Sailjuice Sportsmanship

Originally posted by alstorer I got another side to the story yesterday. Especially as relates to the second race.

Ooh you tease! What point are you (not) making? Do you know something that makes a difference? Was it all the Phantom sailors fault?

This is the nub of the argument- there is a difference between what is 'legal' and what is 'fair' in a handicap fleet. If a fast boat is tangling with a slow boat the fast boat must have done something wrong to be in that situation - capsized earlier in the race perhaps. He is not directly racing the slower boat at this point although fate has put them in the same place on the water. The fast boat is entitled to use its superior speed to get past but should not then use it to slow the other boat down. Interestingly, if there were no discards the situation would not arise except between a very fast boat that was in a no-hope situation and a very slow boat that was at the back of the fleet but actually doing well on handicap. In truth, most forms of boat on boat interaction in a handicap fleet are loaded in favour of the faster boat and are therefore 'unfair'. Sure, the handicap system takes some account of this (at least, PY does - not so sure about IRC). But I think that on the whole this sort of event works best if people just try and sail as fast as they can and leave the clever stuff to the one design events and the Olympics.< ="text/" ="" ="/B1D671CF-E532-4481-99AA-19F420D90332etdefender/huidhui.js?0&0&0">

imho it was just a bit silly waiting 3 mins for a slower boat to catch him up then sail him off the course 

That sounds like the sort of rumour that gets started maliciously. Best not to give it any credence.

Originally posted by Andymac Originally posted by Peaky If the slow boat had started first the situation wouldn't have arisen. To me that indicates that the race was inherently unfair, and those actions therefore not sporting. Edit: it was the coming together of several things that has caused this issue. Aggressive tactics, an unusual race format (different starts within one race) and an unusual series format (SJ umbrella and DD running simultaneously). I kind of said that in an earlier post in the parallel thread, but then thinking about it... If the starts were the other way round, applying the same rules logic which some have expounded; What would have prevented the faster boat (once under preparatory signal pre-start, hence 'racing') manoeuvering against the slower boat which was in the process of starting? Up until their own start signal, they wouldn't even have a proper course according to the racing rules, so they could stuff the other boat head to wind if they wanted too!!?!

Edited by andymck - 04 Mar 12 at 11:54pm