Immediately after last winter's Fast Cruise series finished a survey was published to find out what competitors thought of the series. After 4 months 25 answers have been received. This represents roughly 25% of the participants that took part last year.  The object  was to find out what club members want from the Fast Cruises. Are we doing things right and if not, what improvements can we make? The majority seemed to like the format we used last winter of some weekends of 2 and some weekends of one fast cruise. Everybody is in favour of one weekend to the western Solent. Most people seemed to like using both fixed and progessive handicaps and the use of long and short courses to keep the fleet close together. However, most people would like separate prizes for the short and long course fleets. If prizes are awarded for fixed handicap, progressive, handicap, short course fleets and long course fleets then funds will run a bit low. Especially if a weekend has to be cancelled due to the weather as happened last year. Question 7 which asked "Instead of splitting the fleet by boat handicap how would you feel about splitting the fleet into a "racing" fleet and a "cruising" fleet? The "racing" fleet would sail a longer course, be allowed the use of spinnakers and be subject to RRS and the "cruising" fleet would sail a shorter course, not use spinnakers and be subject to IRPCS. Which fleet would you enter?" produced some interesting results. It appears that the majority of boat owners would enter the cruising fleet but of those who identified themselves as crew all wanted to crew in the racing fleet!

Finally, there seems to be a number of Fast Cruisers who have difficulties reaching the starting area on spring tides. For next winter it is planned to hold the Fast Cruises, as much as possible,on a Saturday closest to a neap tide so that HW is around 0600hr

The full results are shown below.

Question 1.

We introduced 2 "races" each weekend. Did you prefer this format or would you prefer just one "race" each weekend?

Result.

I prefer 2 races                                                                                                                 16.0%
I prefer 1 race                                                                                                                    36.0%
I would like a mixture (4 weekends of 2 races, 2 weekends of 1 race)                 48.0%

Question 2.

Would you like one of the destinations to be in the western Solent, either Lymington or Yarmouth? This would have to be a spring tide weekend to have the ebb tide in the afternoon on Saturday and a flood tide on Sunday morning

Result.

Yes                  100.0%
No                       0.0%

Question 3.

The course was published on the club website by Friday lunchtime each week. Is it also necessary to send the course by SMS text message as well?

Result.

Yes                   56.0%
No                     44.0%  

Question 4.

A new objective Club Handicap system based entirely on boat characteristics was introduced last summer. As well as using the Club Handicapping system, this winter's Fast Cruise series calculated a second set of results using a "progressive" handicap where handicaps are adjusted each race for crew performance. This was done to encourage "less experienced" Fast Cruisers or those that charter boats. Do we need continue with this second set of results?

Result

Yes. Continue with both set of results.                  64.0%
No. Just use the Club Handicap system              36.0%

Question 5.

Would you like to continue with long and short courses?

Result.

For all weekends                             60.0%
For some weekends                       28.0%
Not at all                                            12.0%

Question 6.

This year the prizes were awarded by calculating average times for boats sailing both the long and short courses and combining the times. Should we separate these and award prizes for the winners of the short course and the long course fleets?

Result.

Have separate prizes for each fleet                                           60.0%
Combine the results and award one set of prizes                  40.0%

Question 7.

Instead of splitting the fleet by boat handicap how would you feel about splitting the fleet into a "racing" fleet and a "cruising" fleet? The "racing" fleet would sail a longer course, be allowed the use of spinnakers and be subject to RRS and the "cruising" fleet would sail a shorter course, not use spinnakers and be subject to IRPCS. Which fleet would you enter?

Result.

I would enter my yacht in the "Racing" Fleet                                                       8.0%       (2)
I would enter my yacht in the "Cruising" Fleet                                                   28.0%      (9)
I would prefer to crew in the "Racing" Fleet                                                       24.0%      (6)
I would prefer to crew in the "Cruising" Fleet                                                       0.0%      (0)
I would not like the fleet split into racing and cruising fleets                          36.0%      (9)

Question 8.

This year the majority of competing yachts came from Gosport with one from Beaulieu, 2 or 3 from Hamble, 2 from Southsea and one from Chichester. We started all Fast Cruises in the N Ryde Middle/Browndown area as being midway between all participants. Did you have any difficulty in arriving for the start?

Result.

No                                                                    80.0%
Yes,on a spring tide                                     12.0%
Yes, on a neap tide                                         0.0%
Yes, at all states of tide                                  4.0%
Don't know                                                        4.0%

Question 9.

This year we used a distance and compass bearing to a buoy to describe the start line and finish line rather than use 2 buoys. Did this present any problems for you?

No                                             76.0%
Yes                                            24.0%

Question 10

Are there any tidal constraints at your berth/marina? If so please describe the limitations. (This question allowed the person to describe any particular difficulties they had in reaching the start of the Fast Cruise. In general terms the answers were:-

No problems                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        72.0%
HW+/-4hrs                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              4.0%
HW+/-3hrs                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              4.0%
HW+/-2.5hrs                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           4.0%
Beaulieu Bar                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          4.0%
See answer from Tim Bizzey                                                                                                                                                                                                              4.0%
Yes. A Lock with mud outside. Spring tides with start lines in the Wild West means I cannot get to the starts on time from Chichester.                   4.0%