Laser Start?

Originally posted by SalsaPirates apologies but slightly off theme but related .....   As a member of a race team, if you see an infringment on the water, should you take any action? e.g.:   1. you witness an infringment and no-one does penalty turns or protests? 2. a competitor sails the worng course ....  sails to wrong mark or rounds a mark in wrong direction or hits a mark and no other competitors witness or take action?

If I saw a boat sail the wrong course, I would, as RO record its time, but not record it as a finisher in the provisional results. Have a word with them and if they dispute it, you can hold a hearing and you have all the info to re-instate them if their course was correct after all.

The source of a protest should make no difference to the outcome; It is the PC's job to establish facts and then decide, on the basis of the established facts, if a rule has been broken.

Protests from Race Committee or judges on the water, for instance, do occur.

Gordon

Depending on the facts found I may well disagree with Brass on this. The situation as I read it is that L luffed followed by a luff by W to keep clear.
L then luffs again and W luffs in response.
This is repeated several times.

In this case every time L luffs she is bound by rule 16.1 to give room to W to keep clear.
There will reach a point where, in reply any further luff by L, W is unable to keep clear. At this point L must cease luffing. If, in reply to a luff by L, the only way for W to keep clear is to tack then L must give her room to do so.

A further consideration on a crowded start line. W must have somewhere to go. If W has another boat to windward then when L gives W room to windward that includes the space needed for W to give room to the keep clear boat to windward. Furthermore, you cannot luff a windward boat into the committee boat.

So - the question a jury would have to ask would be - did L give room to W to keep clear every time L luffed? Did W react promptly and adequately?

If L had not been giving room to W before L bears away then not only do the last luffs break rule 16.1 but so does the bear away.

On the other hand, if L had given room and W was not keeping clear then W has broken rule 11.

If W was keeping clear but the bear away was so hard that W did not have room to keep clear then L breaks 16.1.

It would be worth reading the Team Racing Call Book - calls B1, B2, C1 and C2

Gordon

If a witness had protested both boats what would have been the outcome?

Originally posted by blueboy Gordon, would welcome an opinion on a related situation. Prestart, keelboats L and W are overlapped, both on starboard, luffing and almost stationary. W is clear of L by around a foot and every time W goes up, L closes the gap again to maximise her own gap to leeward. At the gun, L bore away sharply, rotating around her keel and causing her stern to swing to windward and make contact with W. No damage resulted. I was W. It appeared to me I was making all possible effort to keep clear, particularly since every time I went up, L also went up and that L broke 16.1 (changed course to bear away and did not give me room to keep clear). L considered I broke rule 11. There was no protest.

Keep Clear One boat keeps clear of another if the other can sail her course
with no need to take avoiding action and, when the boats are overlapped on
the same tack, if the leeward boat can change course in both directions
without immediately making contact with the windward boat.