Port Edgar  Yacht Club

Racing

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PEYC organises racing for yachts & dinghies from April to December and, with over 350 races scheduled for 2007, has the most extensive race calendar on the Forth. The Club fully supports the RYA Racing Charter and has an open policy, encouraging a wide variety of boats with handicap racing based on Portsmouth Yardstick. Yachts in our fleet range from family cruisers to pure racing machines, from 18 to 49 feet in length, while the dinghy fleet spans Toppers to Hurricane catamarans. PEYC runs 60% of its racing on a Rolling Handicap system that tracks boat performance and generates tight, competitive racing. Race results & performance information are in a data-base on the PEYC web site. The Club’s prize allocation system ensures wide recognition, right down to 8th place in a series with 20 boats! In 2006, excluding the regattas & winter series, we awarded engraved glassware to 79 competitors. The Sailing Committee is responsible for managing racing including the events calendar, marks, courses, sailing instructions, rescue facilities, prizes, etc.

Race Series, Trophies & Regattas:

The radical change for 2007 is the shift in handicap split between the fast & slow yacht classes from 1004/1005 to 974/975, to even up the numbers, and the introduction of a ‘flight start’option to cope with peak turnouts. The average handicap in the yacht fleet has been steadily decreasing over the last 10 years from ~990 in 1997 to ~950 in 2006. Our start line, limited by the shipping channel, can safely accommodate ~18 yachts of typical fast yacht length and start numbers exceeded that several times in 2006. We don’t have enough yachts racing regularly to justify three handicap fleets but we sometimes get big turnouts, hence the flight start option for Race Officers to select if any yacht fleet start gets too big. Make sure that you’ve read the flight start rules in SI 2.2 and know the new flag colours. 

There are now 10 race series for dinghies, 4 for cats & 8 for yachts, and a further 20 trophy events with sev-eral run as one day ‘mini-series’events. Major events are the new Springboard Yacht Weekend on 5th/6th May to hone racing skills prior to Scottish Series, the PEYC Dinghy regatta on 8th/9th Sept & the main Yacht regatta on 22nd/23rd Sept. The PEYC Youth Regatta is on 26th Aug. The Bosun’s Locker & Queen Margaret yacht trophy races are included in the FYCA Forth Inshore Group (FIG) series of 7 races with best 4 results to count in 2007. The Andrew Thomson is the PEYC return race from the Anstruther Yacht Muster on 19th Aug.

Monday Evenings:

Monday evening dinghy racing is designed for club members new to racing as well as those with more expe-rience. It is run in the safe confines of Queensferry Bay & courses are kept very simple with multiple laps using an average lap time system to give everyone maximum sailing time. There are ‘Catamaran’, ‘Fast & Trapeze’, ‘Slow’& ‘Novice’classes. For beginners there is an ‘Introduction to Racing’evening on 16th April to explain the Racing Rules, race procedures, etc. On the water coaching may be available. The Port Edgar Marina hire-fleet is available for those who don’t have their own boat.

Wednesday Evenings:

Wednesday is the traditional PEYC racing evening using an extensive series of race marks within two miles of Port Edgar for short ‘round-the-cans’racing. Classes for fast & slow handicap yachts are run from April to September. For the Night Series in September, yachts start in daylight and finish racing after dark. Catamaran racing on Wednesdays has been shelved due to the low turnouts in recent years.

Thursday Evenings: Big Blue Boat Club & Yacht Cruising

PE Sailing School runs activities for young sailors, aged 11-17 who can already sail: £6.00 per session.  Contact Admin at Port Edgar on 0131 331 3330 or E-mail .

Yachts cruise in company; starting at 6:00pm every Thursday, May to September. All welcome, including newcomers. E-mail Ian Cameron on or contact Mary Watson on 07776 195474.

Saturday Sailing

The Saturday multi-race format for monohull dinghies, introduced in 2006 to replace Wednesday racing, were very successful & have been extended to five series, each with 9 races spread over three days.

Saturday cruises for both yachts and dinghies are held regularly throughout the season, sailing to popular local destinations such as Inchcolm for a picnic.  Yachts also cruise further afield for the Anstruther Muster.

Sunday Racing and Cruising:

During the main season, we encourage members to travel to other major open events on the Forth. From October to December the Club runs Sunday racing in a group of open series which attracts many visitors from other clubs. Following the popularity of Saturday cruises, we are introducing several Sunday cruises for yachts and dinghies in 2007.

Rolling Handicaps

The PEYC Rolling Handicap system, introduced in 1995, tracks boat performances & adjusts handicaps so as to encourage ‘middle-of-fleet’racers, challenge the fast boats and keeps the series results closer together. For races designated to operate on Rolling Handicap (RH), corrected times will be calculated using the current RH value for each boat. Boats racing for the first time, or having changed ownership, will use their Standard Handicap (FYCA 2007 handicap list, RYA YR2/2007 Portsmouth Yardstick list or PEYC allocated trial number for unlisted boats). Each race will be analysed using the RYA YR2 System, based on the fixed values of Primary Yardstick (PY), Secondary Yardstick (SY), Recorded Number (RN) and Club Number (CN) handicap boats, to establish a Standard Corrected Time (SCT) for that race. The elapsed time of each boat, divided by the SCT & multiplied by 1000, gives its Achieved Performance for that race. CN boats, defined as those about which PEYC has extensive performance data, have been included to spread the SCT computation base.

The new RH value for each boat will be shifted a fraction of the way from its RH for that race towards its Achieved Performance. The fraction, or update coefficient, remains at 0.15 (i.e. RH shifts 15% towards achieved performance). Slow performances are capped at +5% of the Standard Handicap for update purposes but no change is applied until two or more consecutive slow performances occur. This stops intermittent poor performances affecting RH values & reflects the RYA YR2 system ‘poor performance’limit of +5% beyond which data should be disregarded in calculating average performance. Fast performances are capped at -5% of the Standard Handicap for update purposes to reduce the effect of atypical performances, often caused by ‘wind-tide gate’situations or major changes in wind strength after the leading yachts have finished.

All regatta & trophy races, except sternchases, are run using Standard Handicaps to calculate results although the performance data will continue to update the RH values for future races. The system algorithm operates on the PEYC computer with no intervention by Race Officials. Race result printouts show the race handicap, achieved performance & new RH value for each boat. In the event of protests, late retirements, etc. decided after the next race has been run, there is normally no retrospective calculation of RH values. Results are also published in the Race Results Database via the PEYC web site.

Entering Races at Port Edgar

You must complete & sign a Race Entry form, undertaking to abide by the Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) & confirming insurance cover, before PEYC inputs your boat into the race results database. You must also register your boat on the race sheet before each race, both for safety and good race management. All boats in our database, listed in alphabetical order of helm/owner surname, are posted on the notice board just inside the clubhouse door. There is a clipboard for each class in the races scheduled on any day. Register by filling in your ‘boat database ID number’, boat name, class and sail number on the correct race sheet. The system helps the Race Officers identify all the boats participating so they can concentrate on assessing wind & tide for course choices, flag timing, etc. 

Crewing Opportunities:

PEYC hosts a ‘Crew Wanted & Crew Available’listing on the Web site, where crew and skippers can place their own adverts.  You can also post a notice at the Clubhouse entrance. There is ‘LastMinute.crew’whiteboard outside the Clubhouse for yachts to put up late appeals for crew and leave a berth number for recruits to find them.

Race Fees:

Visitors are welcome to all Regattas, Open Trophy & Open Series races and race fees are detailed on the race entry form. For closed PEYC races, you must be a full adult, affiliate or junior member of the Club to enter a boat. Race fees for club racing have been removed following the decision at the AGM in February.

Race Officer Duties

Any PEYC boat that competed in a reasonable number of races last season will have been allocated one or more Race Officer duty in the 2007 calendar. Please check to find your allotted date(s) in the Schedule of Races in the handbook or in the ‘on-line’OOD listing on the PEYC web site. You can expect an e-mail or telephone call from the OOD Manager to get your confirmation at least a week ahead. If you can’t do your OOD stint, then YOU need to arrange a date swap with someone else on the list. Once you’ve done this, let the OOD Manager know by sending an e-mail to ood@peyc.org.uk so that the on-line list can be updated. The PEYC Race Officer Manual will be available on the web site and in hardcopy. You should download your Race Officer Duty Sheet from the web site, with the race schedule for that day, time limits & extensions and predicted tidal currents to help you select the optimum course lengths. Review the manual, duty sheet & checklist beforehand; make sure you’re at Port Edgar in good time & with enough helpers; arrange to have at least one person per class start.

Don’t forget; ‘You need to manage the racing as well as you expect others to do so for you!’

PEYC Racing Statistics:

 
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
 2005 2006
RaceDays:
64
63
64
68
64
67
71
72
73
75
79
 77 82
Dinghy Races:
69
91
86
133
174
199
201
191
207
205
183
172
 144
Yacht Races:
91
109
110
113
114
134
147
159
166
169
195
191
 193
Scheduled Races:
160
200
196
246
288
333
348
350
373
374
378
363
 337
                           
PEYC Dinghies:
72
53
129
120
119
126
139
125
121
120
104
94
 75
Visitor Dinghies:
49
21
46
71
55
118
83
22
27
65
23
15
 6
Total Dinghies:
121
74
175
191
174
244
222
147
148
185
127
109
 81
                           
PEYC Yachts:
42
41
39
37
45
41
40
48
52
51
51
56
 43
Visitor Yachts:
29
42
56
57
60
51
54
57
51
46
34
30
 37
Total Yachts:
71
83
95
94
105
92
94
105
103
97
85
86
 80
                       
Dinghy ‘Boat Starts’:
710
769
1171
1275
1393
1591
1485
1248
1151
1178
813
780
 702
Yacht ‘Boat Starts’:
1043
1033
1246
1336
1374
1453
1648
1685
1979
1886
1696
1747
 1561
Total ‘Boat Starts’:
1753
1802
2417
2611
2767
3044
3133
2933
3130
3064
2509
2527
 2263

 

Jim Scott - Sailing Secretary