Hello DBYC Members,

Once of the key areas your committee has been working on is how to better use the Puffin Pacers to boost the participation amongst the DBYC adult racing fleet and allow more novices to experience the fun of one design racing.    

So this year we are going to try a new concept and establish an adult racing/training program called the “Puffin Pacer Racer Regatta” which will be structured to encourage mixing experienced skippers with inexperienced crew with the crew selecting their preferred skipper prior to the race.

The first part of this will be regualr friday night "theory" nights at the bar over a glass of wine and basic sailing skills sessions on Saturday mornings. 

The second part is we will hold a a regular three weekly regatta on the pacers where we will then select seven highly experienced "superstar" skippers where we can match the puffin pacer crews to in a racing format. 

The Regatta which will be held every 3 weeks on a Saturday Afternon from 12pm, with 3 races scheduled (So we can have up to 21 crew put their hands up for a racing experience with our celebrity skippers) and lunch at the club for those not racing and spectators. We hope with a lemans start and our fantastic club house that non-sailors and spectators  

At each event we would rig the boats together and then we would all gather in the bar for a pre-brief where we allocate Crew to Skippers and Boats using the following approach to normalise the sailing teams: 

1. The newest/most nervous crew receive first selections of the skipper they want (assuming more successful/experienced skippers get picked first)
   1. All Skippers will have to prepare a brief sailing CV and outline their skills/Handicap 
2. The skippers will then choose their boat in reverse order (last picked by crew choose first) which takes puts in place the boatspeed handicap

The course will  be 3 lap sausage courses with the buoys set up beyond a nearshore “Deepwater mark” (eg it must always be passed on the Deepwater side into and out of the beach) and the furthest mark must be rounded three times (with the closest mark at least twice).

Non-racers and sponsors will be encouraged to come down and watch from the clubhouse with all races starting and ending at the club house with a Le Mans style (eg running to a boat on beach start) and if there are enough on shore supporters we may encourage them to set up a sweepstake for each race to make it more interesting.   

We will finish with results and drinks starting at 5:30pm and end when it ends and keep going at the bar as long as we need to.   

All participants will be asked to chip and bring a plate of food in $10/race for prize money (which we be used to buy for the bar after once the winners ring the bell and tell us how they did it):

Race 1 – 1^st crew (~$25 bar tab), 2^nd crew, 3^rd crew    

Race 2 – 1^st crew (~$25 bar tab), 2^nd crew, 3^rd crew  

Race 3 - 1^st crew (~$25 bar tab), 2^nd crew, 3^rd crew  

Overall Skipper (least points – no drops)   - 1^st Skipper (~$50 bar tab), 2^nd skipper, 3^rd skipper  

Overall Boat Sponsor (least points – no drops)   - “Best Boat on day” – $50 bar tab 

The Overall Boat Sponsor results will be tallied over the Summer and Results sent to local papers for publishing (using the sponsor name for the boat name).

We lso need seven to nine Puffin Pacer corporate sponsors, with money used to invest in sails/equipment for the fleet with the boats coming last getting the most attention.  

Corporate sponsors will be asked to invest $500/yr into the boat which will include the boat getting a new Jib/Main/sheets with their corporate logo on them and of course a better chance of their company winning the regatta.