serious damage

The starting point was a question:

When is damage so serious that a boat cannot take a 2 turn penalty on the water and should retire?

This question arose because I have been involved in discussions, including in the course of protest hearings,  on this very point.

There are considerable differences in evaluation of what constitutes serious damage. The point of asking the question is that the guidance in the Case Book and the IJ Manual do not seem to have acheived their purpose of establishing anything approaching consistency in protest decisions.

Constantly repeating the terms of the sparse interpretations available in ISAF texts does not answer the question, because we have established that these texts have failed in that they are understood in very different ways. Evidently, judges and competitors need further discussion of this question

Personally, as you can see by the examples of serious damage I have presented here I have a somewhat severe idea of what constitutes serious damage, n that I tend to set the bar quite  low.

The discussion has also wandered on to the other mentions of damage in the rules:

- when does damage prevent a boat from being exonerated from not avoiding contact
- when does damage make a boat's race score significantly worse.

I've been confused by this thread from time to time. It seems to drift between 'what the rules/guidance currently are' and 'what the rules/guidance ought to be changed to', with the occasional deviation into 'how many angels does it take to cause damage to a pin when they are dancing on it'...

I would agree that boat's score has been made significantly worse - her performance has been impaired. That condition for redress has been met.

There has been damage - a ROW boat cannot be exonerated if it has been found that she broke rule 14.

A broken jib sheet is not serious damage - a 2 turn penalty at the time of the incident is appropriate.

Other examples - tiller extension broken, mainsheet splice broken, small rip in spinnaker preventing it being sheeted in hard for fear of aggravating tear, helmsman or crew's prescription glasses broken in the contact....

No - I am saying that damage that is not serious by those criteria may make a boat's race or series score significantly worse.

'Serious damage' is not a criterion for redress - damage that makes a boat's score significantly worse is (which may or may not be serious)

Brass:

There can be a difference between damage that makes a boat's race or series score significantly worse and serious damage.

You cite the case of a broken clam cleat - damaged as a result of contact. This is not serious damage, however, depending on which cleat it is, may mean that the boat's result is made significantly worse. A broken sheet, a rip in a sail which means that it cannot be sheeted home without risking further damage, even broken spectacles - none of these are serious damage but may make a boat's score significantly worse.