Sea Simon,
Yes, “Foxwhelp” BC 23 suffered miserably on her RYA rating at the Royal Dartmouth regatta largely because we suffered going upwind. We did our best to sail without ballast through chop in an effort to satisfy our rating. We had three crew on the rail, but still bobbed about a bit. (Cruising I would certainly have had ballast in to windward to cut through the chop). Off wind, she went well with the asym up, but the legs were very short.
We did better in the Bay Race with longer legs and lighter air.
In contrast, “Pippin” always does very well when in the company of the OGA. Of course the OGA rating bears no resemblance to the RYA, particularly as it has no displacement measurement. And with our ability to have ballast or not, we have an advantage adjusting to the conditions.
When one old gaffer was overheard to be grumbling about Pippin’s water ballast advantage, I suggested they introduce displacement to their calculation. A nearby old gaffer responded with ;”Do you really think we want to know what our boats weigh?!”
Last year “Pippin” took first and second in the Gaffers class with equal points to the winner (tie break rules say the winner of a tie is the winner of the later race). If Pippin does not sell before the regatta this year, I intend to reverse that result, although the very lovely “Cynthia” owned by Peter Lucas is always a popular winner.
