Definition of Planing

Originally posted by Daniel Holman It’s very rare to see of hear sailors protesting each other at club to international level on r42.

But very common to hear sailors complaining about other sailors breaking propulsion rules.
The only time I can recall being on the wrong end of a protest was club sailing back in the 70s. It got very acrimonious. We won, but the PC effectively told us we were lucky to get away with it.

Basically it’s massively subjective and judges just make their own opinions about it, often elderly judges who have never sailed dinghies in the modern age sitting in boats hundreds of yards away, adding an element of inconsistency! You could never get clarification or claim redress against poor decisions of which there were many ie say “that pump was on a wave / gust” or “that roll was to enable / facilitate steering of 3.2 degrees” etc. Just about the only unambiguous policeable one was for sculling on start lines, which is a nonsense as nobody is looking to propel themselves, just change heading at zero forward speed pre start.
It’s very rare to see of hear sailors protesting each other at club to international level on r42.

“He rocked / pumped repeatedly etc at that time..” “No I didn’t” or “there was a wave/ gust” or “I steered” then you are back to how big is a wave, how can you measure it etc.

There's plenty of help about. Here's a starter for 10...

http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/42Interpretationsforbooklet-15296.pdf

(Link fixed after struggling with daft URLs with square brackets. Web search for RRS 42 examples for lots more...)


1_Rule_421.pdf

Edited by JimC - 03 Mar 19 at 8:54am

Sheet adjustments and body movements are designed to make the most of conditions as they change, and as you say, they are (or will be if you concentrate) constant. Pumping is creating power by human means.

Much wiser minds than mine have failed to spot the difference. It can be impossible to tell even when sailing oneself whether a particular movement was making the most of conditions or creating them.

Sometimes it is bleeding obvious, though! But I don't really think we should stop promoting increasing speed as wave conditions allow by not allowing limited body or mainsheet movement. Sailing is supposed to be fun, after all.

Why shouldn’t everyone be allowed to sheet once per gust, regardless of whether you get planing? Seems sensible if no definition if planing exists, and why should only some boats be allowed to (try to) benefit?