Barging

[Chuck Luscomb]

So here is the senario,

Starting sequence with 10 seconds to go. Boat A is close hauled and laying the comittee boat end with a half a dozen boat B's barging. Boat A hails to the half a dozen boat B's "no room, no room" but alas, ALL not some but ALL boat B's continue their quest to barge, jaming their way into the hole that does not exsist. Boat A is forced to bear away in an attempt to salvage an already bad situation.

Should the skipper of boat A drop his radio, pick up a pen and paper and try to record all the offending sail numbers and protest each one or should the skipper of boat A avoid the comittee boat end of the line all together cause it just ain't worth it?

Chuck
#1684

[s vernon]

I was thinking that what I will say is a minor point, but actually I think it gets to the heart of the actual protest procedure.

In any rules violation situation, it is typical that even if there is half a fleet of violators, one boat has the right to protest only one other boat, not the whole bunch. It is the right of each boat to protest the one boat that is directly violating their rights.

Not 100% of the time, but almost 100% of the time.

So a pencil and paper are not needed for recording a list of sail numbers. Even if you want to protest a group of boats, you are not entitled to do that in a barging situation unless two or more boats are violating your personal rights. Generally each boat in the line of bargers is violating the rights of only the one boat to leeward of it.

So that makes it easy for you. Less fulfilling but easy.


Scott

[PegLeg]

Unfortunately the scenerio you describe happens all too often. Also, too often, the incident goes without protest in the guise of "we are all friends just having fun here, aren't we?????"

Anytime a leward boat is forced to fall off due to a windward one on the pin end of starting line (RRS 18.1 a) is cause for protesting the Windward boat. This is true even in the middle of the line (RRS 11 and RRS 12) when some windward boat tries to avoid being early.

The skipper of Boat A needs only to file a protest against the next windward boat. It is that boat's responsibility to protest the next one to him...and so on until the most weatherly boat identified is protested.

Unfortunately, the only boat that gets a penalty is the most weatherly boat. All the others will claim they were forced to behave the way they did by the other guy. The real sadness is that they all continue to ignore the rules they committed to sail by.

When you see a situation like that in a fleet, often the better alternative is to start late with a full head of steam, tack to clear your wind and then sail your own race with a normal blood pressure.

One interesting possibility would be to have the sailing instructions written to say: "RRS 44 shall not apply during the starting of any race." This would force a protest hearing and provide considerable entertainment for the fleet as the stories are told.

Pete

[greerdr]

Good examples in the body of photos.

R.C.Greer