Dragons Go Techno
The venerable Dragon Class has approved some interesting changes...not welcomed by all.
One Design fleets are becoming more civilised and I mean that in the most generous of fashions. The days of bunch starts at the pin end where you could sneak away with half a boatlength if you were lucky, shielded by others to windward and leeward are over for the most part. Starting mid-line is now a cinch and the days of the ‘sag’ are what we old stagers will be opining about in yacht club bars for years to come to Generation Alphas that won’t have a clue what we are on about.
The job of race officering is, at last, getting somewhat easier - and I applaud that as it’s largely a thankless task, under-appreciated by competitors, and done by inspirational people giving back to the sport. The ‘new new’ race officer job is more about course management than fleet management and it’s all down to the electronic systems that are making a huge difference to the quality of One Design racing.
