Tuesday Talk - "The Un-bandit of PY Sailing" - by Dougal Henshall 22 October
Published 10:14 on 7 Oct 2024
Almost all racing at Seafarers involves dinghies of a variety of classes competing against each other. This is only feasible with a handicapping system in place. Like most UK dinghy clubs, Seafarers SC uses the Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) scheme.
Where one particular class seems always to achieve better results than expected, the rumor begins to circulate that the class is a handicap bandit. Some clubs even slash the class PY Number. BUT - is there really such a thing as a handicap bandit and if so, how do you become one? The talk will look at the development of the handicap system, the boats, the bandits and - will look forward to the future.
This will be David (Dougal) Henshall's second talk at the Club. In October last year, Dougal gave a very interesting talk on the Solent as the birthplace of performance dinghy sailing.
Dougal Henshall
Dougal is best known as a dinghy historian. Born in Southampton in the early 1950s, he grew up as part of a family that spent the summers just messing around in boats on the Hamble River and Southampton Water. From there, he moved up to dinghy racing, starting off in Moths, before advancing on to crew in a Fireball, just as the Class was adopting spinnakers and trapezes. What followed was 50 years spent racing in just about every sort of boat, multi-hull and location imaginable. He was lucky to sail with some of the great racers of the day, crewing for many top helms, such as Dave Pitman, Larry Marks, Howard Sellars, and Jim Saltonstall.
After taking early retirement from the telecommunications industry, Dougal was able to combine his love of sailing with the development of a new career focused on journalism and charting the history of the racing dinghy. In addition to a string of articles looking at all facets of small boat sailing, Dougal has published three books, detailing the history of the International Contender, the Merlin Rocket, and the 505. He now lives on the south side of the Isle of Wight but spends his summers back on the mainland, looking at boats, sailing them and writing about the experience.
Those of you who attend the RYA Dinghy Show may have attended one of Dougal's presentations. If you haven't seen it yet, his 2021 talk "Seven Dinghies for Seven Decades" is not to be missed; go to MEDIA/Club Videos.
Bar open from 19.30 and the talk starts promptly at 20.00. Guests are welcome.
Although not essential, it would be useful if you could book via WebCollect (here) to give an idea of attendance. Guests will be welcome.
Bring a little cash with you as a collection for "Mind", the mental health charity, will be made at the end of the evening.
If anyone requires any further information, please contact Viv, our Social Secretary
Last updated 09:51 on 24 April 2025
