Fairness of Pursuit Races?

[druid]

I worked with a woman who crewed on a Santa Cruz 50 (one of the first ultralight sleds) on the Vic-Maui. In the warmup races they always had a problem because they were SO far ahead of everyone else they slacked off, then lost because of handicap.
On the other side of the scale, I raced the RNSA Single-Handed Race in a Crown 28 which had the SLOWEST rating in the fleet: I could have finished last and still won!

That's just the nature of handicap racing.

druid

 

[RobertLangdirect]

You start together or you finish closer together. In a perfect world, you would all be neck and neck at the end. But think about it, a purely faster boat will encounter better or poorer weather sooner than the boats behind? So the Pursuit Start just puts the distance up front.