Silver Convergence – Australia/UK

You really have to smile!! – After spiking a bit of interest and testing opinion as to whether we should adopt the Australian approach to the silver category, this has come in from Down Under….

i wish to correct you on the Australian Silver Sail Number. At the January National Championships held at Davey’s Bay, Victoria, the Australian Silver Category Sail Number been changed to 3400 which will remain fixed. It was recognised that the existing Australian formula would have no effect for approximately 9 years for Australian boats at the current rate of growth of new boats. So in a common sense move FFI A has aligned the Australian Silver Category Sail Number with the UK number. I suspect that the relevant websites are being altered to reflect this change as I type.
Cheers
Tim

More on Resetting the Silver Number in around 3 years time…..

We had this comment come in on the main BIFFA website about the article suggesting we consider cutting across to the Aussie definition of silver boats in about 3 years time….

“Now this is interesting and I think perhaps we should be considering this very seriously.  However I do wonder how the performance of say a 12 year old boat is affected by its age.  As the guys at the front of the fleet pass their “quick” boats to lesser mortals and get new boats the new boat is oil ways going to look quicker.  I’d like to see what happens if Charlie sails 3591 in a nationals or Steve sails 3721 or Alan 3711!”

However, that’s not quite the correct understanding of the way it would work.  This was the reply…

Well, as we converted across to the “Aussie Method” it would be at around sail number 3400 so that may be about 3 years from now. By that time, 3401 (a 1991 boat) would be about 25 years old, and then each year for the sake of argument boats might roughly click from Open to Silver Status at around about their 25th anniversary……  so a 12 year boat is never really likely to be involved.

Have you all voted in the Opinion Poll on this?? Click here!!

 

The Australian Silver Category Sail Number …..!!

We wrote on April 6th about whether we should debate moving the Silver Category Sail Number up from 3400 and maybe into the Australian System.  So what do the Aussies do?? They keep the upper number alive and moving gradually upwards.

This is the Australian Formula, by the way… “half the number of sail numbers less 2700, then add back the 2700″….

Well I reckon at the moment that would be about 3357 – so within the next couple of years or so (well at new sail number 4100), the UK and Australian Definitions will converge to the same number.  Maybe that’s the time we should cut over to their formula and set  a new defacto worldwide standard??  It’s a good time for us now to discuss and decide.

(Or perhaps we should take Charles viewpoint, and declare all Mk 9’s as silver straight away!!)

Don’t forget to vote on yesterday’s FF Blog Poll…..!!

Spinnaker Chute Cover on a Silver…..

My boat filled up last summer as waves continually broke over the foredeck with no chute cover.
How does yours fit? and how does it open and close? The opening on my foredeck goes to within 2″ of the very front of the boat.
Tim Giles – ff3132

Hayling Championships – The Silver Category Dilemma….

We have quite a few boats off to the Hayling Worlds and Nationals. We have five today, but I am told maybe six tomorrow….

However, one very good team from our Club – Andy Clark and Nadia Melnikova have a problem with it. They are very quick and from 2008 onwards have won lots on the Silver Circuit. They race 3378…. It therefore counts as a Silver in the UK, but an Open category boat internationally (above 3200).

I seem to recall too that Australia uses a rolling formula based on sail numbers that decides each year whether boats get recategorized as Silvers. (I think we wrote about this on the old Datchetman website – I’ll see if I can dig it out…)

Anyway, the thing is that Andy and Nadia in 2011 find they cannot race their beastie in the Silver category at Hayling. It would have to be in the Open Class – where the boat is not quite competitive. This is a great shame – and probably is about time it got sorted out now…. (note to FFI !!!). This is what Andy wrote below:-

“I have entered for the Nationals but not the Worlds. As much as I’d love to, there is no point entering a 20 year old boat to race in the same class as the brand new carbon fibre stiffened ovi 10’s. It seems ridiculous that the age for silver fleet hasn’t changed internationally. In fact, I believe that instead of catagorizing boats on their sail number according with what mould they came out of is no longer relevant.I think this needs to be readdressed in accordance with a boats age. Classics need to be extended as does the narrow window that categorizes silver boats. There..rant over.

All the best

Andy”

FF3378