Funnify A Regular Course
Take a regular "round the bouy" course and make it more fun with items like:
- every bouy has to be rounded twice
- have to sail backwards over finish
- do 360 or 720 on each leg
- sail a leg with no rudder
- sail downwind backwards
- knock boat down at bouy, swim out and touch mast head, swim back and continue
etc.
Rudderless Race
Sail around a regular course without your rudder.
Buddy Race
Multiple boats around a typical course, but each boat has to have a "buddy".
The buddy boats have to hold a piece of rope between them (by hand, not cleated) and sail together that way.
If the rope is dropped, they have to take a penalty turn and then rejoin the rope between the boats before continuing the course.
Roulette
2 bouys are places cross wind from each other.
The object is to guess how many times you can sail around them in 5 minutes.
Each person in the fleet makes a guess for themselves, the fleet captain writes down all the guesses (either secretly turned in, or publicly announced), then everyone sails around them at the same time for 5 minutes.
The interesting part is the scoring, if you sail exactly the number of times around that you thought, you get double.
If you sail more than you guessed, you only get the number that you guessed.
And if you sail less than you guessed, you only get 1 point for every time you made it around.
Example: If you guessed 7, and sailed around 5 times, you get 5 points. If you sailed around the bouys 7 times, you get 14.
But if you sailed around 8 times, then you only get 7.
It is perfectly OK to luff up and not make extra laps, but people learn quickly to guess as many laps as they can, and go for it.
Musical Moorings
Several bouys in straight line.
Everyone sails around the bouys while music is playing, or for a certain time period.
When music stops, you have to grab mooring and person who doesn't grab one, looses point.
Do several times to acumulate points over the fleet.
Kite Flying Race
Run a regular course with the exception that each crew has to fly a kite the whole time.
Blind Skipper
The skipper wears a blind fold, the crew talks them thru how to sail & steer.
Relay Race
Boats are paired up, and one person sails around a leg of the bouys, and at the end of a lap has to pass a baton (or other token) to their parner, which then can start the next lap.
Team Relay Race
The fleet is divided into 2 teams.
Each team sends one boat at a time around the bouys.
The first team to get all of their boats around the bouys wins.
OR, you can just use 2 boats, and the crew of each boat gets changed out at the end of each lap.
Baton Race
Different than a relay race - have 2 teams or multiple partnered boats. Everyone sails around the course at the same time, but at the end of the laps, the baton has to be passed to the next boat before starting the next lap.
Frisbee Relay
Sort of like a Baton race - have multiple teams of 2 boats.
Everyone races around a regular bouy race course, and one member of each team is carrying a frisbee.
Every 5 minutes, the committee boat blows a whistle, and whoever has the frisbee has to immediately throw it to their teammate boat.
They then have to carry it for 5 minutes and throw it back at the next whistle.
Tag Team
Different than a relay race - boats are paired up, and when the race starts, everyone races a lap (or to a mark), at which point the teams must switch boats to continue the next lap.
The team can't continue until they have swapped boats.
Row / Sail Combo
Similar to the conventional round-the-bouy
racing, with the exception that you are allowed to row or paddle at any time.
Youth Race
The youth is the captain of the boat and has their hand on the tiller.
The parent is in the boat with them, and helps with anything that is needed, including holding onto the tiller.
Slalom
Have a string of buoys close enough that tacking/gybing through them left and right is a boat-handling challenge.
Strong wind adds to the fun.
Can either do one at a time like time trials, or can run 2 lanes at the same time.
Tack uphill first, then cross at the top and head back down.