RaceSense Runs the J/70 Worlds with NO General Recalls
When it comes to small keelboat racing, the J/70 is the undisputed world leader. When it comes to their major championships, starting races has been a challenge for years. The J/70 Class has been plagued by general recalls, constant black flags, and trouble judging long, two-segment start lines.
That all changed at the 2024 J/70 World Championship. After a European Championship ridden with starting issues, the J/70 Class decided to implement RaceSense for the Worlds, hosted by the Real Club Nautico de Palma, in Mallorca, Spain.
95 teams started on a 1 kilometer long, single-segment line. The Race Committee started - and ended - the event with a P flag. There wasn’t a single general recall in the eight race series. Throughout the series, skeptics turned into RaceSense lovers - among them was multi-World Champion Erik Shampain, who shared:
RaceSense is amazing - we haven’t had any general recalls, people know when they’re over, it’s a time saver, you don’t have to worry about if boats are over and not being called. Everyone’s accountable. Everyone has the green light or red light at go. It just makes it simple. Having no general recalls is a really nice change of pace for these big one design fleets.
When asked if he’d ever sailed in this sort of regatta under exclusively the P Flag, Shampain replied “There’s a first time for everything”.
In the second race of the regatta, the 2023 World Champions on Charles Thompson’s Brutus were OCS. They cleared quickly and came back to win the race. A more traditional outcome would’ve been a BFD - a potential regatta ender at this sort of event. Instead, Thompson’s team was able to start, albeit behind the fleet, and fight back.
Raph Seven, with trimmer Martin Lemarchand, encountered a similar situation. Lemarchand commented after racing:
The Vakaros system changed the race as we were able to see that we were OCS instead of picking up a black flag. We were able to clear ourselves and continue to race.
Steve Hunt, tactician on Doug Rastello’s Good to Go, appreciated the fairness of RaceSense: “It’s like the eye in the sky: if you’re over, you’re over”. Hunt and his team also relied heavily on RaceSense’s automatic pings, noting that without a need to ping the ends, they were able to spend additional time warming up, practicing starts, and watching up the course.
This event leads into three more major championships this month: the RS21 World Championship, J/24 World Championship, and J/88 North American Championship. More and more classes are coming on board: this winter alone, the Star, VX One, and Etchells will all implement Vakaros RaceSense at their US Winter Series.
The game has changed in sailboat racing, and RaceSense has become the new formula for running fair and efficient events. If you and your class or club want to learn more about how to run RaceSense, reach out to sales@vakaros.com! RaceSense is affordable, easy to run, and here to stay.
