For those unused to ladders in general, here is a guide:
And here are the provisional rules for the Flying Fifteen ladder, as drawn up by Paul and open for discussion.
1. Eligible to anyone in the sailing club who can helm a Flying Fifteen.
2. You enter as the helm and in a nominated boat e.g. Paul, Norma B; Donald, Black, Adrian, Ffly; etc.
3. Inexperienced helms may enter but would need to ensure that they and the challenged boat have a competent crew aboard.
4. Participants are invited to join at the start of the season.
5. The starting order is established, either by a random draw or deliberate bias as arranged by Donald!
6. You can challenge someone up to three places above you.
For discussion
1. If the challenger wins do they swap places, or should the challenger move into the new place with everyone then moving one place down (I like the second option better)?
2. Some rules need to be established about how long someone who is challenged has to race and how quickly before there can be a rechallenge?
3. Can someone joining mid season begin by challenging anyone on the ladder? If they win do they move into that place, and if they loose start at the bottom?
4. Do we ask for a race fee for each challenge?
5. There should be a book to record all races.
6. To pick a reserve boat, ie to skippers opting for the same boat agree for a stand by boat, should the challenger or the challenged be in the reserve boat? (not sure I understand that, but then I seldom understand everything the Commodore says).
7. We need to agree what the race is to be, I suggest a match race length can vary but shouldn't be very long. Standard starting arangement?
Paul has made the ladder, and very sturdy and elegant it is too (very much like its maker...)