Safety Boat Service - Pursuit Races

Safety Boat Service

Our Yanmar engined safety boat went down to Tim Barfields in early March for its annual service. Not an earth shattering piece of news but something many of us feel is one of the most important things we get done during the year. Its got to be good to know that each time you turn that key the engine is going to fire first time, every time. A will it or won't it rescue boat about as much use as a chocolate teapot. It's not cheap but what cost do you put on H&S and peace of mind?

Mike (Over Easy) Baker

Pursuit Races

Up to the end of the last millennium one of the series was run as a pursuit race. This year pursuit races have been re-introduced for the Summer Series.

With pursuit races the start time for a boat depends on its handicap so if boats sailed to their handicap all the boats would finish at the same time.

The start times will be based on the boat handicap + the personal handicaps to give inexperience helm a chance to be at the front. This means that in a race lasting 70 minutes for a novice helm in a Mirror a top helm in a Laser would start around 30 minutes after the Mirror; Although this seems an impossible time to make up we used to get some very close finishes.

The Race Officers have a much harder tasks managing pursuit races, especially at the start when the start times must be evaluated. The finish is at a fixed time and may be anywhere on the course; at the finish the winner is the leading boat on the water and the places of other boats is their place on the water at the finish time.