A right to protest (PY Content avoid if bored)

There really should be an association that exists to take care of, promotes and protects handicap racing from abuse and that includes abuse by the PYAG.

Can you imagine the wrangling there would be if you could protest a PY?

There should be scope for CA's to ask the RYA for 'review' (on a published basis) however clubs should be adjusting the numbers to suit local conditions/water

With the Laser2 discussion, there seems to be a lack of maturity from the club, blindly following whatever the RYA says (except for the bit where it says you should be adjusting locally).

Big Handicap events should publish the PY's upfront so you can vote with your feet if you think your handicap (is actually a handicap ;-) ), though they may already do this (SailJuice???)

The only way around it would be to have a National Personal Handicapping system, though that would be full of problems/bandits.

No protests please, we are not the America Cup

........I wasn't going to post on this thread, no offence WB, I was just going to do what it said on the tin (in brackets)

I must say something in my club Sailing Coms defence JohnJack. They are good folk doing a voluntary Job. Their decision (at the moment) is not to adjust locally, that's fully understandable from my perspective. There are other L2 sailors at my club who would probably object. There are other boats that some consider bandits on our water, adjust one and there would be pressure to adjust others. The electronic returns C/W custom made PY is considered as too personal by some (but would be my preference)........ Many clubs consider it  a can of worms not worth opening.

There's several small clubs along my part of south coast, every now and then there's an influx of members from the neighboring club: "what happened?" every one asks, "Oh, there's been a bust up at *** SC about something" .........mucking around with the PY could upset a lot of folk. 


....back on topic. Name a boat that hasn't been called a bandit at some stage or at some venue. The protest queue would stretch twice round the block.

About the only rule I can think of is 'fair sailing' where you feel they are deliverately sailing a given class to gain advantage.

Now I can see that working for rig swapping (Blaze, Fire Halo, Aero 9, 7 and 5, and Laser, Radial, 4.7) but not for anything else.

The bottom line is clubs should adjust. If your local club wont then go somewhere that does!