The new Laser b**tard

An interesting question is whether there's any excuse for a parent who helps their kid make a change on a boat that, at the very least, they should have found out whether was permitted before helping them make it?

And then, when pulled up on it, whether they should shoot the poor messenger who didn't want that most unpleasant of tasks in the first place, and has already dealt with 30 such parents and probably has another dozen to look forward to...

Originally posted by iitick In the Tasar Nats a few years ago all competitors were given the opportunity to have their boats weighed then the first 3 boats home were weighed if they had not been on the scales before. Winner of race one lost his points. 3 kilos over if I remember. Harsh but fair?

Originally posted by jeffers Originally posted by hobbiteater   i know nothing of class events and have never met a measurer but given its kids there no excuse for his approach not being "hey mate that cunningham's not quite right, watch while i sort it out for you so you can do it next time, lets get you on the water quick" The problem is that at a major Laser event the measurers do not have time to do this. They have a very small amount of time to check a large number of boats. Say it takes 10 minutes per boat, 100 boats at the event = 1000 minutes (16 hours 40 minutes). There are probably only 2 measurers at the event that is a full day with no breaks and only allowing 10 minutes per boat.... I do agree there are ways they could phrase it but at the end of the day they are there to enforce so the attitude of 'sorry that is wrong, you need to change it before you can sail' (and a quick indication of what they can do if possible) is entirely correct in my view. Measuring is also done before the event starts so there is time to resolve the issue. I do believe at the really big events (euros and worlds) they do random measuring throughout the event as well.

They're just not very bright really are they?

The way to work, is to measure only the lead boats and bin them if they have a serious fault.

That way the rear of the fleet isn't demoralised right from the off.

Even we learned that windsurfing when they made us carry lead, the RYA's one contribution to windsurfing, Div 1, all that expense building a board down to 15kgs and the RYA decide you should carry 3kgs of lead, that went down well. Every board had to be weighed and measured to enter, took ages, impacted on the number of races held, folk stopped doing it in their droves, dinghy (moth)sailors got involved and cheated using the measurements to make bigger sails and built boards to the exact tolerances, it's why no racing boards are now built in the UK, the whole thing got canned.

Measurers.. If you have them, they can be fooled anyway by the top guys, so in the end they are the only ones you need to thoroughly check.

Edited by iGRF - 08 Oct 13 at 2:32pm

Originally posted by jeffers Originally posted by hobbiteater   i know nothing of class events and have never met a measurer but given its kids there no excuse for his approach not being "hey mate that cunningham's not quite right, watch while i sort it out for you so you can do it next time, lets get you on the water quick" The problem is that at a major Laser event the measurers do not have time to do this. They have a very small amount of time to check a large number of boats. Say it takes 10 minutes per boat, 100 boats at the event = 1000 minutes (16 hours 40 minutes). There are probably only 2 measurers at the event that is a full day with no breaks and only allowing 10 minutes per boat.... I do agree there are ways they could phrase it but at the end of the day they are there to enforce so the attitude of 'sorry that is wrong, you need to change it before you can sail' (and a quick indication of what they can do if possible) is entirely correct in my view. Measuring is also done before the event starts so there is time to resolve the issue. I do believe at the really big events (euros and worlds) they do random measuring throughout the event as well.

Originally posted by hobbiteater   i know nothing of class events and have never met a measurer but given its kids there no excuse for his approach not being "hey mate that cunningham's not quite right, watch while i sort it out for you so you can do it next time, lets get you on the water quick"