Upwind/downwind right of way

For the cat open we make the gate UPWIND only and have the start line set as normal and then set the FINISH line the other side of the Ctb and (so the OOD's can keep track) you must pass thru the finish line UPWIND and we make the FINISH line an obstruction downwind. 

Originally posted by rogerd Interesting debate. Anyone thought of something radical like a trapezoid course then you would all be going in roughly the same direction on the same bit of water...no conflict.

Dammit Rog, I think you might be onto something there

 

 

Racing at the recent Torbay regatta in a 15kt breeze on the Monday
the B14's (they had the first start with the 12's) on a windward /leeward
course, were racing downwind to the leeward mark, which was
positioned just to windward of the start line.
We arrived just in time for the fast handicap to start.
As you can imagine the path the the leeward mark was a bit tricky, as
there was not much space between the approaching close hauled boats
going to windward.

In this instance I don't think any of them would have honoured the
'gentlemans agreement of letting the boat thro with the kite up, as they
were all desperately trying to gain height to windward compared to the
other fast handicap boats.

Later on in the race it was easier as all the boats were spaced out more
so you could comfortably gybe between the close hauled boats, but you
had to really think ahead what was going on.

I think in this instance the only way to avoid this situation was for the
PRO to make a judgement as to how windy it is and position the
windward mark far enough away so that the faster assymetrics arrived
back at the leeward mark after all the classes had started and were 1/2
way up the first beat, so there was some distance between the close
hauled boats, enabling easier gybing thro them.

After saying this, we were still caught out later in the same race, as we
sailed down on starboard towards a line of port gybe boats

The fast handicap boats were using a triangle / sos / triangle format
using the same windward and leeward marks as our fleet- heading from
the wing mark to the same leeward mark.

We repeatedly shouted stb'd but not one of them wanted to give way
and gybe or slow down. Eventually we had to crash gybe, accelerate
away and put in 3 gybes to get back on the layline for the mark.

Whilst the subject of fixed bowsprits is mentioned, the 12's were a real
pain on the start line. The line was heavily biased for 2x starts so that
you could hardly cross the pin end on starboard, so the obvious thing
was to flip over onto port and cross. However because it appeared the
12's liked to start by the committee boat it was impossible to do this
with risking being impaled by the fixed bowsprits. so we ended up
gybing and going around the back of them cause it was safer.

Thoughts from the 12 fleet??

Rod - you should have risked the tack - the 12's were going so slowly upwind that you would have made it easily

flame away ;-)

Originally posted by RodB We repeatedly shouted stb'd but not one of them wanted to give way and gybe or slow down.

So why didn't you protest?

Originally posted by RodB it was impossible to do this with risking being impaled by the fixed bowsprits. so we ended up gybing and going around the back of them cause it was safer.

So what's the difference between a 12 sprit and say a keelboat bow? Either way you have to go round the back of a ROW boat if otherwise you risk hitting it.