In handicap racing, the wider you spread the net, the more meaningless the result becomes. By which I mean that trying to race an Optimist fairly against a 49er is virtually impossible. If the wind conditions remain constant throughout the race, then perhaps there is a chance of getting a fair result. But by and large - whether you're running handicap races based on corrected time or in a pursuit format - the chances are the wind will change speed or direction and the best-sailed boat won't necessarily win.

However Y&Y reader Mark Fearnley has sent me details of an event that sounds like it could genuinely offer an answer to some - although not all - of the problems listed above, whilst offering a lot of fun along the way. Here is what Mark had to say: "Dinghy sailing is neither TV nor spectator friendly. However you may be interested in what Morecambe and Heysham Yacht Club are doing for the clubs 70th anniversary regatta in August Bank Holiday this year, as it should be good to watch as well as compete in.

"The club is to pioneer a new format of racing - Team pursuit relay racing. Entrants are divided (by the organisers) into teams of three - with a fast, medium and slow boat in each team. The organisers will divide entrants up into three-boat teams where the combined handicaps are as close as possible to the overall average. So a three-boat team of Topper (PY1290), Laser (PY1078), and 49er (PY747) would be the same as an Enterprise (PY1116), RS200 (PY1059), and Osprey (PY940) - both totals being 3115.

"Beach start, slowest boats first, in order of the overall handicap (so the teams above start at the same time - Topper would start with the Enterprise). There shouldn't be much time between all the teams starts as they should all be fairly close to the average three-boat handicap.

"After completion of each lap, the boat must handover (or throw) the relay batten to the next boat in the team, on the water, inside a buoyed off ‘change-over' area. This area will be close to the shore in a bay overlooked by the club slipway - ideal for spectators and TV to catch the near misses and dropped battens. Short laps close to the shore should ensure plenty of change-overs, and a good view of who is in the lead at the allotted finish time.

"As well as being spectator friendly, the format gets over another perennial problem of handicap racing on tidal waters. Invariably the faster boats are usually at an advantage as they have no problems overcoming the tide. This has meant that the usual suspects tend to win year after year - boring for the slower boats, and discouraging for juniors and newcomers. Being part of a team of fast, medium, slow boat team makes it the same for everyone and the team that sails the best, with good handovers will win."

What a neat idea! Even a non-sailing spectator might grasp the tortoise-and-hare showdown between the Osprey as it races to beat the 49er across the finish line. It would be great to see sailing clubs adopt this format from time to time. The ‘team pursuit relay race', as Mark calls it, would be a great way of helping sailors to get to know others in their sailing club, to build some bridges between the junior and senior fleets for example. Any other clever formats like this, I would love to hear about.

RS600

I bought an RS600 a couple of years ago and have hardly sailed it since. At the time, when paying £1750 for an old but perfectly serviceable 600, it seemed like a safe investment but the value of this stunning singlehander has continued to plummet as old ones like mine are barely fetching four figures these days.

It is a good fun boat to sail and with a carbon mast and fully-battened mainsail that goes on forever it is a fast but pretty low-maintenance piece of hardware. So I must admit to finding the plummeting secondhand values a bit baffling, although the upside is that it seems to have become a favourite plaything for students looking for a good reason to avoid afternoons that probably should be spent in the university library.

On closer analysis perhaps there are a number of factors that have thrown the RS600 out of favour. The most obvious one is that the thrillseekers and have-a-go heroes that initially populated the class have migrated to the RS700 and Musto Skiff, with the bonus of a gennaker for added downhill terror. The RS600, with its rounded Laser-like hull form as opposed to the hard-chined hulls of the 700 and Musto, is also quite a tippy boat.

The fully-battened mainsail makes the boat a pig to tack until you get the knack of getting it cleanly through the wind. It has a tendency to want to stall mid-tack and go head to wind, and once the boat loses forward motion it can become very unstable, often ending up in a very unheroic, low-speed capsize. Hence the reason for RS opting to kit out the RS700 with a semi-battened sail - a much more forgiving sail configuration for low-speed manoeuvring.

Before buying my own RS600 I borrowed one for the Nationals a few years ago, and I soon discovered the key to tacking was to go from close reach to close reach, making sure that you exited the tack with the bow well off the breeze and the boom well eased from the centreline. However, my borrowed 600 came with a standard ratchet block and the mainsail was not going out easily, meaning that I was either stalling the boat or capsizing it. Day two and I rummaged around in my toolbox for an autoratchet, and went racing with this instead. The transformation was stunning, I could bear the boat away out of a tack, the mainsheet would run out and I could keep the boat on its feet. I've passed on this simple tip to a Musto Skiff friend who was suffering the same problem and he says it transformed his tacking too. So, one to try if you haven't already discovered this for yourself.

I have to say, the challenges of sailing the RS600 are what make it quite appealing to me, but then I'm a bit strange like that and I guess one of the minority, if the small numbers in the RS600 class are anything to go by.

Contenders

When the RS600 first came along in the mid-90s, the Contender class saw this as a direct threat to their existence, and rightfully so you might have thought. And yet numbers in the granddaddy of trapeze singlehanders are holding up nicely. Class secretary Mark Robinson reckons the introduction of the carbon rig has contributed to a gentle but encouraging renaissance in the class. "I'm not sure if it's added much to the performance of the boat," says Mark, "but the thing I notice most is how much easier the boat is to bring upright after a capsize." The class website also points out one of the chief benefits of a carbon boom - that it hurts less when it whacks you on the head! An experimented best avoided, I'd suggest.

Mark is a self-confessed mid-fleeter who sails on the Solent out of Gurnard Sailing Club on the Isle of Wight. He sails against a few other Contenders and some RS700s also based at Gurnard. The two classes give each other a good run for their money upwind in a breeze, although of course the RS700 has the legs on the Contender downwind - provided it is upright! Mark believes the Contender appeals to a broad club-racing audience because it is that bit less demanding than the modern breed of trapeze singlehanders.

The hull is heavier, although not excessively so, and its long waterline and traditionally-battened sail make it relatively stable and predictable in behaviour. Interestingly, while Kevlar sails are now permitted they have not necessarily proved any faster. Italian maestro Andrea Bonnezzi won a windy World Championships in Fremantle recently, using a standard Dacron mainsail. But then again Tim Holden won a windy National Championships at Porthpean last year using a Kevlar version.

By Mark Robinson's account, it was an epic regatta in Porthpean last May. The wind blew consistently over 20 knots and at times was gusting over 35. While 56 boats entered the Championship, only 48 ventured on to the water. ‘Only 48' is actually very impressive, of course, because it is hard to imagine many high-performance fleets being able to field such a high proportion of entrants in winds so severe. It is a testament to the seaworthiness of the Contender, which sounds like it just gets better and better the windier it gets.

There are also some impressive class stalwarts still actively racing, notably Keith Paul who won a few championships in his younger years in both the Contender and the Flying Dutchman. With Keith now in his mid-60s, he should be enjoying free bus travel but he is still out there racing hard in the Contender. As Mark admits: "When Keith Paul sails through you upwind in 30 knots, it's a sobering moment."

A younger sailor at the Championship, Simon Mussell, also had a very sobering moment after he fell awkwardly during a high-speed capsize. It resulted in him breaking his ankle in three places. He was rushed to hospital to be put back together again, but that was the end of sailing for the summer. In fact it was nearly the end of his boat, as the strong winds were giving the rescue cover more than enough to do just worrying about people, let alone hardware. So while Simon was being driven to hospital, his upturned Contender was being blown downwind for some miles down the Cornish coast.

Help came in the form of Matt Aston who, having stepped ashore from a knackering day at the races and hearing of Simon's plight, immediately jumped into a Porthpean SC rescue boat to help find the missing Contender. Having found the upturned hull many miles to leeward and in some danger of being trashed on the rocks, Matt righted the boat and sailed it back to Porthpean. Mark Robinson says Matt is just the sort of guy every class needs. "He's a real doer and a shaker. He makes things happen. It was a particularly cold and wet day in May, but he didn't think twice about doing what he did."

Simon Mussell's story doesn't end here, however. Having missed the summer season while his ankle was healing up, he returned to the class at the Weston open meeting in September and promptly won the event. He then went to Fremantle where he finished top Brit in fourth place, his best ever result. Mark says: "Simon did a great job of getting back on the bike. He said that after his injury he felt a little tentative sailing down the windy reaches, but he wonders if that even helped him get a better result."