Novice Race Series
The Novice Race Series provides a link between learning to sail and becoming a competitive club racing sailor.
As helm, you’ll be teamed up with an experienced crew to help you build your skills and experience club racing. 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.
See the club calendar for up-to-date race event dates and details.
Who can take part?
- New members to the club and/or 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
You’ll be sailing either one of the club’s double handed boats, one of the club’s 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.
The novice race series will run through out the year with the final race of the series being held at our Regatta weekend (Early July 2022)
Race rules
- No spinnakers/gennakers allowed
- You will need to participate in more than 4 races to count towards the trophy
- Mast head floatation devices (MFDs) are mandatory
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 series is scored monthly, at the end of the year your five best races are used to determine the final placing and a trophy is awarded to first place. See the latest Novice Race results here.
- 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!
See below pdf explaining how the scores are worked out
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.
It’s important that each helm comes to the club between 1 – 1.5 hours before the race starts to set up the boat with the crew.
It is the helm’s 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 you’re not a member, please click here to Contact us
What club boats are available to club members to hire?
(Boats for the Novice race will be allocated and there is no need to book a boat)
You may find the following links useful.
Double handed boats For hire to club members with RYA Level 2
Single handed boats For hire to club members with basic skills.
Members Novice Forum
Downloads
Last updated 15:28 on 12 November 2023