Many say that this is some of the best fun racing that they do. It is a fantastic way to break up the summer work week and get some serious race practice for the skipper and crew.

Changes this season…

There will be a few changes this year as discussed at the mid-winter forum to keep racing affordable:

1. Organising Authority changes to Northcote Birkenhead Yacht Club (NBYC)
2. Switching to Tuesday nights remaining fortnightly.
3. Joining fellow one design advocates The Etchells (Etchells can’t do Thursdays).
   • Two fleets on one sprints course is fine as previous experience racing with the E7s demonstrated.
4. Changing race area from East to West of the bridge
   • RNZYS have moved 7s and MRX racing to Tuesday nights and will be using the East side for most nights.
   • The West side of the bridge is often a better venue, more space, less traffic, better breeze.

Introducing Northcote Birkenhead Yacht Club…

NBYC are predominantly a dinghy club but are well equipped, have a great culture and are thriving. Check out the short video at this link to see more of what they are about.

The Race Officer and Vice Commodore is Dave West. Dave is an experienced National Race Officer and familiar with our type of sprint racing.

Racing and Series Format

The race format will remain the same as previous years with 3-4 (depending on daylight and breeze) short Windward Leeward races. Each race night or “flight” will be scored as a “mini-series” with the overall result for that night counting towards the series.

The Young88’s will race with the Etchells with starts 5 minutes apart. It has yet to be determined which is the faster boat 😊

First race night is planned after the start of daylight savings for October 3^rd and will run fortnightly until Dec 12^th resuming in February after Waitangi Day and concluding at the beginning of April before we run out of daylight.

We are also planning a free practice night for competitors and race management 1800hrs Tues Sept 26^th.

Entry and Fees

The model for this series is the same as that used for racing with BBYC. The Association collects the entry fees and pays the club directly. There is a fixed fee from the organising authority for each night of racing split between the fleets racing. The Association is taking the risk on entries/revenue and doing the admin.

The strategy is to reduce the risk and maximise numbers by getting early commitment ideally to the full series. The pricing is set so that the cost per night reduces based on the number of nights sailed.

To make the event viable we need to have at least six full series entries in the Young 88 Web App by the end of August and payment to The Association by Sept 19^th.

Any surplus revenue that comes to the Association from the event will be reinvested in the form of prizes, food and beverages for events and video/photography recording and production.

Get togethers and After Matches

The current plan is to run a pre-season briefing via Zoom, a Xmas Series prize giving at NBYC and an overall series prize giving March/April at NBYC. In addition, there will no doubt be an opportunity for “Dockside Debriefs” throughout the series with a quiet refreshment, probably on K pier or a local bar.

What Else?

NBYC has a highly active youth sailing programme and part of the discussions have involved making space for an additional <16yrs old sailor on the crews to introduce them to the world of keelboat sailing and supplement some of our more “mature” crews. More to come on how this will work.

More Information

• Link to Young 88 Event Page
• Link to enter and pay
• Link to NBYC Event Page

Any Questions please get in touch.

Regards

Mark

Mark Tapper – Undercover mark.tapper@rakino.com

OneDesign Sprints - Y88 Event Champ