October 2023 Papoose Article

Regatta or Race?

September 3rd the Yacht Club held its annual Commodore’s Cup the third and final regatta of the season. Open to all sailors within Lake Mohawk, 7 sailboats representing 4 classes were on the starting line for each race with the following sailors taking home the trophies (or in this case gift certificates to The Boardwalk Club.)

Following the regatta Commodore Joe Fleming and his wife Julie hosted the annual Commodore’s Party which was a wonderful barbecue dinner enjoyed lakeside at the yacht club yard.

So, a little bit more about regattas and races. For starters you may be asking how is a regatta different than a race? Throughout the sailing season a club will hold races often once or twice a week and the results of these races are combined into a series with overall winners awarded honors at the end of the season. Lake Mohawk Yacht Club holds its racing series on Sunday afternoons. To participate in the club series, you must be a member of the yacht club.

A regatta on the other hand is a group of races held over the course of a day or consecutive days. These are generally open to sailors from other sailing clubs or in our case open to any sailor who is a member of the country club but need not be a yacht club member.

Races and regattas can be held with all boats being of the same type/class (ex. Sunfish, Lightning, Snipe) sailing only against each other or be done as an open class (any sailboat allowed) with handicap scoring. Lake Mohawk Yacht Club’s regular racing season and our regattas are open class events utilizing handicap scoring.

In handicap scoring the actual time it takes each boat to complete the course is recorded but then adjusted using a handicap rating assigned to each type of boat based on several factors including the shape of the hull, sail area, and length of the waterline. Handicaps also take into account wind speed when the race was sailed. Having a handicap system levels the playing field and it’s interesting to see how results can change once handicaps are factored in. See the table below for an example.

There are several organizations that publish handicap ratings. LMYC utilizes the Portsmouth Yardstick handicap a rating system quite popular for smaller boats.

This example of handicapping shows how crossing the line first does not necessarily mean you won the Regatta!