Virtual Regatta - 6th June

The National 12 fleet were disappointed that the third event in the Dinghy Shack National series, scheduled to take place at Brightlingsea, had been cancelled but were delighted that Dinghy Shack agreed to sponsor a virtual regatta in its place. So the fleet took to the water using the Virtual Regatta Inshore app/website. The event was very popular with all spaces filled and the fleet using the 20 boat limit of the game.

Race Officer Felix Camm (age 10), ran the racing through a Zoom video conference and chose a range of boats and courses to challenge and entertain the fleet. The fleet had a gentle introduction to virtual racing in the easily manageable J70s and off-shore racers. Racing got progressively harder as the foiling Nacra 17 and F50s were introduced. Many in the fleet found the F50 course to be particularly challenging with its reaching start, gated windward mark and course boundaries which make it quite different to the more traditional triangle, sausage or trapezium courses that the N12s normally do.

The younger end of the fleet showed their prowess at virtual racing, combining their excellent sailing skills with fine keyboard/tablet skills to take the first four places.  Racing drew in some of the old hands in the fleet and also a traveller from Scotland whose journey time was reduced by 10 hours through the virtual regatta.

Racing was followed by a “Bring Your Own Question” quiz with 11 virtual teams pitched against each other over Zoom. Each team provided a round with topics ranging from; facts about Brightlingsea, physics, sailing and koalas. Everyone agreed this was a pretty good alternative to an actual event enabling the fleet to come together and socialise whilst continuing to look forwards to the day when “wet” racing can re-commence.