In connection with the upcoming major sailing events 2008:

All big festivals sort the participating boats into different \\\'fleets\\\', i.e. in the registration the skipper declares which fleet he wants to be in.

We registered for \\\'Voile Aviron\\\' (Sail & Oar) this year in the Morbihan, but that was a mistake. The \\\'Voile Aviron\\\' fleet races never left the sheltered Morbihan harbour.

In a typical \\\'Sail & Oar\\\' fleet there are mostly very small boats and/or boats that are not really suited for rough open sea conditions. So the \\\'Sail & Oar\\\' races are held mostly inshore. And if there is just a mild blow, the races may be cancelled early. The Swallowboats (at least from Storm 17 up), though they are clearly \\\'Sail & Oar\\\' boats in a technical sense, are quite overqualified for sailing in that company.

All skippers of the bigger Swallowboats, who love a bit of open sea sailing and a decent wind, I would strongly recommend NOT to register for a \\\'Sail & Oar\\\' fleet participation but for a participation in a fleet of bigger and seagoing boats.
The next fleet up from Sail & Oar up would be \\\'Petite Plaisance Traditionelle\\\', but in there are all the Drascombes and similar, which are much slower than the Swallows, so again not a really challenging environment.
At least for the BayRaiders and SeaRaiders I would today rather recommend  to sign up for the \\\'Yoles et Aviron de Mer\\\' fleets, where they put all the seagoing whalers and captains gigs. Tough competition there in terms of rowing speed, but under sail it\\\'s a different story.

Claus