dial down

Ainslie holds course for 4 seconds - about a boat length judging by the conditions.When Y finishes bearing away I am not convinced that there was anywhere for B to go. Y was aiming at her bow. If B luffed she risked being T-boned, if she bore away, she risked a collision at a point where crew member's were standing.

If at 0.18 Ainslie had luffed there would have been no collision. Instead his crew (Percy) starts screaming to attract the umpire's attention.

As B first bore away she was doing enough to keep clear of Y on her course at that time. She only returned to a collision course because  Y bore away towards her. Y therefore had a rule 16 obligation to give B room to keep clear. When it became clear that Y was no going to give B room to keep clear there was nothing seamanlike that B could do.

Frankly, if I had been the umpire I would have not felt happy going in to the de-brief that evening.

As for MR Call D5 many umpires are uncomfortable with this - as it creates out of nothing a rule changing interpretation. The way this call applies it means that the ROW boat breaks rule 16.1 merely by sailing below a course perpendicular to the wind, whether she gives the other boat room or not. This was originally introduced to prevent a manouevre on the 12M's - because the MR umpires didn't or couldn't get a rule change through.

However call D6 does not mean that because Y didn't go to a downwind course she did not break rule 16.1 - she still has to give B room to keep clear. What D6 does say is that IF she had gone below 90° to the wind she would have automatically broken rule 16.1 even if B had room to keep clear.

Gordon

PS Am I the only contributor to this dicussion to have given a penalty to the Ainslie/Percy team? - as a result they lost the race!

To be fair, there is clearly a huge telescopic foreshortening effect in this clip. At the point where Ainslie bears away he looks to be very close to the other boat but they continue to sail towards each other for several seconds, so in reality the initiating move must have been from several boats lengths away.

In which case the port boat presumably had sufficient opportunity to tack or hubs away and was penalised for choosing not to do so.

It does seem like the eleventh hour head up by S worsened the impact but again it may be that if you were right there with them then this was necessary to avoid t-boning the port boar

So Guys, was Ainslie's expectation for Richard to tack, (then he'd head up with decent separation) or is his frustration that Richard didn't duck further & quicker?

Originally posted by ohFFsake (cough) I know a dial down when I see one... ..and I'm looking at one right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpqEONUKIz0

Originally posted by Brass @21 Y luffs hard in an attempt to avoid contact with B @21.5 B luffs back towards Y What WAS B thinking?

Really hard with telephoto foreshortening, but I suspect that B luffed so that their stern would clear Y's bow, and wasn't expecting Y to turn so far.