Lessons from BUSA 2024

 The major lesson is that you cannot judge a course from the shore. You need to get out on the water and eventually you have to bite the bullet.

On the second day the wind kept swinging to the south, when the forecast said it would go the other way. The Finish boat ended up downwind of the start and we had three runs and a one sided beat to finish. As always the first beat was OK. 

The problem was having a dedicated mark layer there was a tendency to rely on them rather than have the entire Umpire team get involved. There is a perception that moving the finish takes longer than trimming the course but this need not be the case, particularly if the boat is towed by it's anchor warp (settling time is much reduced) There were delays, mainly for boat repairs. Here again experience is the key to reducing the time taken. 

I was surprised at how soon we come off the water - always a difficult decision for the race officer - and quite right on this occasion. The problem is exacerbated in team racing as you are forcing boats, not owned by individuals, into close proximity and the skill level is quite variable. So what would be reasonable for fleet racing is too much for Team Racing. Once ashore you need a big change to be convinced that it is worth re-launching and time quickly becomes your enemy.

There is a bunker mentality at big events. You are assigned a job and you stay in your bunker. Communication must follow the assigned route, so you bite your lip and stay silent. Step out of your bunker and you step on someone's toes. I guess I am not a team player!

I am not convinced that having so many umpires improves the game. However, having an American along provided a real insight. Their use of radios could be really useful but most UK Umpires are not used to listening to them - partly a chicken and egg problem I suspect. Perhaps better equipment - headsets were talked about at one stage.

Going to two Boats

Whilst strongly discouraged, some University events drop to two boat team racing when they have a breakdown which would impact the schedule. 

In league situations this will not make a lot of difference but the HLS system relies much more heavily on points to break ties, so the scoring system becomes more important. Jo Lucas suggests that with the HLS system you should double the team score and add 1point to the losing team. This makes the score for a team with 1,2 equivalent to a 1,2,3 win with the losers taking 4,5,6 equivalent. 1,3 is a less deserving win and scores the same as a 1,2 win in UKTRA, while there is no difference with 2,3.Whatever, system is used it is going to be a compromise.

Result	UKTRA	Lucas
1,  2	8	6
3,  4	13	15
1,  3	9	8
2,  4	12	13
2,  3	10	10
1, 4	11	11

There is an argument that the team with the broken boat should have the opportunity to get the sailors in their broken boat into one of their good boats, should they so desire, since the other team have the opportunity to drop their worst sailor, when they go down to two boats, but that is another argument.    

            

Why the difference?

Team Racing Calls H5 and E12 appear to have different interpretations.

H5 says that when a boat rounds a mark wide her proper course may cease to be close to the mark before she has left the mark on the required side. In such a case 18.2(b) still applies but the mark room to which she is entitled no longer includes room to sail to the mark. 

E12 says that when a boat "sails beyond where she needed room to round the mark as necessary to sail the course, the outside boat is no longer required to give room"

E12 is dealing with room to tack, and the diagram in H5 has the outside boat abeam of the mark at all times. 

The question is should the decision be the same, if in H5, the boat had continued downwind, such that she was no longer abeam of the mark, but past it in a downwind direction? ie a line abeam from her transom was clearly past the mark? Does 18.2(b) switch back on when she turns towards the next mark? or is 18.2 off and she has to stay clear of boats that have right of way?

Wrong Decision

 I owe an apology to somebody. We made a wrong decision at the Warmer.

There was an incident pre-start. Protest was shouted - we paused and reached for our flag and there was a simultaneous display of our green flag and the boat shouting "Spinning". 

Seeing the green flag the boat decided not to spin and we didn't take any further actions despite the protesting boat complaining and saying that he now had to spin. That boat was correct and we failed to apply Appendix D 1.3 (b)  Which says "When a boat clearly indicates that she will take a penalty under rule 44.1, she shall take that penalty"

So now we know that it is not a sportsmanship issue - there is a clear rule on the matter. 

The boat misunderstood the green flag - which doesn't necessarily mean no rule was broken, it can mean we didn't see it or we disagree about who broke the rule. It could have been that they saw me reaching for the flag and assumed they were about to get two turns and thought shouting spinning would have reduced the penalty. Also wrong - by the time we get out the red flag they would have had the opportunity to do their turns and it is now Umpire imposed and two turns.

Lesson learnt by this Umpire - next time a boat shouts spinning it had better spin.

My excuse is that D1.3(b) was a new rule introduced in 2021. Previously we had penalised boats that failed to spin under sportsmanship. The boat could have thought no rule had been broken and was trying to take an "insurance" spin. Is it then unsportsmanlike not to take the spin, when Umpires indicate there will be no penalty? That was our mindset, and it was wrong, so another apology.

Culture

An actual happening at the Sailability British Keelboat League event in Cardiff.

The three RIBS were ready to set out. The Safety RIB, the Jury Rib and the Bosun RIB, when someone said "There's a boat out already, he won't have had permission to go out. "

The Safety RIB driver said " I hope they don't get into difficulties"

The Jury man said "Do we need to disqualify them?"

The Bosun said "I hope they don't break anything."

The man who made the original observation said "That shows how narrow your horizons are!"

Amusing, but I was already thinking about the culture of events, the way Match Racing will start quite early in the morning, 9am is not unusual. Team Racing will be  little more relaxed and aim for around 10, often not making it and Fleet Racing often starts around midday. Team Racers bring their own Umpire Flags, Match Race Umpires expect flags to be provided by the organisers. Having seen disabled sailors in the US, they expect to be treated no differently from ordinary sailors, if they are not ready in time they will take responsibility. In the UK we will wait if a disabled sailor has a problem, and they would probably expect us to wait.

All of these little things, and generalisations, go to make up the culture of an event. It's good to be sensitive of the culture, but sometimes very difficult to make decisions that follow the culture. 

An Evil Thought

 International officials are really not used to wearing their Kill Cords. 

One official on a recent course assured me that if I fell out he would come back and get me. Which was to ignore the possibility that we would all be thrown into the water and be dodging a rampant powerboat. 

The evil thought is that if World Sailing can justify the ramping up of penalties under Rule 42 for illegal propulsion (on the third penalty you are required to leave the event) Perhaps they could do the same thing for officials not wearing Kill Cords. A reminder for the first two occurrences but after the third occurrence at an event they would not be permitted to drive a powerboat at the event.

I do my best to always wear the kill cord and to switch the engine off when changing driver. Changing driver is probably the most dangerous time, as this is when an accidental trip can send you crashing into the throttle, resulting in you and your partner getting thrown into the water, with the kill cord attached to nothing but the boat. 

 

The Gybe-back

 We had an interesting incident at a recent event which has me thinking about the way rule 18 switches on and off during a gybeback.  The gybe -back typically occurs at mark 4, on a standard team racing S course, just before the final beat to the finish, so ignore mark numbering in the diagrams, the wind comes from the top of the diagrams which is where the finish is. Remember that the normal rules apply inside the zone but . . .

The problem is that 43.1(b) says that "When a boat is sailing within .. mark room to which she is entitled and ... she breaks a rule of Section A of Part 2, rule 15, 16, or 31 she is exonerated for her breach"

This means that the Umpires need to note when the boat is in the corridor leading to the mark.

In this diagram at position 5 the yellow boat is still within the corridor, as her boom has to clear the mark (ignore the diagram) so blue gets the penalty. However, in the scenario below we have to penalise yellow, as at position 5 she is outside the corridor to the mark and her alteration of course did not give blue room to keep clear. (OK the diagrams are not that clear but hopefully you get the point.)

Interesting, is the idea that the provisions of 18 switch on when the boat begins to turn and use the corridor. Consider this:-

The blue boat is keeping clear and had yellow held her course between positions 7 &8 would have passed clear of yellow. Yellow clearly altered in a manner which gave blue no chance to keep clear. However, since she has not yet passed the mark and her alteration was towards the mark she was using the room to which she was entitled. There was no breach of 15 as she remained right of way, is she exonerated for the breach of 16, even if the turn towards the mark was not completed?

There is, however, a get out for the blue boat in 43.1(a) since her infringement was as a consequence of yellow breaking 16 she is entitled to exonerated for her breach of rule 10.   

These complications don't occur when the inexperienced try the gybe-back outside the zone. They fail to understand the full power of the gybe-back done inside the zone and the exonerations available when this happens.