Iron
Mountain Yacht Club
2015
Sailing Instructions
March 1, 2015
SCHEDULE and FORMAT
The
IMYC 2015 Series Races will occur on Saturdays of alternating
weekends. Specific dates will be
announced prior to the beginning of each series
SCORING
Contestants
will receive 1.5 points for each first place finish, 2 points for second, 3
points for third and so on. The winner is the contestant with the lowest
point total for the event. In the event of a tie, the lowest total
corrected time will determine the winner. Series scoring will exclude each
competitor’s worst three race scores.
RULES
Races shall be sailed under the
Racing Rules of Sailing for 2013 – 2016 of the International Sailing Federation,
except as otherwise stated herein. The Racing Rules can be downloaded
free of charge from the following link:
PROTESTS, FOULS AND PENALTIES
Skippers should hail for their rights
well in advance of any disputed situation.
Section
50 of the Racing Rules is modified to state that any yacht which acknowledges
her foul may exonerate herself by completing a 360-degree penalty maneuver
after the foul, but not before she has started, and before she has finished.
Protests must be presented in writing
to the Race Official within 30 minutes of the return to dock of the Race Official
in order to be considered valid.
HANDICAPPING
IMYC
will use the Time Correction Factor (TCF) system for determining corrected
finish times and scores. The TCFs will be determined based on standard average
published PHRF handicaps. The TCF will increase the time adjustment on
slow days and decrease the adjustment on fast days. The final TCF will
include adjustments for sail area, fixed props, etc. as described under Ratings
Adjustments.
TIME CORRECTION FACTOR
All corrected times will be
calculated as:
Corrected Time = That Yacht’s Elapsed
Time times its Adjusted TCF
Adjusted TCF = Base TCF + TCF Adders
as specified below
Base TCF = ______650_______
550 + PHRF Rating
RATINGS ADJUSTMENTS
Each yacht’s TCF will be modified
to reflect the adjustments described in this section prior to the computation
of that yacht’s corrected time.
Ratings Class:
Each yacht may, before any race, designate her Ratings
Class as: RACING, CRUISING, or NOVICE. This designation will carry
forward until changed by the yacht. The
declaration is purely at the discretion of the yacht, except that any yacht with
a designation of NOVICE for a race finished in first place in that race during
this racing year shall be required to change her designation thereafter.
Absent any declaration, a yacht shall be scored with a Ratings Class of
Racing.
Spinnaker Declaration:
Each yacht’s TCF adjustment will be based on her declared
spinnaker inventory. However, prior to
the preparatory signal for any race, any yacht may declare that she will not
fly her spinnaker during that race. Her
TCF will be adjusted accordingly for that race.
Hoisting of her spinnaker during that race will result in
disqualification.
Adjustments
shall be made to a yacht’s TCF based on the following rules:
EQUIPMENT Elapsed Time Adjustment TCF
Adder
Fixed Prop
– 3 blade Reduce ET by 2.0% - 0.020
Fixed Prop
– 2 blade Reduce ET by 1.0% - 0.010
Jib LP less than 150%
- Masthead Reduce
ET by 1.0% per 10% of LP - 0.010
-
Fractional Reduce ET by 0.5% per 10% of LP - 0.005
Jib LP more than 155%
- Masthead Increase
ET by 1.0% per 10% of LP +0.010
-
Fractional Increase ET
by 0.5% per 10% of LP +0.005
Spinnaker
- Racing Increase ET by 2.0% +0.020
-
Cruising/Asymmetric Increase ET by 1.0% +0.010
Class
- Cruising Reduce ET by 1% - 0.010
- Novice Reduce
ET by 2% - 0.020
Example of Adjusted TCF calculation:
Boat 1:
PHRF = 100 (Swan 43), folding prop, 150% jib, no spinnaker, racing class
Boat 2:
Catalina 30, tall mast, fixed 3 blade, asymmetric spinnaker,
roller
furling 142 jib, Cruising class
From the US PHRF Average Handicaps for 2011 (latest
version available), the average PHRF is: CATALINA
30 TM, 174
Boat
1 Boat 2
Base TCF = 650/(550 + PHRF) = 1.0000 0.8978
Prop Adjustment = 0.0000 -0.0200
Jib
Adjustment = [(150-142)/10% x 1%] = 0.0000 -0.0080
Spinnaker
Adjustment = 0.0000 0.0100
Class
adjustment = 0.0000 -0.0100
Adjusted
TCF = 1.0000 0.8698
The handicap
calculations expect the Catalina 30 TM to sail at 86.98% the speed of the
PHRF100 boat.
Example of Corrected Time calculation:
The
corrected time is calculated by first converting the actual elapsed time to
seconds, then multiplying by the Adjusted TCF.
For Boat 2 above with an actual elapsed finish time of 1 hour, 23
min, 20 sec the corrected time is:
Elapsed time = 1 x 3,600 + 23 x 60 + 20 = 5,000 seconds
Corrected
time = 5,000 x 0.8698 = 4,349
seconds
TIME LIMITS
Time
limits, postponement for weather conditions or cancellation will be at the
discretion of the Race Officer.
PROPULSION AND SAIL ATTACHMENT
The
only allowable source of energy for propelling a yacht through the water
shall be the wind. Section 50 of the Racing Rules is modified to allow ANY
means or configuration of sail attachment, placement, and sheeting, so long as
the wind provides the only source of energy.
Communication of
Race Information
The course
and any other necessary information for each race will be communicated by the
Race Officer prior to the announcement of start time. It is the
responsibility of each competitor to acquire the necessary race
information. The course will be described by a series of letters
representing marks (either islands or portable marks) in the approximate
locations shown on the Racing Mark Locations map below. VHF channel 71 will be
the default used for race related communications.
RACE STARTS AND TIMING
Race timing will be managed via
synchronized clocks. About ten minutes
prior to the start of a race the Race Officer will announce the exact race
start time via VHF radio, and by hailing upon request. Start and finish times will be as indicated
by the Race Officer’s clock which will be synchronized to the U.S. time
standard. Each racer will be responsible
for accurately recording their own finish time as indicated on their
synchronized clock. After the race the
Race Officer will poll the racers for their finish times. Racers may utilize any clocks they deem
appropriate. It is the racer’s
responsibility to maintain synchronization with the Race Officer’s clock. Commonly available “atomic” clocks
will synchronize automatically and most of them display seconds.
If at any time prior to start the Race
Officer hoists the YELLOW flag racers should contact the committee boat for
important information.
It is the responsibility of each yacht to make a proper start. The responsibility for a boat’s decision to participate in a race or to continue racing is hers alone.
