Para Olympic Fiasco

Yep - that's what I'm getting at!  The tariff is double any listed in the guidance, and might have been game changing even if there had been a medal race.

Originally posted by JimC To me there's a subtle difference between the Swedish sailor's offence, which was to do something he was specifically required to do, but forget to ask permission first, and the British bosun's offence, which was to do something he was specifically prohibited from doing whilst actually being told not to whilst he was doing it. To my mind the British team got off lightly: I reckon it could very easily have been a DND from all subsequent races.

Originally posted by pondmonkey I guess it was a 'you had to be there moment'.... sadly for the competitors involved it's another 4 years before they get the opportunity again.

And also sadly for the competitors, they weren't even there for the 'you had to be there moment'!

The team did have the required permission to haul out the boat and repair. Facts found suggest that the only illegal action was the bosun not complying with the instruction of the official. Obviously we don't know exactly how that conversation went, but Jim's suggestion that the athlete's should be punished with a DND (I assume he means DNE or DGM) on the basis of a conversation they we not party to is faintly ridiculous.

Originally posted by furtive Jim's suggestion that the athlete's should be punished with a DND (I assume he means DNE or DGM) on the basis of a conversation they we not party to is faintly ridiculous.

Don't misquote me please. I said it *could* have been. I have no opinion on what it should have been. I wasn't there.

The point AIUI is that there is a no haulout rule and its not permitted to clean or polish the hull of any boat during the event, and that's why anything involving pulling the boat out is supervised. *If* it had been found that the cleaning of the keel *was* performance enhancing then the boat could not have been returned to its previous condition and the team *could potentially* have had an advantage for every race for the rest of the event. If you gain an advantage through an illegal action that potentially *could* be dealt with under Rule 2, and the rest follows. That's why this could have been a much bigger deal than it was.

My assumption is that the keel was in a far worse state after the repair had been done (covered in sanding dust and the like) than it had been on pulling the boat out of the water, hence cleaning it off. Doesn't explain anything that follows, though.