Sailing the wrong course

Originally posted by gordon ...in the case of a boat missing the start/finish gate on a lap being warned by the race committee, the race committee gives advice to one particular boat that favours that boat and no other. Imagine if, as a result of the race committees warning, that boat beat you in the race. Would you not feel entitled to redress?

I'm not sure I'd get it though... Especially in a club racing situation. The question is whether its an improper action. Provided the other boat got the advice after it has passed the mark and has to go back I'd have trouble saying it was. Its common enough in club racing to yell out if a fellow competitor has missed a mark, but naturally one normally waits until they have got a reasonable distance along the next leg before telling them. The art of course is to tell them late enough that you retain a nice advantage, but early enough that they will continue racing, not retire [grin]*.

If in a club racing situation the RC puts in a similar wait then no big deal.

I note that the RYA guidance note you quote is silent on that: it states that saying they are going to go wrong is an improper action, but makes no comment on telling them they have gone wrong so that they have to go back...

*now I think about it there's a subtlety there. Should the series be using a high points system that gives more points the more finishers there are then another competitor would not be a disinterested party in that case... I'm not sure such a system is often used though.

Edited by JimC

Originally posted by Rupert Originally posted by gordon Sounds like outside help to me. Probably acceptable in a friendly club race.Gordon I assumed this would be the rule, but...

But surely 41(d) applies: unsolicted help from a disinterested party is not prohibited. Obviously an RC doesn't want to spit out the help too much, and needs to make *very* sure that they treat everyone exactly the same, but its not actually prohibited that I can see.

It seems quite simple. If a boat does not cross the start finish line, the Race Officer cannot legimately record either a lap time or finish time. Ergo,either the boat gets an overall lap score one lap down on what it would have been had they crossed the line, or a DNF because they simply did not finish by crossing the line. I cannot see how any protest by the competitor can possibly be upheld, unless the boat insists they did cross the line and the boat has sufficient witnesses of sufficient calibre to convince a protest jury it was the RO's mistake not theirs. 

Waiting half an hour is another issue...... especially if back to back races are being run. A query from the safety boat to the competiter along the lines of "Have you retired?" may help resolve the issue, but presumably only after the last boat has finished.

Originally posted by gordon Sounds like outside help to me. Probably acceptable in a friendly club race.Gordon

41(d) surely...

Sounds like outside help to me. Probably acceptable in a friendly club race.

Gordon