Five, Four, One, Go: A Complete Guide to the RRS 26 Starting Sequence
The horn doesn't start the race — the flag does. Rule 26 fits on half a page and still produces most of the arguments in club racing: which flag to fly at four minutes, what each one costs a boat, when to recall, and what to do when the committee is the one who got the timing wrong.
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Time-on-Time or Time-on-Distance? A Club Racer's Guide to PHRF Scoring
Two boats, one 6-mile course, both sailed exactly to their ratings. On a normal evening the two scoring systems agree to the second. On a drifter they disagree by 2:50 — and hand the win to different boats. Here's the arithmetic, the honest case for each, and how to pick one for your fleet.
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Reading Your Own Race Replay: 5 Mistakes You Can Only See From Above
You weren't late to the line. You were slow to it. You hit the layline a quarter-mile early. Your tacks cost three boat lengths, not half of one. Here are the five race-losing mistakes that are invisible from the rail and obvious from two hundred feet up.
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From Nine Boats to Twenty-Four: A Beer-Can Series Playbook
One Colorado club took a weeknight series from nine boats to twenty-four, ran 23 races in 12 weeks, and picked up five new members doing it. Here's the playbook — the format decisions, the crew problem, and the friction to delete before your first Wednesday.
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The Decline of Sailing Regattas — and What We Can Do to Help
New sailboat sales are down roughly 85% from their 1980s peak, the average racing hull is 34 years old, and some marquee races have shed a third of their entries. Here's what the data actually says about club racing's decline — and the handful of fixes that measurably work.
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Tips for Running a Race: A Newcomer's Guide
Volunteered to run the start line for the first time? Here's how to lay a fair course, sync a clean start, and score the fleet without a dedicated committee boat or years of experience.
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