It's Really Happening

It's official, the Notice of Race (NOR) has been released. You can get your copy of the NOR by going to the Yahoo!groups website for St. Michaels Wednesday Night Racing. The NOR is in the files section.

Here are the highlights:





St. Michaels Wednesday Night Racing 2009
Notice of Race

1. Rules
The series shall be governed by the rules as defined in the Racing Rules of Sailing 2009-2012.
Racing Rules shall be changed as follows:
31 – contact with mark/signal boat causing damage/injury cannot be exonerated under rule 44
35 – any boat not finishing within 45 minutes of the first boat in her class shall be scored DNF
The changes will appear in full in the Sailing Instructions. The Sailing Instructions may also change other racing rules.

2. Eligibility and Entry
The series is open to all Star Class boats and PHRF boats. Eligible boats may register by submitting a completed registration form and payment of $50.00 to the Race Committee, or mailing it to the address listed below. Entry must be received before the boat competes for a second time in the season.
St. Michaels Wednesday Night Racing
215 S Hanson St
Easton, MD 21601

3. Schedule
The skipper’s meeting is scheduled for 1800 hrs, April 22, 2009, at the Miles River Yacht Club.

One race is scheduled each Wednesday, beginning the first Wednesday in May (May 6, 2009) and continuing through the first Wednesday in October (October 7, 2009).

1st warning signal (Stars):
1805 hrs May through August
1745 hrs September and October
Special Events:
James H. Wilson Round the Island Race August 5, 2009, 1745 hrs start
Guest Skippers Race August 12, 2009
(Guest Skippers Race shall not count towards standings)

The Annual Awards Party is scheduled for 1800 hrs, November 14, 2009 at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Auditorium.

4. Sailing Instructions
Sailing Instructions shall be available after 1800 hrs on April 22, 2009, at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum front gate and the Miles River Yacht Club office.

5. Race Area
The Race Area shall be the Miles River off the entrance to St. Michaels harbor. Attachment A shows the location of the race area with approximate government mark locations.


6. Courses
Stars: The course shall be port-rounding windward/leeward laps around club drop marks. The number of laps shall be shown on the Race Committee’s course boards.
PHRF: The course shall be designated on the Race Committee’s course boards by mark designations.

7. Penalty System
In addition to penalties listed in 44.1, if a boat comes into contact with the Race Committee Boat or Mark Boat and there is damage, or there is harm to any individual thereon, she shall immediately retire from the race. The penalty for not retiring is disqualification. This changes rules 31 and 44.1.

8. Scoring
Class series shall be scored using the Low Point System of Appendix A with the following changes:
•For the Star class, changes regarding excluded races will be provided by the Star fleet at a later date (hopefully with the Sailing Instructions).
•For PHRF classes, one race shall be excluded from a boat’s score for every 5 races completed.
•Guest Skipper Night shall be excluded from series scores

The “Highpoint” Trophy shall be awarded to the boat that wins the most competitive class. The “most competitive class” shall be defined as the class that has the smallest number of points between the 1st place series competitor and the 5th place series competitor.

9. Radio Communication
Except in emergency, a boat shall neither make radio transmissions while racing nor receive radio communications not available to all boats. This restriction also applies to mobile telephones, text messaging, and portable Internet devices.

10. Prizes
Prizes shall be awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers for the series in each class. The “Highpoint” Trophy shall be awarded to the boat that wins the most competitive class as defined in “Scoring”. Additional prizes may be awarded at the discretion of the St. Michaels Wednesday Night Racing Steering Committee.