Double standard?

Rule 19 deals with both “normal” obstructions and with continuing obstructions:

19.1 When Rule 19 Applies Rule 19 applies between boats at an obstruction except when it is also a mark the boats are required to leave on the same side. However, at a continuing obstruction, rule 19 always applies and rule 18 does not.

First a static picture; I’ve designated the top as situation one and the bottom as situation two.



Below the animation of the two situations with three boats sailing along a continuing obstructions end up in exactly the same situation. In both animations the boat behind the yellow boats is in trouble – she has to dump speed to avoid contact. But in both situations she’s not keeping clear under rule 12.

Yellow protests in position 5: Who do you penalize in situation one and who in situation two?
My answers after the break.

ESS Act 9; Singapore; day3

Sailing yesterday in Marine Bay was intense. The shape of the scoreboard has been established and teams are beginning to jockey for position looking for their direct opponent.

We did six or seven flags in total, even a race with three penalized incidents.
Although we were sure about all of them, one mark-touch penalty may have been wrong in hindsight – when we talked to the crew.

The courses were mostly with port rounding's and then the most incidents are happening in the windward mark zone, between a port tacking boat and boats  on starboard tack.

Since we use the modified match race rule 18.3, we have to judge exactly when the tack is complete. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the change, here is the short of it:

NORMAL RRS 18.3

Normally a boat that tacks in the zone has – on top of the normal obligation to keep clear while tacking – a few extra restrictions. If the starboard fetching boat has to luff above close hauled to avoid the tacking boat – the latter breaks rule 18.3, even if that happens after the tack has completed. And secondly, if the starboard boat gets an inside overlap, the tacking boat must give mark-room. That is the ‘normal’ fleet racing version of rule 18.3.

MATCH RACE RRS 18.3

In these regatta’s however, we use the modified match race version: If the starboard boat is able to avoid the tacking boat by luffing (even above close hauled) AFTER the tack has been completed, she is obliged to do so. If she can’t luff and avoid, she’s entitled to mark-room, if she gets an inside overlap.

The situation in the animation above is legal in Match Racing and under the ESS version of the rules, but is illegal in ‘normal’ fleet racing.

This basically means that the port tack boat must make a judgement call when to tack. Too early will likely cause trouble in fetching the mark, too late will infringe rule 13 or 15, going trough might cause trouble in rule 10. Timing is critical. And the decision to ‘go for it’, has to be made well in advance.

Tomorrow we’ll have a morning session and an afternoon session….

ESS Act 9; Singapore; Managing the Class.

With not much wind and very shifty as well, we did only four races today in the ESS in Singapore. The 10 Extreme Forties circled Marina Bay to find the wind and get trough the courses. With four umpire boats we can cover almost all incidents as boats are not moving that fast.

Today I was on the water with Charlie Carter who is filling in for the eight umpire position. Charlie is the Extreme Forty Class Manager. He’s employed by OC Third Pole who in turn is hired to manage the Class for Extreme Sailing Series SA, the company that has the design rights to the class. It is not a class that is formed by the sailors who have a class boat- like most classes. Although those are asked for input on a regular bases (twice a year there’s an open forum organized), this class is company owned. Charlie is one of four people who manages the X40-class.

 

Charlie Carter has an engineering background and he’s responsible for technical management of the class. He has extensive experience in the marine industry and has managed various projects in the past, like the Oman Trimaran project and the Imoca open 60 project.

He’s looking after the future of the X40, liaisons with the teams about development and is first in line to make sure the boat is truly a one-design class. He manages the technical support, servicing of the equipment and a supply train for parts for new and existing boats. If any boat gets damaged he can facilitate repairs for teams that don’t have the capability to do this themselves. By being at each class event he can keep in contact with all sailors and owners and provide direct support.

The Extreme 40 was first used in the In-Port Races for the Volvo Ocean Race in 2005. Of those first five boats build, four are still sailing the Extreme Sailing Series. But since then the fleet has increased and now stands at 20 boats.

The X40 is still a very competitive boat that can achieve fantastic acceleration and speeds. Combined with a relatively simple montage and de-montage (two persons can rig (or de-rig) a boat in a day) because of the use of basic parts, the boat offers a fantastic value for money. Only four – though very hard working – crew are needed to sail this big cat, which leaves the fifth place for a guest. If you have 384.500 pound to spare, you can own a X40 kitted out with all parts, sails and even a container to put the complete boat into.

“How does he see the future development of the Class?” I asked Charlie in between races.
He answered: “More modular sections would be a good way to improve the speed in which a boat can be repaired. So sailing can be resumed very fast.
Instead of a composite repair, then only bolting-on an aft section would be needed to fix a sheered off transom – like Team New Zealand had in the previous edition.”

Charlie is also looking into a system to prevent inversion of the boat after a capsize. “The equivalent of 150 kg buoyancy at the top of the mast is needed to keep the boat from completely turning upside down” He hopes a system can be in place for next year – either by automatically inflation or a fixed buoyancy….

The ESS will be back next year – doing the full global circle with old and a couple of new venues. And Charlie will be there as well, count on it.

ESS Act 9; Singapore – practice day

You might have noticed yesterday’s post was only published a short time ago. This was because I was travelling to Singapore for the final act in the Extreme Sailing Series. My flight was long but uneventful. It’s nice and warm here in Singapore and the race village has been almost all build.

The TEN cats were sailing this afternoon to get some feel for the water. We are sailing in between two bridges in ‘modern’ Singapore. All kinds of new buildings and very advanced architecture.

http://www.extremesailingseries.com/

Besides rule 20 issues, we also will have to deal with a lot of small buoys scattered around. The are the floating end of an oxygen enrichment system, with underwater pipes and supposedly fragile enough that we had to write an amendment in the RSI. (see the second picture)

They count as an obstruction and boats are not allowed to touch them. Penalties are umpire initiated, but the RC can also protest.

In this final act of season 2011, I’ll try to find out some more about what next year is going to bring in this series.

ESS Act 8; Almeria - All done

Act 8 has finished yesterday. We did some good races out of and inside the harbour in front of a good crowd. Visit the Extreme Sailing Series website to see the results
The wind cooperated and stayed with us, so we had fair racing for all. Except for Emirates Team New Zealand, because the damage from the crash the day before was such, that it couldn't be repaired overnight. They will sail in Act 9 in Singapore in December. For all races not sailed in Act 8 they were given redress - average points out of all sailed races.

For Singapore we will have some issues to consider:
The rule 14 penalty - which we discussed in earlier posts, needs adjustment. The latest we have come up with, is to let the penalized boat sail, including start, but to restrict the use of the gennaker until the last boat has past the windward mark.

The pink flag - in use for situations were we are unable to find sufficient facts to make a judgement.

A windward gate - perhaps with some rulechanges.

Also in this event rule 49.1 came up. The use of non working sheets or other equipment to hike. A support rib/coach had taken some photo's of crew positions that he considered illegal. This rule is not subject to an umpire initiated penalty for the moment, only to a red flag protest, but perhaps that should change. The Class rules and SI have changed RRS 42. Perhaps they also need to address RRS 49.1. I must admit that I did not notice these illegal crew hiking at all - too busy concentrating on Part 2 rules.

Today I'm travelling back home, with a fairly late flight. I'm planning to concentrate on Match Racing for a couple of days - since I have a Grade 3 MR event in Greece next weekend. And do some work on You Tack Pro.

ESS Act 8; Almeria; CRASH!

On the fourth day of the Extreme Sailing Series Act 8 here in Almeria there was a boat stopping crash between Gitane and Emirates Team New Zealand. It happened on the beat toward the first windward mark in the harbour in race nine. I've made a scenario - diagram of what happened to the best of my ability.

I haven't seen the video - if there is any, but the diagram represents what we on the water judged as have happened. Purple is Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ), Red is Luna Rossa (LR) and Grey is Gitane (G).
LR astern and to windward of G, both practically tacking simultaneously to go behind ETNZ.
After the tack LR became clear ahead, right of way boat. She initially slowed down to be able to go behind ETNZ. Because of the bear away G gained speed and tried to go behind ETNZ as well. When the boats crashed he boat speed of G was twice as fast as LR. Her left hull hit ETNZ about a foot from the stern, sheering of the aft left corner of the hull, and her right hull hit LR.

Rules applicable: 10, 12, 14 and 19
LR had to keep clear of ETNZ and did so.
G failed to keep clear of ETNZ and broke rule 10, she also failed to keep clear of LR as windward boat and broke rule 11. She claimed to have been denied enough room under rule 19 by LR, but because the overlap was established at the last moment, LR could not give room and according to 19.2 (b) last sentence, did not have to, because she was unable to do this.
ETNZ did not break rule 14 because it was never clear for her that the port boat would not keep clear. Gitane did break rule 14. She should have slowed down during the tack or go behind Luna Rossa to avoid the collision.

On a final note, the 30 seconds penalty for the next start did (again) not work so we are trying something else. Gitane came in fourth with that penalty. We are thinking about having to round the first windward mark as last boat for a rule 14 penalty.
J.

ESS Act 8; Almeria Spain; Stadium Races

We will return to stadium racing today with - hopefully - some decent wind.
I've drawn a picture of one of the courses we have done yesterday on the Google Map of the harbour. I've added some extra boats moored along the keys and drawn a 3 BL zone to give you an idea about the scale in relation to the Extreme 40s.

The course announced from the RC was:
Start between RC-boat and Black Cylindrical Mark - Orange Port - Red Starboard - Yellow Starboard - Pass Black Conical Finish Mark to Starboard - Gate (Gate is White) - Finish between Black Conical Mark and Finish platform on shore.
Wind speed varying between 2-5 knots; Wind direction varying between South / South South West / South West. Competing boats: 11 Extreme 40s.

The first thing we as Umpires do is try to asses where the pressure point(s) will be and make sure that possible two umpire boats will be there. There are in total three umpire boats with each two umpires

Can you guess where those pressure points will be and where to station the umpire boats?

ESS Gate Scenarios

Scenario One

Purple and Red both round the port gate mark.Purple enters the 3BL Zone as inside boat but in rounding leaves the zone in position 4. After position 6 Purple has to bear away for Red and puts up her Yankee Flag.
What should the umpires response be?

Scenario Two

Purple and Red both round the port gate mark.Purple enters the 3BL Zone as inside boat and in rounding does NOT leaves the zone. After position 6 Purple has to bear away for Red and puts up her Yankee Flag.What should the umpires response be?


Scenario Three

Purple and Red both round the port gate mark.Purple enters the 3BL Zone as inside boat and in rounding does NOT leaves the zone. In position 3 Red head up to avoid Purple and she displays a Yankee Flag. After position 6 Purple has to bear away for Red and puts up her Yankee Flag.What should the umpires response be?

My answers after the break. If you have a different opinion don't hesitate to comment.

ESS Act 8; Almeria Spain

I've arrived in Almeria Spain to do the Extreme Sailing Series Act 8. Yesterday we had the first day and because it was a Spanish holiday, started with stadium racing straight away. Very light winds and four races inside the harbour.

Before racing the OA had a meeting with the sailors about the difficulties we had in Nice. Emotions ran high and some ugly things were said there. I wrote about them earlier. We also had "Coffee with Umpires", a daily meeting with any sailor who's interested in our calls and procedures. A whole series of proposals to change procedures were discussed of which some have been implemented straight away:

PINK FLAG
- We are going to use a different coloured flag (pink) if we are unable to make a decision, either because we were not able to assess the facts, or were not in position to judge or plain just didn't see it. Instead of the Green/white flag we will now use Pink. Hopefully very few times, but at least to make clear that somebody might have broken a rule only we were not able to umpire that.

DISPLAY RACE
- The RC can declare a "Display Race". If the circumstances are such that a normal race is not possible - due to lack of wind, major wind-shift or any other way that compromises the fairness of the race - the RC can use this option. Boats are still obliged to race - or face a penalty - but the race is not counted in the scoring.

Other proposals will be discussed in the coming weeks and may be used in the NOR for next year.

On a personal note I'm very glad that the events in Nice have been openly discussed and will not have a negative effect in Act 8. I've hidden our Black flag again in the back of the umpire boat.

ESS Act 7; Nice, France

It was in Nice, but it wasn’t nice anymore.

I’m usually quit capable to find the positive side of and event and write about that. The last couple of days I wasn’t able to do that, so to avoid writing something I would regret later, I skipped posting altogether.

It is now Monday morning and I’m sitting at a corner table in terminal A café LE NIKAIA. My flight is in an hour or so and there’s free WiFi so I’ll be able to post this.

The wind in Nice was a deciding factor – or better said the lack of wind. It frustrated sailors who felt it was “pot luck” on the short courses. It frustrated the RC as they struggled to find reason in starting. It frustrated the Organisers as they wanted to have some races for all the VIP’s that were invited.

In the morning we did some fairly decent races a little way from shore. In the afternoon in front of the spectators and VIP tent it was bad. The Extreme 40s struggled to get some speed, were very slow manoeuvrable and we had multiple boat rounding's (and incidents) at marks. That cumulated in a couple of very dubious manoeuvres by several boats. Almost as if they deliberately were breaking the rules – something that is very hard to prove.

And when we gave a penalty all their frustration came out – you guessed it – against the umpires. I’m well aware that people need to vent their emotions sometimes, but being called an idiot in a five minute rant is un-acceptable. We were very close to getting out the black flag and disqualifying boats.

It didn’t get any better in the next races.

It feels like all the effort we have spend to build up a relationship with the sailors has been wiped away by this behaviour. The CU spoke with several skippers but found them uncooperative and emotional.

We will let things cool off and pick this up in Almeria next week. But the border has been reached. If this happens again, it will have consequences.

I’ll prepare some scenario’s to go over the rules involved.

I’ve qualified to stay an International Umpire by passing the test, but this time it was no fun being one…..

Until next time,

J.

ESS Act 7 Day Three; Nice, France

Light winds (luckily), short courses and as close to the shore as we could get. It forced us to go into "zone-umpiring" a couple of times to create as little wash as possible. We had a lot of calls for just plain port-starboard. With the low speed it was still possible to react at the last possible moment and keep clear. Just sometimes it wasn't enough. Overlaps at the gate with port and starboard downwind sailing Extremes 40's, became a mission, almost.

I had a good day.
The exclusion areas were not a problem for the sailing boats, but rather for all the team-ribs and media boats. I heard the Safety-rib on the radio several times ordering boats out of the swim-area. But not one sailing boat was penalised for it.

My notebook is getting page after page of situations. I'm saving them for a leaner time.
Tomorrow early day, we go racing half past EIGHT!
J.

IU TEST: Done and Passed

It took me 58 minutes to go trough the 50 page (and 50 questions) International Umpire Test. I didn't take the extra half an hour to go over it again - perhaps I should have. I passed, but with a lower score than I expected.


Most of my wrong answers were about procedural issues. Answering a Yankee flag with a Green/white before giving a umpire initiated penalty. Or giving the third yellow flag before giving a black flag.

I had only one straightforward wrong answer. I've been asked to not reveal the question and answer because there are only a limited number of questions. In another context I'll come back to it eventually.
Ooh, and I was to nice by not giving enough penalties > more black flags next time....

My score has been sent to ISAF, and I just received confirmation of receipt. All formalities have been done, so the committee can now give its verdict on my application at the November conference.


At the ESS today we go into 'stadium' racing. Very close to shore, as close as possible to the beach. That means we will have some exclusion zone lines to watch, with umpire initiated penalties if boats sail were they are not suppose to sail. We are using a part of the water that is normally reserved for swimming, so we cannot have boats run out of our area in fear of hitting a person in the water.

There were a lot of comments on my post the first day, with wildly varying answers. I'll sort those out and get back to it asap.

Yankee flag on day One

Extreme Sailing Series Act 7 in Nice, France:

An on the water umpire decision for two boats at the leeward mark.

The Yellow boat puts up a Yankee flag in position 8: During the incident we were sure that according to our observations Yellow was clear ahead until position 3.

But because we were not sure that Yellow entered the zone before Green, we decided that not rule 18.2(b) dictated the mark rounding but rule 18.2(a)

We gave a Green/white flag. The sailors disagreed.

This call hinges on the finding of the fact which of the boats entered first. We were in a ideal position to see overlaps, but had a hard time deciding if the Yellow boat was pointing at the zone or was sailing above…

We needed a wing telling us where Yellow was pointing.

Comments welcome,

Starting penalty in ESS Trapani

Pindar on port miscalculated her bear away to go behind Alinghi. Result: contact with serious damage.
This happened right at the start of race 33 in Trapani.

So now we could test out our new 30 seconds 'starting penalty'.
Pindar in the box for race 34. Well, we will have to rethink the whole idea. It is not enough! Pindar crossed the line half a minute after the others, but all the way at the pin on port, with full speed.
That took the first 15 seconds of the penalty off, so Pindar was in the fleet on the second leg. She didn't get all the way to the front but certainly wasn't last.

Alinghi, who came for redress, which we granted, made an interesting observation as well. By putting the boat in last position at the start it wasn't an opponent for the frontrunners anymore. Not a boat they had to keep clear off or who could take their wind.

Like I said, a rethink is necessary.
Do you have any suggestions?
And please, not a points penalty. ....

I will write a FTBD-post when I get back home. Most likely not before Tuesday.

Gate, gate and gate

Today was all about the gate. Seven out of ten incidents were at the gate.

I'm still amazed at a port boat thinking if I just give enough room, I'm okay. And then ' forcing' a starboard boat to gybe.

There was one so bad it made me wish I could give an umpire initiated penalty.
Besides breaking rule 10, that same port boat then failed to give enough mark-room AND also luffed the inside boat when they were still at the mark to almost head to wind.
No Yankee flag, so no penalty, but oh boy, these were some major infringements.

Something I still have a hard time accepting. But like our CU says: "no aggrieved sailor, no penalty"

Did you ever had situation where you felt like giving a penalty, without a Yankee flag from one of the boats, so you couldn't?
J.

ESS Trapani Act 6

Looks like I have a little Italian devil on my back. Now the bugger has wrecked my lap top. The boot-sector is shot.
I'll try to post using my iPhone.
(I will keep approving comments, but might not be able to respond until next week.)

Ooh, I did get my bag back. Collected it from the airport myself!

Trapani is now in the final three days, which means we are racing in the harbor. With a prediction of 10 to15 knots it could be quite spectacular. You might want to check out the website for the videos.

Rules wise yesterday was a 'quit' day

Penalty Box at ESS Act 6 Trapani ?

I wonder if I should go to events in Italy anymore…

ping-ping ------ “We will offload your baggage”

Long time readers perhaps remember the adventures I had,  – or rather the adventures of my bag - flying to this warm and sunny country. I wrote a story about doing an event without any clothes, other than the ones I had on:
http://rrsstudy.blogspot.com/2008/11/ams-roma-milan-brindisi-brindisi.html
And yes, they managed to do it again.
My bag got lost and never arrived in Palermo. Now, 36 hours later, they still don’t know where it is…. Between telephoning to airports and buying some toiletries and spare underwear AND doing the umpiring at the first day at this ESS-event in Trapani, there was no time in writing a post anymore. There still isn’t.
I wrote this yesterday-evening before going to bed, but am posting it this morning after getting WIFI access at the venue.
Another effing thing they are very good at over here: No mobile service – so no internet connection other than at the event. My iPhone is draining it’s battery searching for a carrier. And it doesn’t do any good to my patience either when, after wading trough several non-English speakers and half an hour of telephone-music, the carrier decides it’s time to quit …. Perhaps it is to hot?

Rule 14

As for the rules I have one titbit which might interest you. We are experimenting with an alternative penalty for rule 14. Not a DSQ or a points penalty, but a starting penalty. The boat breaking rule 14 is put in the ‘penalty’ box during the start and shall not cross the line 30 seconds after the starting signal has been given. While in the penalty box she must keep clear of all other boats.
The chances of her getting 11 points (finishing last) in that race are pretty high, but she is in the race. And she might get lucky and catch up a couple of boats. I’ll let you know how this ends. First we must have a rule 14 issue. That is more likely on Friday, Saturday or Sunday when racing will be in the harbour close to shore.
J.

ESS 2011; Act 4: Boston, Race day 4 & 5

With a full days 4&5 I didn’t have a chance to write a meaningful post. Anyway you are still busy with Greg’s post about Rule 20.
The last day of Act 4 was certainly exciting. Lots of action, fast races and a climactic finish in the last race were Emirates Team New Zealand grabbed the first price in the last race on the last leg to the finish. Or better said, Artemis chose the wrong side and was passed by several boats, costing them the victory. The points difference was 8 going into the final (double point race) but that was not enough. They ended up four points behind.
Strangely enough the rest of the order was exactly the same as the order in the morning. Now, don’t say it wasn’t worth sailing. During the seven races the order did change often enough – just at the end it came back, except for one and two.
We had a parking situation at the windward mark – Pindar got stuck – and the other boats had to round them with mark and all. It made the RO jumpy and considering abandonment.
So I have a question for you: What do the rules say about mark-room when a boat on a different leg of the course catches up with someone who’s stuck to the mark?
Today I’ll travel back across the great pond and will be home sometime Wednesday afternoon. With a big thanks for all the local people, signing off from Boston …… until next year?
J.

ESS 2011; Act 4: Boston, Race day 3

Today a guest post by one of my fellow umpires here in Boston, none other than: Match Race Greg !

Every morning during the Extreme Sailing Series the competitors and umpires meet for an informal debrief called "coffee with umpires."  This morning a situation was presented to the umpire team that focuses on the application of RRS 20 while approaching the course limits on a beat to windward.

In this situation three starboard tack boats are overlapped in close proximity to the course limit.  The leeward boat (yellow) hails and makes the appropriate arm signals to hail for room to tack.   Immediately after this hail the middle boat (blue) hails and signals to the green boat for room to tack.  The windward boat (green) responds by hailing and tacking.

Once the three boats have completed their tacks onto port they find themselves approaching a starboard tack boat (red).  The competitors and umpires determine that there is neither room nor time to keep clear by tacking or by ducking.

The Red boat protest for rule 10. To avoid a collision he will have to tack if Green will not respond….
Which boat(s) should be penalized and under which rule(s) should they receive a penalty.

Leave your comments below, Greg has promised to follow the discussion closely and answer asap.

ESS 2011; Act 4: Boston, Race day 2

Contact!

Whenever there is contact between boats in this Extreme Sailing Series the umpires must do a couple things. First is the on the water part. After a Yankee flag from one of the boats, we go to the rules of part 2 and penalize one of the involved boats for breaking one of these rules.

Second comes after the race. The Umpires asses the damage. Like in Match Racing we have a scale of three levels; A, B or C. Level A has no consequences. Boats can still race and it has no influence on the performance of boat or crew. Level B is more serious. The boat can still race but only after some (temporary) repairs. Level C puts it out of commission – it’s structural damage that cannot be repaired on the water. Usually it will take a lot of work by the shore crew during the night – even lifting the boat out of the water.

Depending on the level the boat that has broken the rule is given penalty points.

After all racing on that day is done follows part three: A rule 14 hearing (for levels B or C) slash Request for Redress.

In that hearing we determine which boat has broken rule 14. If both, redress is not granted because it’s partly the boats own fault. If only the other boat, we can grant redress. Usually average points for the race(s) not sailed from all other that day (or previously sailed in the Act)

Today we had such an incident between Pindar and Red Bull. The last three races Red Bull couldn’t compete because of a broken rudder connection to the hull. They had to go ashore to do the repairs: Pindar minus 3 points.

The decision in the hearing: Redress granted, average points (rounded up to the nearest one decimal point) in race 12, 13 & 14, calculated from all races before Race 12. Which comes to 6,4 points.

Hopefully we will not have too many of these. But in Extreme Sailing crashes are not that uncommon…….

THIS HAPPENED IN ISTANBUL