A "funny" thing happened on Friday. My hull picked up a nice star in the gel coat on the port side. Very much relieved that it is not a hole.

This is a word of warning to anyone who is entering into Friday rules racing (which means rules optional and can include the "port tack option"). One of the port tack option features is that because the starting line happens to be pin end favored, all boats are allowed/expected to charge the starting line at hull speed on port tack to the peril of any fool who just put their boat in the water and has not figured this out, and makes the mistake of starting on starboard tack. I was not alone. The regatta winner did not see this coming in his first Friday rules race either and got clobbered.

It is all fun until someone loses an eye or a boat. This is not sour grapes, just trying to be helpful and tell people to be on guard.

Scott,

I am pretty sure your misunderstanding the concept of Friday rules. First, sorry you got hit by someone on Friday. Friday rules have never included intentional collisions. The theme to Friday rules is you make them up as you go with the intent on fun.

For instance, David Brawner "cashed" a wind shift coupon by mistake when he suddenly was able to tack and lay the mark. He then did a circle to get his coupon back. He felt he might need it on the weekend. Funny stuff.

Guess you had to be there.
This begs for more of an explanation. If you are ignoring something as basic as port/starboard, ...getting hit or holed is never funny.

Sorry I stepped into this....

Scott, if you got hit because someone took the concept of Friday Rules a bit too far, then your post is appropriate. I did not see your boat get hit. My comment was to the general concept of Friday rules which usually means that its fun. We are not actually racing during these practice races on Friday so if you say, missed a mark, you just keep going because its Friday rules. Or, if you were so far behind the rest of the boats, you simply turned around in front of them as they return from the next mark... Friday Rules. You get the idea I hope. It was never intended to cause damage or encourage anything that might cause damage.

You didn't step into anything and was a good post.

Friday rules came about for very casual sailing the day before you have to be perfect. It is unfortunate you were hit, Scott, as it is allowed to break a rule in the interest of fun and the competition part of sailing is on the back burner.

My example is when pushing to fetch the mark and you see you will make a mess of the things, just go inside the mark and take the advantage. It is a win-win, you didn't hurt anyone and got ahead. Everyone keeps sailing in the interest of observing the boat.

It is a good way to play and tweak your boat in traffic and overlaps at the same time; where it really counts to how your boat is performing.
I love it; you can come over to shore and tweak and then pull right into the sailing where you can.