Great Memories

Very early in the 90's I actually Match Raced.

One event, at Pembroke Dock, we used the Continuing Obrstuction Trap. All we had to do was sit close to the dockside with insufficient room for another boat to pass between us and the dock. Along came the opponent and stuck his nose in shouting "Up - Up -Up!" as it was a lee shore, only to find themselves penalised, when we flagged, as they were not allowed in there. I'm sure the rules changed so that it could not be used .  .  .  .

BUT this weekend at Spinnaker we had an unusual direction and the start was near the lee shore. Much grinding of centreboards on the shore, luck that no Umpire boats ground their propellers there. Many boats coming to leeward of boats very near the shore and shouting "Up - Up - Up!" Out came the rule book and it looks as if the situation is essentially the same as it was in the early 90's and probably worse because, if there was not room to pass between the boat an the shore, at the time the overlap was established not only are they not entitled to room under 19.2 (b) but they are required to keep clear and rules 10 and 11 do not apply "while the boats remain overlapped". So you could save it up for use as you approach the start line providing the overlap is not broken. VERY NASTY!

And I don't think there was a single protest all day using this scenario.

The other surprising thing was the number of umpires who had not converted to the new green and white flags. I thought we Umpires read the rules. An unintended consequence of my new flags was the tactile nature of the staffs. One being square and the other round meant I could easily distinguish between the red flag and the green and white flag without even needing to look at them (Very useful for blind Umpires). More useful than having them different colours, which is why I chose the material in the first place!