Another PY question..(pumping content)

Originally posted by E.J. What pumping has done is make broad reaches /runs much more interesting and dynamic than just set and go.

I can't help thinking that if you were (and are) treating reaches as "set and go" without the pumping flag up then you were doing it badly wrong. There is almost endless scope for kinetics and wind and wave management within the restrictions of standard rule 42.

I'm more of the opinion that the pumping flag was on the lines of "OK, we give up. Half or more of you ******* want to cheat, none of you will protest and there's really **** all we can do to enforce the rule. We give up, have it your own way."

Edited by JimC - 19 Dec 17 at 10:53am

Originally posted by Daniel Holman Totally agree E.J I consider myself a decent s/h sailor and I’ll be honest I do and always have done all the kinetics I want to / am capable of within the propulsion rules, ie if it were “switched off” it wouldn’t change how I sailed. Only exception might be mirror flat light air, and perhaps to a small extent in a centre main boat. Singlehanded hiking boat sailing is already brutally physical in any wind - if you don’t think it is you aren’t doing it right and perhaps getting away with perching on the side of a class that has a low standard of sailing or lenient py (venn diagram perhaps?) Allowing free pumping will not change a classes performance, in my opinion. This isn’t a windsurfer rig where you have 4 degrees of freedom rather than one.

Edited by Chris 249 - 19 Dec 17 at 12:25pm

Originally posted by Sam.Spoons Sounds about right, that's how it was with Windsurfing back in the day

Not entirely, it came about in the Windsurfer Class but was never sanctioned by a tacit agreement amongst ourselves not to protest each other since it did no good when we went to European competitions and since we didn't know how to do it effectively enough so needed the practise.

Later in the Mistral Class we had a sponsor, Carlsberg who insisted that at 12 noon on the Saturday (of a two day weekender)come what may a race would take place, so any Press we'd managed to Garner had something to photograph.

The Mistral Class went on to become Olympic so our touch the marks and ok to pump rules carried on, somewhere along the line the UKBSA who were naturally anti being more from traditional sailing eventually also as Jim put it, gave up the ghost.

Was it a mistake? At the time I didn't think so, but there are Windsurfing classes that maintain the no pump rule, I think the Windsurfer and certainly the new Kona class still try, but all it serves to do is reward those who can conceal the action or are favoured by the organising body.

Should it happen in dinghies, no, there is not the direct contact you have on racing sailboards, so no it shouldn't


Edited by iGRF - 19 Dec 17 at 3:04pm

Not sure that is what makes the difference Jamie, I have sailed and raced both dinghies and windsurfers. Windsurfers are fast when planing, say above, maybe 8-10 knots, a fair bit faster than dinghies (much in the way Int Moths are once they are foiling) but without pumping they are somewhat slower than dinghies when displacement sailing. Allowing light wind pumping means windsurfers can get a bit closer to dinghies in the light. The problem with mark roundings on shared courses is the way dinghies and windsurfers transition. Dinghies always slow a little while turning Raceboards either plane through on a widish arc (at which point they are going a fair bit quicker than a planing dinghy and pumping is not what made the difference) when there is some wind or, in the light, stop dead at the mark (usually right in front of a dinghy) and pivot the board on it's tail before pumping away down the next reach........ Not surprising that the two don't fit well.

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 19 Dec 17 at 3:51pm