ITBYC Public Race Nights
Since there is limited space in ITBYC, not everyone who want to join in is able to become a member of the club. To offer a well organized team racing platform to these skippers, we have introduced public race nights. These race events are opening at the following times (roughly!):
European time zone: Monday 20:00 CET/CEST (central europe)
Oceanian time zone: Thursday 20:00 AEST (eastern australia) *)
*) The oceanian night is public by invitation only, as this is originally a private club event.
Drop by when it suits you. We can not guarantee for racing every race day, or for how long it will last. It all depends on the general interest and "VSK seasons". Please note: As indicated above, the public race nights is not a recruiting arena for ITBYC, but rather the oposite: An alternative due to the limited space for new members in the club.
Preperations
Make sure you have the necesssary equipment downloaded. Go to the tools page (linked on the top menu) and download the ITBYC skins and courses. Load your fridge with plenty of beer and show up with good mood and a relaxed attitude. It won't hurt to have a copy of the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing on your desk...
It's a big advantage (and very social) to be able to voice-communicate with your team mates during the races. At ITBYC, we are utilizing a voice chat software called Teamspeak (TS) for this purpose. Here is all you need to know to connect to TeamSpeak.
How to participate
Always enter the chat room (linked on the top menu) in order to be a part of the racing. There is a robot, with the name "TheCommodore" (TC), waiting in the chat room. TC organizes all races. She picks teams randomly from the pool of skippers who have reported them selves as ready to race. Simply write "in" on a single line in the chat to add your self to TC's ready list. PS! Never forget to write "out" once you no longer will participate!!! This is very important, otherwise you are wasting many peoples precious time when they have to abort a race and repick teams due to lazyness.
If there are 4 or more skippers in the ready list, TC may be told to pick teams. If there are 8 or more skippers, there will be picked multiple races/fleets simultaneously. Make sure you enter the correct race with the correct skin (boat color).
The host is usually listed together with the team and information. He will setup the race typically using game name "ITBYC Public X", where X is the race number. The password is "public".
Scoring
In team racing you get 1 point for 1st place, 2 for 2nd etc. The team with the least sum of points win the race. Team racing is ideally performed with 3 boats on each teams, but we do also 2 vs 2, 2 vs 3 and 3 vs 4. The VSK score board, presented at the end of each race, is correct with regards to points, but in some scenarios the wrong winner is presented if there is a tie on points. The general rule is that the team without 1st place win the race if there is a tie on points. A modified rule for races with uneven teams, is that the smaller team win the race if there is a tie. For fleet size of 5, the teams may agree to race under the "last lose" rule.
After the race, the winning team is reported to TC. TC adds 1 point to each skipper on the winning team. When TC is reporting the standings, it is sorted by average win ratio.
When a race is reported, all skippers in that race are automatically put back to TC's "ready to race list". If you don't have time for more races, simply write "out" on a single line. Please note that you can't write "out" before the race is reported. For detailed information about commands TC is responding to, check out this page.
Team Racing in general
You will notice that team racing is very different from fleet racing. Since the goal is to perform as good as possible as a team with regards to finishing position, tactics come much more into play. To win the race, you need to help your team mates up the ladder. If there is an opponent between you and your team mate, you want to delay the opponent to allow your team mate to pass him. If you are leading the race, the best solution to win the race can even be to give up 1st place in order to win as a team in some scenarios (ex 146 vs 235). All these elements of speed, tactics and complexity makes team racing so interesting - to some (others hate it). You may think of team racing as a combination of fleet racing and match racing, while you at the same time are playing a game of chess.
So how can you help your team mates behind pass the opponents? The clue is to make passing lanes. Either by disturbing the wind of the opponent to slow them down, to block the opponents by utilizeing the ISAF rules in order to make them sail a longer route than necessary, or a combination of the two. Please note that I'm not mentioning "penning your opponent" as a solution, as penalties should only be a result of the opponent choosing the wrong move on the water. Your focus should be to control the opponent, not to penalize him. But of course, if a skipper makes a big blunder or is not trying to keep clear, a penalty is worthy. And due to the complexity, all of us are making alot of mistakes which often result in some penalties in each race. But remember to always give the oponents a chance to keep clear (rule 16.1).
Team Racing Tactics
To delay the opponents, you have the following basic options in addition to the simple wind covering:
Luffing: This is the easiest option. Just luff your opponent to allow you team mate to pass. Remember to respect 16.1. You don't necessarily have to luff very high, it's more important to make it last for a while. Luffing is most used on a downwind or reaching leg, but also upwind. Luffing higher than TWA 100 degrees on a downwind leg, is not recommended in general.
In this example, the starboard red boat is luffing the blue, to make the port red boat pass ahead.
Pinning: Pinning is the best option to delay your opponent upwind, but a little harder than luffing. The idea is to position your self so close to the windward of the opponent so that it's impossible for her to tack free. Though, watch out so that you don't get too close and get luffed away. This way you will force the opponent to gybe away in stead of tacking. If the gybe alone is not delaying her enough, then you should gybe with her and end on top again on the other tack. This requires good positioning and timing.
In this example, the red boat to the right is preventing the blue boat from tacking, as they are too close. This way, the blue boat has to gybe to escape the "pin", which delays here enough to make the other red boat pass her.
The Mark Trap: The most effective, but most difficult, way to make passing lanes for your team mates is near the marks. At a single mark, it is possible to get both your opponents through if everything goes well (though not for the oposition...). The clue is to take advantage of rule 18 if you are first into the 2L zones with no boats overlapping inside. Then you make a gap between your self and the mark, which can be used as a passing lane for your team mates. If the opponent decides to go for the gap, then you can "close the door" without being restricted by 16.1 (which is disabled if you are changing course to round the mark). A penalty in a situation like this is not considered as the bad "hunting", but rather as a parallell to "knocking a queen on the chess board due to a mistake of the opponent".
In this example, the first red boat is clear ahead when she enters the 2-length zone. This gives her right of way under rule 18.2c, which is the best basis for a successful mark trap. She then manouver to have the blue boat between her and the mark. This makes the blue boat being trapped, as she is not entitled to room at the mark. The blue boat must sail on the wrong side of the mark and make an extra turn before rounding. The red boat can even choose to go with the blue on the wrong side of the mark, to maintain a controlling situation to delay blue even more, if necessary.
ISAF and Fair Play
Even if this is a public race night, we expect the participants to follow the ISAF rules and sail under the spirit of fair play. Incorrectly assigned penalties should of course be cancelled. If the boat that approved the cancellation of a penalty actually was the one that broke a rule in the situation, then she should take a penalty turn. Denying of taking a penalty turn when a rule is broken is worth 6 penalty points (if the fleet size is 6), which will be added to the teams score.
Four important reminders in the end of this extremely long message...
Remember
- to do your one-turn penalties asap after getting a correct penalty
- to not interfere with a boat on another leg (unless sailing a proper course)
- that you by participating at an event, you are accepting the event rules. If you don't want to try to sail by the ISAF rules and our fair play rules, then you should simply not join our public race nights.
- write "out" (after your last race is reported) if you will no longer participate, as you are in by default and will be picked in the next race if you don't write out.
See you on the water.
:beer: :beer: :beer:
Harald / euphoria
