420 winged rudder

.. or you move to an umpiring on the water scenario.  Having spent 5 years team racing at what can only be described as equivlent club level (Uni Open Circuit), OTW judging makes the whole process far smoother and less personal.  Hails are more common, the worse that can happen from a bad call is a green flag, not the end to your social credibility in a sailing club for protesting and wasting everyone's time.  (as well looking a bit of an anal rules is rules type  )

I might add to this that part of the problem for a lack of self policing is that people can come through a club system being educated that even a hint of protest is wrong. I remember returning to my home club after my first few months sailing on the circuits and at school, only to find that when I was forced to tack by one of the 'elder statesmen' of the club, when he was clearly in the wrong, and subsequently stating 'protest', the only legitimate way to inform a person that they should either do their turns or be protested, I ended up being yelled at by both him and his two crew. Not only that but he then came up in the bar afterwards and tried to explain to me that it was bad etiquette to protest in a club handicap race, even when we were racing off very similar handicaps and his turns would have certainly made a noticeable impact on the results.

Originally posted by mikeriley1960 People who put messages on forums need to be very careful about make generalised statements about classes accusing them of cheating. If they have a problem please discuss it with the boat in question and or protest. There were 6, 420’s at the BM, one of them was my son sailing GBR 54415 and I can assure you they didn’t any wings on their rudder.  I know all the other 420 sailors at the event and someone would have said what was going on.  I suspect none had them on and that someone got a bit confused with the cold!

I was launching to the left of the green container and the 420's rigged up in front of us and launched before us. Please note I didnt have my camera on me so was unable to take a picture.

As per my original post, the question was purely based on what advantage these have, not what has since come about on here regarding class rules etc. It was more an observation and question than an infringement.

It would be interesting to see if at another event, the rudders reappear.

this is one of the strange things i have found about moving into handicap fleets; in the topper, protests were normal. we were having protests almost every midlands open, and it was just considered part of racing, no bad feelings. if on the water someone did something wrong, like hit a mark or another boat, which there was a lot of, they would usually do turns when prompted. the class in general was very good with the rules. the number of times in handicap racing that i see barging at marks and starts, and hitting marks, i find atrocious, and i wouldn't hesitate to protest someone who was sailing outside the rules, including pumping if i had a witness. i haven't been at the sailjuice series except the grafham grand prix, but i actually wouldnt protest any boats i thought were out of class, but i would report them to the race office.

I was launching to the left of the green container and the 420's rigged up in front of us and launched before us. Please note I didnt have my camera on me so was unable to take a picture.

As per my original post, the question was purely based on what advantage these have, not what has since come about on here regarding class rules etc. It was more an observation and question than an infringement.

It would be interesting to see if at another event, the rudders reappear.