Start Racing

Who can go racing

If you are confident that you can sail around the course and avoid other boats, then we would encourage you to start racing with the club.

The experienced sailors will help and guide you round the course and before you know it you will be at the front of the pack.

When to Go racing

Our racing programme is detailed on our Race Programme and DutyMan rota page.  On arrival at the club, look at the weather and sea conditions and check that these are within your sailing ability. PDSC operate a traffic light flag system to aid that decision making process.  If you are happy the conditionas are within your ability that’s great – Lets go racing.

To keep things interesting we schedule a variety of different race types including the traditional “around the cans” series, a pursuit series, a sprint series and the long distance Bangor Pier, and Caernarfon races.  The Rawson Cup and Vaynol Cup series are run over a single weekend providing mini events of 4 to 5 races each.

How to enter the race

You will need to enter you name and boat class on the race signing on sheet in the clubhouse.  By ‘signing on’ you are agreeing to abide by the Notice of Race and sailing instructions. As a club member, all club racing is included within your membership fees.  Guests are permitted to sail on 3 occasions at the club before they will be required to be come members.

Where do i go and which start am i?

PDSC  conduct most races as a handicap series using the Portsmouth Yard stick system to split the fleet into Fast , Medium and slow handicap fleets.  Which fleet you will be in depends on which boat your are sailing.

the race course will be written on the signing on sheet and will confirm the buoy order and direction together with the number of laps to be completed.

Who runs the racing

The simple answer is the club members do.  We operate a duty rota where club members complete race officer and assistant race offer duties throughout the sailing season.