Beer Bottle [buoy] Racing  by Andrew Morrisey, s/v BBR  Lucky #7

 Shearwater Yacht Club offers some of the best racing in the Atlantic seaboard during the warm summers.  However; in the cold Canadian winter all our member’s boats are safely stored in cradles on land.  To make the most of our off season two of our senior club members, George and Glenda Carson, invented a winter sail racing program that is conducted in the warmth of the club-house.  This innovative racing sport is the first in the world.  Dating back to 2003 when the sport of Beer Bottle [buoy] Racing (BBR) began our club has been hosting several regattas and offers a regular Friday night race program.  It draws an excellent crowd of avid racers as young as ten years of age and as old at eighty.  Every racer is on an equal footing with this sport as they race their one-design boats around a race course that has buoy’s made out of specially labeled Green and Red beer bottles.

 Each boat is approximately 10 centimeters in length with a maximum sail area of 100 cm² and are made of locally produced wood (mostly pine).    In our BBR program SYC provides all the racers with a club boat.  The sails are numbered and we typically race ten boats per heat.   A typical race lasts around an hour and half and tests the tactical skills of each racer.  The course itself is chosen and depicted by the Beer Bottles that are put out before the race starts.  Our club house bar area has a dance floor made out of tiles therefore each tile represents one square of the game board.   We follow the current published Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) during each race.  Protests are far and few between but are easily resolved due to the full visibility of each situation by all participating racers and spectators.

 Each boat is sailed either single handed or with a team of two.  The race begins with each member randomly selecting their start position.  We use a roll of the dice (a big fuzzy dice to be exact) to determine the number of squares each boat will move for each turn.  To make the game more realistic after each roll of the dice, and before the boat is moved, a game card is drawn that provides a situational event that results in how far the boat will really be allowed to advance.  For example a player may roll a six but the situational card may reveal that they quickly ran aground and therefore they missed a turn.  Or another example would be that one of their crew members over indulged the night before on the bubbly therefore they loose two points off their dice-roll.  The situations are fun and in most cases realistic. 

 At the start of the race and when the lead boat reaches the mark a ‘Wind’ card is drawn from the deck that determines the wind direction and speed for the next leg of the race.  The player must take into consideration the wind direction as they move their boat around the course.  For example you can’t sail directly into the wind and must tack at 45 degree angles to the prevailing wind direction.   We make use of an arrow placed on the playing floor to represent the wind direction so each player is aware of the direction.

 The game is fun and fare for all players, young and old.  We have prizes for the top three finishing boats and it continues to reinforce the racing rules throughout the entire game.  It is a great sport to hone your tactical skills and keep sharp during the off-season. 

 At Shearwater we run our BBB-R program every Friday night from mid November until April.    The skippers meeting is at 7:00 pm immediately following the Friday night club BBQ that starts at 6:00pm.  

 For more information or to reserve a steak for the BBQ please contact the club prior to the race event at (902) 465-8950.

 The Shearwater Yacht Club is located off of Pleasant Street in the South End of Dartmouth NS.  Racing is open to all members and visiting guests.   Drop by to experience this growing Nova Scotia sport.