SCUTTLEBUTT #371 - August 3, 1999
RACING RULE 18.2(c)-- by Rick Hatch
In the many protests I have heard, none are tougher or more uncomfortable
to decide than those involving Rule 18.2(c) and its precedent. Like the
title says, Rule 18.2 deals with the defined terms "Giving Room; Keeping
Clear." Rule 18.2(c) was written as guidance for both competitors and
judges. It reads:
"(c) If there is reasonable doubt that a boat established or broke an
overlap in time, it shall be presumed that she did not."
In other words, if during a protest hearing the Protest Committee does not
hear or is unable (or fails) to take evidence sufficient to clearly
establish beyond a reasonable doubt (i.e., to find as fact) whether or not
an overlap was established or broken in order to determine the
applicability of Rule 18.2(a) and 18.2(b), Rule 18.2(c) requires the
Protest Committee to presume that the overlap was not established or broken
in time. All too often, the only decision the protest committee is
permitted under the Rules to make is to DSQ one of the boats involved in
the incident.
Except, as specified in Rule 18.1, when Rule 18 does not apply, the risks
associated with Rule 18.2(c) arise in two situations just before the two
length zone around a mark:
Situation 1: when Boat A which was previously clear astern may have
established an inside overlap; and
Situation 2: when Boat A which was previously overlapped outside another
boat may have become clear ahead;
There is an excellent illustration by Brad Dellenbaugh of these situations
on page 151 of Dave Perry's book "Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing
Through 2000" (available directly from US Sailing at www.ussailing.org/).
In both situations, the skipper/tactician of Boat A thinks it may have
established an overlap on the other boat (Boat B) before Boat B entered the
two length zone or broke the overlap on Boat B before Boat A entered the
two length zone, and may well have. But, if Boat B protests, can the
representative of Boat A satisfy the Protest Committee in a protest hearing
that there is no doubt?
Put yourself in the situation of the members of the Protest Committee, who
weren't umpiring on the water, so they weren't there to observe the
incident. What do you do when the evidence received from Boat A
substantively conflicts with the evidence received from Boat B and there is
no evidence available from a third party to corroborate either Boat A's or
Boat B's side of the story? In such situations, Rule 18.2(c) puts Boat A
in a difficult place. It also requires the Protest Committee to make a
very uncomfortable decision. If, after seeking out all evidence available
to it (including adjourning the hearing if necessary until a witness can be
called by the Protest Committee) the PC has reasonable doubt as to when the
overlap was established or broken, it has to disqualify Boat A, even though
it is likely the PC doesn't know with certainty (was unable to find as
fact) what actually occurred.
In situations where Rule 18.2(c) may come into play, if you are the
skipper/tactician of Boat A and you don't have a witness off another boat
that was in a good position to observe whether the overlap was established
or broken, in
Situation 1: either don't take the inside (unless, of course, Boat B has
left so much room that Boat A can still keep clear even if Boat B luffs
head to wind after passing the mark), or if you do and are protested, it
would probably be a lot wiser to accept an alternate penalty on the water;
Situation 2: give Boat B room anyway.
In both cases Boat A can still protest Boat B, but at least the worst case
outcome would be that the protest would be disallowed (ignoring any fee for
filing a protest which, in Canada, cannot exceed Cdn.$5.00 without the
written approval of the Canadian Yachting Association). Whatever you do,
don't risk infringing Rule 14 by making contact with Boat B (to prove a
point? - NOT!).
Just remember, one DSQ can ruin your whole regatta, so avoid them! -- Rick
Hatch, US SAILING Senior Judge and Canadian Yachting Association National
Judge.
COWES WEEK
There may be only four ILC 70 maxis, but with Ted Turner back in town and
aboard Larry Ellison's Sayonara with his reformed 1979 Fastnet-winning
crew, interest in this tiny class of heavyweights has threatened to
overshadow the 900 boats competing in the Skandia Life Cowes Week. A shame,
then, that the ILC 70 maxis' own race officer, Dave Arnold, took the boats
out of the Solent and around to the south-east side of the Isle of Wight in
Sandown Bay. For what? Two short windward/leeward courses sailed in a 4-8
knot breeze with Jim Dolan's new Bill-Langan-designed Sagamore coming out
on top with a second and first. Turner scored a fourth and second.
To most eyes, the ILC 70 maxis hold more allure than the Maxi One-Design
class, simply because they are custom boats built for tycoons rather than
series-produced boats built for a round-the-world race that never happened.
-- Tim Jeffery, Electronic Telegraph
For the full story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
VOLVO OCEAN RACE
Earlier this year Team Heiner announced its registration for the Volvo
Ocean Race 2001-2002. At the moment negotiations with potential investors
are on going but a Dutch entry in the world's premier ocean race is not
secured yet. One third of the budget is covered and the Team Heiner
steering committee, which consists of experts in marketing, communication,
media, accounting and sport legal matters, are talking with the big
companies in The Netherlands.
Although there are still two years to go before the start of the race. Roy
Heiner, founder of Team Heiner, feels that time is running out. "Ideally we
would have started the development process right now. That takes 6 months.
Then building the two boats takes another nine months, leaving us a whole
year for testing and improving before the race" he said recently. "There
is no need to panic but we need to secure more investors soon. Of course it
is very promising that we have secured one third of the budget already, but
we need more investors to run a high quality campaign, aimed at winning the
Volvo Ocean Race. That is our goal, to win a true global grand prix sailing
event with a Dutch team".
Only a year after the finish of The Whitbread, Team Heiner was successful
in the Olympic Soling class. The team is currently number one on the ISAF
World Ranking and it is one of the favourites to win a medal in next year's
Olympic Games in Sydney.
Fresh from the afterguard of Innovision, the Dutch big boat which helped
the Netherlands to their first ever Champagne Mumm Admiral's Cup win, and
currently leading the Soling European Championships in Oslo, Heiner said,
"Of course this success will help in finding more sponsors but we have not
found them yet. We still need to double the amount we have so far". The
historic win by the Dutch team was big news in Holland, with Dutch
newspapers covering the event, and a TV documentary shown during prime time.
Commenting on the news coverage, Heiner continued, "This helps us in
finding the funds for the Volvo Ocean Race. We offer a performance in
sailing that in return generates a lot of publicity for our partners and
investors. Not just in the Volvo Ocean Race but in the Olympic Soling, in
big boats, in match racing as well. The aim is to secure all the funds for
the end of this financial/budget year so that we can start the development
phase in October of this year and begin building the two 60 foot ocean
racers in time."
Event website: http://www.VolvoOceanRace.org
HIGH TECH
What do you get when you combine proven experience and know-how with
stitchless technology and MDT (multi-directional threading) construction?
You get one hell of a fast sail that's both lightweight and affordable. And
it's not important if you sail a Cockamamie 13 or a Ohmy 65 - Ullman Sails
will help ratchet your program upward. You can get a price quote online
right now:
http://www.ullmansails.com/
AMERICA'S CUP
* AmericaOne, the St. Francis Yacht Club's challenger for America's Cup
XXX, announced today that Line 7 and Musto have joined the Team as
Exclusive Clothing Suppliers outfitting the AmericaOne team. Line 7 has
been designated as Team Gear Supplier and Musto as Technical Gear Supplier
providing outerwear and technical sailing gear. -- Jennifer McHugh,
http://www.americaone.org
* The Young Australia 2000 syndicate is currently going through its crew
selection process, which aims to put 12 youth sailors on their entry,
representing all the Australian states.
Last week, a group of 20 or so applicants were put through their paces on
Syd Fischer's famous 50-footer, Ragamuffin. As the group gets whittled down
into the final sailing core, they will move onto their 1995 IACC yacht for
training.
Young skipper James Spithill (19) is working closely with Rob Brown the
team's coach and project manager in the crew selection process, where a
major consideration is compatibility and an ability to work in a team
environment. The objective is to mix the core youth group with four
experienced senior sailors, one of whom may be Brown, a three-times world
18ft skiff champion. Veteran Syd Fischer (72), who is chairman of the
syndicate and has spearheaded four America's Cup challenges before, will
not be one of those senior sailors. -- America's Cup 2000
http://www.americascup2000.org.nz/fs.html
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON
Letters selected to be printed are routinely edited for clarity, space (250
words max) or to exclude personal attacks.
-- From Rich Hazelton, Editor 48 North -- Re: Darline Hobock's comment
"However, one-design racing CANNOT be considered just "recreational
racing". Then what is it? When sailing becomes a job, then what do you do
for recreation?
-- From James Teeters (In response to Robin Baker (#370) -- Robin Baker,
in reference to Krazy-K Yote and the IMS, used the phrase "if you play in
that league you need to play by their rules". Apparently, that is exactly
what Krazy-K Yote did not do: she did not seek rule interpretations on
those design features that were atypical of the IMS fleet.
The first obligation of the IMS Rule is to provide a sailing venue where
owner's want to bring their boats and race. What good is a racing rule
without a constituency? You cannot maintain a constituency without some
degree of design stability. As Olin Stephens pointed out, this ultimately
requires boundaries.
Without boundaries, IMS would have long ago migrated to multi-hulls and
then to foilers or whatever. It is difficult for a rule like IMS to
simultaneously restrict changes that would immediately obsolesce a critical
portion of its fleet, yet provide for enough innovation to keep the fleet
from stagnating into boats that do not attract more constituents.
We were too slow in this country to appreciate the effects on IMS of the
demise of IOR and the growth of professionalism. We were late in
establishing the separate playgrounds, Racer and Cruiser/Racer, for the two
broad categories of owners: those that want the rule to protect their
current investments and those that want to beat the rule with a new
investment.
I also believe that the separate playgrounds should extend to separate
VPPs. We should be able to correct the inequities in handicapping the
Cruiser/Racers without worrying about shifting the optimal IMS design
configuration and thereby rendering the entire Racer fleet obsolete.
-- From Seth A. Radow (re Bruce Farr's interview in Seahorse) Apparently
there is no panacea in ratings systems after all. Interesting that Farr
prefers IMS as his rule of choice -- even with all its flaws -- and agrees
the IMS rule does need tweaking/fixing. Farr clearly has problems with IRM.
He implies that all rules, by their very nature, are type forming, some
more than others (IRM).
Farr seems to imply IRM has difficulty rating boats that were designed
under different rules to be rated equitably under one rule. Rules that try
to be all things to all boats (PHRF) simply cannot do an accurate job... it
is a near impossible task. PHRF attempts to satisfy a difficult parable.
Enough for some, but, not enough for others. New rules are designed to
obsolete old rules and boats. That is the cost of progress. PHRF remains
ideal home for those older boats.
-- From Douglas Holthaus -- The America's Cup challengers who have
voluntarily abided by the America's Cup rules and decisions, would probably
be a lot "hAPpier" if the Swiss Fast 2000 and French Le Defi Sud syndicates
had chosen to do likewise. All syndicates voluntarily agreed to be bound
by the decisions of the America's Cup Arbitration Panel and last year's
Panel determination finding that the proposed Swiss charter of Fr 40 from
Le Defi Sud would violate the America's Cup Protocol was a decision binding
on both syndicates. Nonetheless, the French/Swiss forged ahead with their
illicit charter deal in violation of the Panel's decision which they now
seek to slough off as without consequence.
Because they willfully violated the Panel's decision, the Swiss and French
syndicates are ineligible to challenge in the America's Cup Match against
New Zealand (in the unlikely event either were to win the Louis Vuitton
Challenger Series). However, this is small solace to the Challengers who
have chosen to play by the rules but who must still waste their time and
resources by racing these rules violators. Perhaps the offenders should
make everyone "hAPpy" by withdrawing now and saving the embarrassment of
being disqualified at the starting line October 18th.
THE PREZ SAYS -- Paul Henderson, ISAF President
To All Sailors: Yes I have a bias! My grandmother was Irish from County
Wicklow. Having declared that ancestry, the Indigo ISAF Team Racing World
Championship in Dublin, Ireland hosted by the Royal St. George Y.C. was the
finest regatta I have ever attended. The weather was magnificent - warm,
sunny and wind.
It was spectacular in all aspects: Venue, boats, competitors, racing, Yacht
Club, excitement and just pure Irish hospitality. On behalf of ISAF and the
sailors I would like to thank the Royal St. George Yacht Club Members,
Irish Sailing Assoc., and all the volunteers for a job well done and
especially to John Crebbin for leading the charge.
It should be noted that the USA were disqualified on a Black Flag incident
in the last race. The USA Team must be commended for their sportsmanship.
Even though it was a difficult way to lose they handled themselves with
dignity and respect before the Int. Jury and individually made a point of
thanking the organizers for the hospitality shown. Congratulations USA and
the third place UK Team.
Team Racing, after what I experienced in Ireland, has to be fostered by
ISAF and as many Member National Authorities and Yacht Clubs as we can
convince to support it. The following are the major points observed:
Boats: Basic boats are the best and ones which can be used in club training
programs; Firefly, 420, Vanguard 15, Albacore, Enterprise, Pirat, Snipe,
Cadet, Mirror, etc all could work well. Therefore it is cheap to
facilitate. Boats that maneuver quickly are the key.
Sailors: All sizes, genders and shapes can do it. It is suggested that
there be a minimum weight for skipper and crew of 130 kilos. This is
healthy since it does not have the problem of a maximum and does not have
the physical limitations imposed by trapezes.
Venue: Like all sailing it is important but the smallest of water can be
used. Close to club with wind and good spectator facilities are ideal.
Teams: The advantage is that you can have as many as 50 Teams which was
what West Kirby handled in their Wilson Cup. That is 300 sailors using 24
simple Fireflies. It has the added advantage in that more than 1 team per
country or club can compete in the same regatta.
Spectators: It is extremely exciting to watch as the lead constantly
changes and usually is not decided till the finish line. The races are
short and sharp and more than one flight can race at the same time. So it
is bang, bang, bang!!
Overview: The ISAF Team Racing Worlds will be hosted in The Czech Republic,
who won the Silver Fleet with the French 2nd, in two years sailed in 420's.
Lets try and get 25 MNA's to enter. It is truly the best competition for
Nations and ISAF has its event comparable to the Davis Cup in Tennis, World
Cup in Soccer and the Ryder Cup in Golf. It will be recommended to the ISAF
Council that this be designated as " ISAF Team Race World Championship for
THE NATIONS CUP"
ADECCO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
COWES-Ludde Ingvall and the crew of Skandia (EUR) returned to their winning
ways on the opening day of the Cowes Week event, the sixth in the Adecco
World Championship of the Maxi-One-Design class. They did so in a
commanding manner, winning the six-hour long race by a little more than six
minutes.
It was a typical Cowes Week style course for maxi yachts, taking them out
of the Eastern Solent to a double triangle in Hayling Bay, using navigation
marks and then back into the Solent for a finish off the Royal Yacht
Squadron line. The light easterly breezes, which became softer once the
boats were clear of the Solent, made it a fairly prolonged affair.
Ingvall always choses his crew with care, and for Cowes Week he has made no
exception, adding Eddie Warwick to the line-up to provide local knowledge.
Warwick is an Etchells sailor who has raced frequently at an international
level with Robbie Doyle, Ingvall's tactician, and they were exchanging
information regularly in the back of the boat. Warwick provided the insight
to take Skandia to the Isle of Wight side of the Solent on the long beat
out to the Spithead Forts, and it was the paying strategy. -- Bob Fisher
COWES WEEK Race one - Amended finishing order: 1. EUR Skandia Ludde
Ingvall 2. BEL Synphony Hans Bouscholte 3. FRA Le Defi Bouygues Telecom
- Transiciel Jimmy Pahun 4. NZL RF Yachting Ross Field 5. SUI
Alinghimax Ernesto Bertarelli 6. ITA Seac Banche Guido Maisto 7. SWE
Team Henri-Lloyd Gunnar Krantz (after 2% time penalty) 8. RSA Rainbow
Magic Geoff Meek
Event website: http://www.adecco-championship.com/uk/
AUCKLAND UPDATE
(Reprinted with permission from DEFENCE 2000, which is available for US $48
per year from John@roake.gen.nz)
* The Cup Village is now fully booked, with 11 teams setting up house. But
there may be room for one more - the America's Cup Village Ltd would like
to squeeze in Syd Fischer's Young Australia syndicate, who have been
playing a cat and mouse game about deciding on lodgings for their challenge.
* A billboard in Sydney's Rushcutters Bay says, 'Join the party in
Auckland but hands off the silverware'. In partnership with America's Cup
2000 and Telecom New Zealand, Quokka Sports will bring Australians all the
action of the America's Cup at http://www.americascup.org. The company
founders are American Dick Williams and Australian sailors John Bertrand,
winner of the America's Cup, and Al Ramadan, recognised by Time Digital as
one of the Top 50 Cyber Elite. Quokka Sports is named for a rare relative
of the kangaroo, found primarily on Rottnest Island, Western Australia. In
a hostile desert environment, the Quokka has not merely survived, it has
thrived.
LESSONS LEARNED
Last Sunday, the curmudgeon dragged his Cal 20 down to Alamitos Bay YC.
Prior to launching, I grabbed a hose to wash off the road grim. Mistake!
There was a huge hole in the hose- and it was directed squarely at me. As
Walter Johnson correctly observed, "It's a good thing you're wearing your
FAST DRYING Camet shorts." My shorts were soaked. But not too worry -- long
before we left the dock my shorts were dry again and I could enjoy a great
day of racing. And because of my fast drying (and great looking) Camet
shorts, I was comfortableand styling: http://www.camet.com
INTERESTING WEBSITE
The Intersail site, not only brings together news feeds from race events as
they break, but allows you to set up your own profile, so that it only
serves up articles of interest. Whether you race dinghies in North-West
UK, or Maxi's in the Round Europe Race, you can filter the news to match
your interests precisely. Intersail also has databases of clubs,
chandleries and other sailors, which can be searched to find content within
a set number of miles from where you live. http://www.intersail.co.uk
THE CURMUDGEON'S DEFINITIONS
Committee meetings: Dark alleys into which good ideas are led and strangled.
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