Novice Race Series
The Novice Race Series provides a link between learning to sail and becoming a competitive club racing sailor, combining this with regular sailing can make a huge difference to a sailors achievements.
As helm, youll be teamed up with an experienced crew to help you build your skills and experience club racing. If you have your own boat, then you are of course free to sail that. You can also choose to sail a singlehanded boat if you prefer.
The winner at the end of the year will be awarded the club Novice trophy.
When does the Novice Race take place?
The race takes place as the 3rd race on the last Saturday of the month at 2:30pm from September to June, culminating in a double points final medal race on the opening night of The Club Regatta.
See the club calendar for up-to-date race event dates and details.
Who can take part?
- Members of the club who are new to sailing and racing
- Anyone who has completed their Dinghy RYA Level 2 within 3 years
- Anyone from our Novice Fleet if new to racing
Youll be sailing either one of the clubs double handed boats, one of the clubs single handed boats or maybe your own boat.
Each novice helm will be allocated a boat and will be paired with an experienced crew member.
Race rules
- No spinnakers/gennakers allowed
- From the 10 races, you must sail 6 to count (50%+1) this means sailors must do a minimum of 6 races to qualify and your best 6 results are counted
- You must also compete in a minimum of 20 club races during the time frame of the series as either helm or crew average of 2 per month
What will I get out of it?
- You get to sail as a helm with an experienced crew member. This will help you learn and to become more confident on the water. You can then transfer these skills to sail single handed boats on your own, or with others in two handed boats
- Sailing with a different boat each time will also give you a feel for different boats and help when you want to buy your own boat to take part in other club races.
How is the Series scored?
- The lower the points the better. You get 1 point for a first place, 2 for a second, and so on.
- After each race, the results page is updated and you can find those on the club website under activities and dinghy racing. Once you have sailed in more than the minimum number of novice races to qualify, then you begin to discard any weaker results.
- During the regatta weekend the final Novice race of the year will be organised. This race will give double points to those who take part which means all is still to play for! Medal Races cannot be discarded!
Process for setting up boats before the race
To enhance your sailing skills an important part is setting up your boat for the current weather conditions and personal preferences that you can learn from your experienced crew.
Its important that each helm comes to the club between 11.5 hours before the race starts to rig the boat and get set up, ready to race.
It is the helms responsibility to:
- Get the appropriate sails for the boat assigned to you on the day.
- Set the boat up as best you can before the race begins asking for advice from the nearest instructors or crew.
- Once your crew is available to help, you can learn the ways in which you can optimise the boat for the best performance.
If you are interested in taking part as a helm or a crew
Simply contact Harvey Rose who will add you to the series list or if youre not a member, please click here to Contact us
Downloads
Last updated 23:07 on 7 February 2025