Blood letting...

Ummm... Not the best result for the Farr 3.7 at the Bloody Mary. But it never really was going to be a 'Red Letter Day' when faced with a 33 point drop on PY. Both Grafham S.C and Q.M.S.C seem to have gone ultra conservative with regard to the handicap they gave the boat. Grafham were offering 1015 and Queen Mary a crazy 1006, a drop of 33 points from the suggested 1039.

I find this difficult to reconcile when you consider that the boat is a 40 year old 'One Design' with recorded data for all that time ( all be it recorded in NZ in windier weather ) against other know UK classes. And with very little change in the boat over that time period. Especially when it was obvious that the Moths allocated number seemed far from correct also. It's just that there's was preferable, and they cleaned up the trophies.

It's a difficult job running a mass handicap event, undoubtedly. But event organisers owe it to all the competitors to run a fair event, otherwise the event becomes meaningless. And this should involve making sure the system of handicapping is accurate for all!

THEY must spend the time in research to make sure of this. Or deny entry to the class concerned. And I apply this logic to the Farr as much as the Moth. If they felt they couldn't realistically provide a fair number, because of lack of research time or available date they should have denied the Farr entry. It's not good enough to just be over zealous with a number, take the entry fee and feel it's OK because you have given yourself enough 'margin for error'. You have just called in to question the whole event. Especially in these days of 'spot betting scandal'.

Rant over. 'Piers Hugh Smith' sailed a reasonable race. Hanging on to the back of the Merlin's, just, for 2 laps, when the wind was at it's highest. But as the wind died off on the final lap and swung around, the now long deep off wind legs really hurt and he eventually was place 205th out of the 302 competitors of which 248 started the race.

Well done Piers for really giving it ago even though things were set against you from the start. All I can hope is that the UK data ( elapsed time etc... ) gained from this event can go to inform others in the UK that my suggested 1039 handicap is not a made up bandit number to achieve a vast haul of silverware!

video to follow...