Bloody Mary

Originally posted by gbr940 how on earth does that make sense...surely you finish on the lap you're on through a start/finish line not stopping at the buoy you're on because it's closest

Not in a pursuit race, no. In a pursuit race in theory you finish as the time signal goes for the end of the race, and all boats would be scored on the order they are on the water.

In practice this is impractical, and different clubs adopt different strategies for recording the finishes as soon as they can after the signal goes. Travelling finish lines going down the fleet and multiple finish lines at different marks are the usual strategies. Beats and runs present the biggest problems since no-one may know exactly who is ahead at the finish gun. Its sometimes considered unsporting to overtake slower boats after the finish gun goes, and some clubs may request that sailors try and avoid doing so. At the BM I think that's just impractical.

Maybe in a few years time we'll all carry differential GPS devices and every boat will automatically log its position at the finish, and that, together with GPS on the marks, will automatically record the exact finishing places...

Edited by JimC - 13 Jan 13 at 10:33am

Originally posted by JimC   Maybe in a few years time we'll all carry differential GPS devices and every boat will automatically log its position at the finish, and that, together with GPS on the marks, will automatically record the exact finishing places...

Originally posted by JimC Originally posted by gbr940 how on earth does that make sense...surely you finish on the lap you're on through a start/finish line not stopping at the buoy you're on because it's closest Not in a pursuit race, no. In a pursuit race in theory you finish as the time signal goes for the end of the race, and all boats would be scored on the order they are on the water. In practice this is impractical, and different clubs adopt different strategies for recording the finishes as soon as they can after the signal goes. Travelling finish lines going down the fleet and multiple finish lines at different marks are the usual strategies. Beats and runs present the biggest problems since no-one may know exactly who is ahead at the finish gun. Its sometimes considered unsporting to overtake slower boats after the finish gun goes, and some clubs may request that sailors try and avoid doing so. At the BM I think that's just impractical. Maybe in a few years time we'll all carry differential GPS devices and every boat will automatically log its position at the finish, and that, together with GPS on the marks, will automatically record the exact finishing places...

 

Originally posted by gbr940   how on earth does that make sense...surely you finish on the lap you're on through a start/finish line not stopping at the buoy you're on because it's closest

for the Tiger: They put a committee boat at every mark. You also sign off when you come ashore and have to put which boat was in front and behind you at the gun. With all this, they pretty much get the order correct.

They just need more finishing lines. I ended up racing for 20min after the finish time. With only 2 finish points on such a large lap slow boats lose a lot of places getting to a finish. QMSC must have enough ribs to set another 2 finish lines surely.