POWER FLEET NAVIGATIONAL RALLIES: REVIEW OF THE SEASON 2021 BY ELENA MIROCHNIK & CLYDE AINLEY
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Navigational rallies, formerly known as predicted log contests, don’t get as much publicity as the sailing races, but have been run for decades by dedicated followers at yacht clubs across North America and around the world. In Fact, Predicted log racing was the subject of a Sports Illustrated article in 1955 that ran with the headline, “Predicted Log Races Offer Power Cruiser Skippers a Combination of Stiff Nautical Competition and a Relaxing Cruise with the Family”. Our Chicago
every season; and in 2019, we hosted North American Invitational contests with captains from across the country coming to Chicago to compete.
Yacht Club is no exception. We usually run 5-7 contests
HOW DOES IT WORK? For each rally there is a preset course of 12-20 nautical miles. The course has several waypoints (marks) for the skipper to pass in sequence. The skipper chooses his/her own running speed for their boat in advance and predicts the time it will take for their boat to travel from one mark to the next. These predictions can be determined by long hand math, utilizing the distance for each leg on the chart and the chosen speed, but more often skippers rely on navigation software and spreadsheets. The predicted time between each mark and the total elapsed time at the end of each leg is submitted to the Race Committee on a contest form signed by the skipper.
Blinker ✶ Winter 2021
Although these contests were created by power boaters for power boats, any type of boat can compete in navigational rallies because the contests are usually run at each participant’s speed, generally in the 5 to 15 knots range.
