Gentleman’s Class

The aim of the Gentleman’s Class is to encourage sailors and boats that would not normally take part in this type of event to have a go.

All boats entered in this class are to be sailed using “white sails” only, i.e. no spinnakers or cruising chutes – however, if your sails are tan, blue or any other colour, that is OK.

All boats will be given a rating for the first race based on the handicapper’s experience and records of previous performance where known. After the first and each subsequent race, the elapsed race times are fed into a computer and a program adjusts each boat’s rating, so that if applied to the previous race the result would have been a dead heat.

These rating adjustments have the effect of equalising the boats regardless of size and type, so results will come down to the performance of the crew, giving any well sailed boat a chance to do well.

We hope to see families in cruising boats and short-handed crews among those taking part in what is an increasingly popular Regatta. The attractive waters of Poole Bay, outside Poole Harbour, provide fair racing requiring no local knowledge, and berthing is in marinas inside the shelter of Poole Harbour.