Dear Knowledgeable Sailboarders; In preparation for the BYRA Marathon (Bayview to Lion Is and return Sunday 2 May), Guidance is requested in regard to the VYC rating for:

International Raceboard Class with 9.5m2 and unlimited pumping
International Raceboard Class with 8.5m2 and unlimited pumping
DII Class (Lechner etc)
Windsurfer OneDesign with 6m2 and downwind pumping

Does anyone have some guidance that could provide an update to the out-of-date stats currently listed by Yachting Victoria?

Probably the most commonly available stats would come from mixed fleet club racing which would provide comparison to the Laser Class dinghy:
Laser - 113
Laser Radial - 116
Laser 4.7 - 122

My consideration of the pumping factor:
For the Windsurfer OneDesign with downwind pumping, I would think it could be considered comparable to the VYC estimate for "No Spinnaker to Spinnaker -3.1%"

Therefore the currently listed rating of Lightweight 112 and Heavyweight 116, reduced by the 3.1% factor, would become 108.6 and 112.4

I have extracted (below) most of the relevant bits from: http://www.yachtingvictoria.com.au/get_file.cgi?id=2766790

"Change to Rig Adjustment to Yardstick
Non Asymmetric to Asymmetric Spinnaker - 1.5%
Asymmetric to Non Asymmetric Spinnaker +1.5%
Spinnaker to No Spinnaker +2.3%
No Spinnaker to Spinnaker -3.1%
Reduction in crew size -2.0%
Sloop rigged cat sailed 1 up -4.5%
Single hander sailed 2 up Base yardstick 140+ +4.2%
No Trapeze to Trapeze -3%"

". . . Owing to the many types of sailboards and whose performance varies with sail area and wind strength their yardsticks should be treated as tentative."

Surely someone has some info to improve upon the current ratings!?

I had a though this arvo that maybe Drumoyne or St George sailing clubs might have a correlation factor for dinghies and boards as They're the only ones that do mixed racing AFIK. Bit late for the idea to be actioned though

I tend to think the current VYC yardsticks, while old, are still about as good as anyone can get at the moment apart from the D2s. The problem is the enormously variability of the performance of boards against boats as the conditions change, which means that no one-number system would work. The boards will be way quicker in a good breeze, but at most clubs most races are sailed in lighter winds. The result is that the relative speeds vary so much according to the wind that it's very hard to work out comparative speeds overall.

Even a good Windsurfer OD, for example, will struggle against a good Laser Radial in medium/ light winds because in conditions where pointing is critical, not even a WOD can hang in with a dinghy well enough upwind to gain enough back downwind. A Raceboard would have less chance on yardstick upwind, and may struggle to make up the time downwind. In a steady 20 knots+ the WOD is going upwind with dinghies rating 95, like Sharpies and 505s - but those conditions are fairly uncommon at most clubs. After all, most dinghy classes stop racing at a measured 25 knots steady (which is a lot stronger than bar-talk 25 knots) with many cats stopping at 23 knots, I think.

The D2 yardstick is wrong IMHO. Before Moths had foils I did some racing against the world's best two Moths (carbon narrow hull Hungry Tigers) in light winds with a 7.4 on a Lechner. At the time, the world champ (Thorpey) reckoned that Moths should have a yardstick of 100. The D2 was the same pace as the Moths up until about 8 knots, and then faster. That is without pumping, apart from the occasional pump in gusts or waves as permitted under dinghy and D2 rules. With pumping of course the D2 would be very quick.

The D2 and Raceboard are quicker upwind and down than the International Canoe (Oz yardstick 92, which is very harsh compared to UK yardsticks because the very limited database includes the former IC world champ - the old figure of about 96 was better) over about 10 knots. The Raceboards are considerably slower upwind in light winds than the D2, Canoe or Moth. The D2 is close to the same pace as the (non foiling) Moth and IC in light stuff and much faster in a breeze, so a yardstick of 102 clearly under-rates its speed.

However, obviously downwind in big air the boards are really quick, and in really light stuff when the RBs can pump, or downwind in the light when the WODs can pump, then nothing - not even an 18 Foot Skiff, Tornado or foiling Moth- will beat them.

I get the point about pumping, but the RBs would have been allowing unrestricted pumping when the yardstick was developed. Apart from the D2 (which should be close to RB 7.5 in my opinion) they are OK. A few years back I did the calculations based off DAC racing which showed the RB and WOD yardsticks were pretty good. We used the YV yardsticks for the NSW interclub series and we had very close competition between the RBs and WODs for the first year. The second year, the 9.5 and 8.5 RBs were allowed to race off the 7.5 yardstick and that meant the WODs had no chance. Incidentally I think we had Technos on 114.5 and RSXs on 100 and that worked OK but of depended enormously on the wind.

So overall, I reckon the current yardsticks are pretty good apart from that of the D2. Put it this way - if I was told I had to win a club championship on yardstick and I had to choose between a D2, RB 7.5, Open (i.e. RB 9.5), WOD, Laser, Laser Radial, Int. Canoe or Tasar (to name another popular dinghy I know) I think you'd choose the D2 first, the Canoe last, and all the rest would be pretty damn close to dead level and among sailors of equal skill would get down entirely to the luck of the breeze who won on any day.

It would be good to have the Formula Board included in Yardstick events as well.

Formula boards would be very hard to rate!

A short wide board like the formula board does not sail well in displacement mode. The formula is all geared around early planning. Once it does get on the plane it is very very impressive. Not sure what a formula board top speed is probably around 30 knots? A wide board with a big fin becomes a hindrance with extra drag at the very high speeds.

Okay, we're all agreed (at a guess) the VYC may not reflect the current sailboard .v. sailboat / dinghy / cat etc... comparison.

Suggestion, if a/or various YA (etc) club/s would wish to hold the "Yard Stick Regatta" we could re align the handicaps. I see a "Queens Birthday" June Regatta coming on

This could be say St Georges or DAC in Sydney, RQYS in Brisbane, Vic, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Auckland, Wellington and New Cal to give a new ASIA PAC rating for Dinghies, Cats, Sailboards and Kite boards / Foils.

Would anyone want a level playing field? Face it, we all sail and this could be seriously fun for all.

Thank you Chris 249,
I was pretty sure you'd have done some fair analysis in regard to ratings. And yes sailboard performance is largely dependant upon the wind strength at which the planing thresh-hold is crossed. So in typical average winds say 5 to 15 kn, a sailboard will plane some of the time, and be bogged down some of the time. So yes, I agree the current VY ratings more or less reflect their average performance in average conditions. So may as well leave the 'provisional ratings' as they are.