by PegLeg » Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:53 am
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