finishers are given their handicap (the number of seconds after the winner) in 5-second intervals. So a boat finishing 17 seconds behind the winner is given a handicap of 15 seconds.
3. The handicap race is where the real fun begins. The starts are in the reverse order – if a person with a 15 second handicap starts with 15 seconds to go in the next 3-minute sequence. In this race, the fleet comes together at the end (not uncommon for everyone to finish within 20 seconds).
4. The next race in the pair is run, with everyone getting a new handicap.
5. We get 3 races/hour and keep going until a break
6. Optional: finish rounding the starting mark rather than sailing through the starting line. This adds to the downwind tactics and, in the scratch race, makes it easier to get a handicap.
7. Benefits: in the handicap race, people who normally are at the back start first in clean air and have a good chance of winning. People normally at the front start last and get to sail through the fleet – great practice for everyone. Anyone can win a handicap race. The different levels of skill for the conditions, and even the different speeds of different classes, are automatically factored.