New for 2012

2012 Sailing Instructions

The votes are in — the winning course is the Cloverleaf.

Reaching for new extremes in Monday-night racing!

Notice of Race

Series Organizer ........ Matt Draisey

Rules

This series will be governed by the rules as defined in The Racing Rules of Sailing. The Sailing Instructions are now available. These documents or any changes to this document will be made available either in the clubhouse or the SPSC web site. The official notice board is in the clubhouse's enclosed porch.

Dates & Times

This series will run every week on Monday night from May 14^th through Sept. 24^th . The first warning signal will be at 1845.

Class to Race

The class rules are a model of simplicity. No spinnakers may be flown but anything else is OK. There are no restrictions on size, so it is up the person-in-charge to determine whether the sail is appropriate for the conditions. That's it, there are no other rules, handicapping will be determined by your previous performance.

No measurements are necessary and no certificates are required.

There will be a single start for all boats unless fleet size makes it necessary to have two starts. The split will be determined by length overall and published at least a week before it comes into effect. Even if such a split is instituted, all boats will still be ranked as a single fleet using corrected elapsed times.

Racing Area

The racing area shall be centred at Mark S, 1.45 nautical miles at a heading 33º magnetic from outside the Pike Creek channel on Lake St. Clair. Course racing will be around a regular nonagon arrayed 0.75 nautical miles from the centre mark where mark 9 is pinned to magnetic north (using magnetic variation of 7º36' W).

Rolling Handicaps

Carrying on from last year will be the rolling-average handicaps based on a boat's individual performance. It will be recalculated after each race based on performance in previous Monday-night racing and only apply to this series. This single-mindedness is of great benefit to the casual cruiser, as you can race your boat as-is without having to conform to an ideal for your boat.

New sails introduced throughout the year have the potential to improve a boat's performance over its own rolling-average --- the RC has consciously decided to overlook this and no handicapping penalties will be applied for growing sail inventories. Yes, we are a development class!

Registration & Initial Handicaps

Competitors are required to register a week in advance of receiving their initial handicap. Although boats can join the fleet at any time, you will not have results posted until a week after registration, in order to give the RC time to determine your initial handicap. Please fill in the accompanying registration form and make note of any special circumstances that would influence your handicap.

RC Duty

Any competitor may be called upon to perform RC duties, dates of which will be published well in advance. Comprehensive RC instructions will be available in the on-water kit and ashore from the SPSC web site.

Selective Midpoint Scoring

Mondays will switch to the Selective Midpoint System with a participation requirement or more than 50% of races. A boat's race score will be the number of boats beaten less then number of boats lost to. This is a signed number that splits the difference between low-point and high-point scoring. A boat's series score will be the average of all the race scores in which she competed. No special accommodation will be made for races missed owing to RC duties.

Have Fun

Don’t forget that the Monday-night programme is about having fun. All SPSC sailor's should seriously consider competing in at least one race!