This may be a dumb question however I am new to racing and had to ask.
When racing in a white-sail division event (non-spinnaker), an asymmetric sail with no spinnaker pole is not allowed correct?
Thanks
Ducati
Not a dumb question at all. Glad you asked.
As the guys have said, it all depends on the rules where you race. In fact, in our area for our
C34 one designs, since we have more than enough boats to compete in many seasonal races (i.e., five or six races once a month, called the Winter -GGYC Seaweed Soup Regatta and the Summer Series - Interclub Series) we have our own division of only C34s, and thus get a separate start from the other PHRF groups. Therefore, we have developed our OWN C34 PHRF numbers that we use, which are different than those used if, say a C34 wanted to race in a race that didn't have enough C34s to qualify as their own "fleet" or separate division. These series race committees let us use "our own" handicaps when we have enough baots to have our own division / start.
Sometimes some of our guys like to race in other special once-a-year races in the Bay, so instead of using their "C34 PHRF #s" they use the "other" PHRF #s they get from the local YRA, which are somewhat different than the "C34 PHRF #s" we've worked out over the years.
The reason for all this blabber (hope I'm not making your head spin, quite yet
) is this: For our C34 one-design races, regardless of whether it's just a C34 race or within another races like the Winter or Summer series, we have three basic "deals": 1) no head sail bigger than a 130; 2) limited pole lengths (I forget the details) but poles are allowed for jibs going downwind; 3) no spinnakers of ANY type - just jibs, and only jibs. The "C34 only PHRF" #s have been so honed in the last 25 years that we had 10 boats in the racing division in our recent SF Cup and they all finished within 2 minutes of each other on corrected time, and most all of them have C34 PHRF #s so close together it'd amaze ya.
For the other "one-off" races, or if a C34 skipper decides he wants to race in other monthly race series that the other "gaggle" of us C34s do not race in, he uses the YRA PHRF # and can use a spinnaker. Many of our skippers race more than once a month, some in "White sail" races and some using spinnakers. In the spinnaker races there are usually only one or two C34s, and they don't start separately but are mixed in with other boats of the same PHRF ratings. Some of those other races can be non-spinnaker, too.
So, it really all depends. If you sail where there are a lot of your boats, see if you can work out a fleet of your own. If you're just in "regular PHRF territory" and race against many different other boats in your PHRF range, then the two things to look out for are maximum size of jib and pole size (max. length). And, of course, whether they allow spinnakers or not. An A sail, to me at least, is definitively a spinnaker.
Good luck racing. I sure enjoyed the 5 years it took me to figure it out, but I sure had fun learning.
Oh, and don't ever sail through the starting line...:cry:
