Committee Boats
Committee boats come in all shapes and sizes. The first picture is of one of the committee boats used at Weymouth – a forty foot catamaran dive boat hired for the purpose. Really Stable Platform and lots of room.
Normally on my home waters of Belfast Lough we would use a cruising sailboat. There are a great number in the 33 to 45 foot range and we can usually persuade the generous owners to play CB for the weekend. When running bigger events or events for bigger boats then the bigger CB is better.
We don’t have too many purely motor cruisers in our area that are available to us but I have used them extensively away from home base. Beware monohull motor boats in a seaway – they can roll like a pig. They can be very useful if you can use a flybridge or high coachhouse roof to stand on to sight the line
Essential CB Equipment
The most important asset on a committee boat after enough room is a powered anchor windlass. The older I get, the more I appreciate this.
Almost as essential and particularly when we have the female of the species on board is a suitable, functioning and clean heads.
Things to avoid – Steel boats – you can use them but there are all sorts of problems with compasses, setting lines etc.
For our local winter dinghy series we actually use a 6 metre RIB to start racing but can’t be recommended – I am getting old.
