New Rapid Response Team Racing Call

Isaf published a new Rapid Response Team Racing Call, the first one in 2014:
Available at the following link: Rapid Response TR Call 2014.001

It deals with exoneration when no boat protests:

Question
Y is overlapped on the inside of B when B enters the zone of a mark to be rounded to port. The umpires agree that Y touched the mark. No boat protests and no boat takes a penalty. What action should the umpires take?

Answer
If the umpires decide that B gave Y mark-room, they should act under rule D2.3(a) and penalise Y for breaking rule 31.

If the umpires decide that Y touched the mark because B failed to give her mark-room, they should make no signal. Y broke rule 31 by touching the mark; however, she was sailing within the mark-room to which she was entitled and is exonerated under rule 21(b).

Although B broke rule 18.2(b), she cannot be penalised under rule D2.2 because no boat protested, and rule D2.3 does not permit umpires to initiate a penalty when a boat on the other team breaks a rule of Part 2.

I think this RR Call was published because Appendix D does not have a simular rule as in Appendix C. In Match Racing that rule states:

C8.1(b) Rule 64.1(a) is changed so that the provision for exonerating a boat may be applied by the umpires without a hearing, and it takes precedence over any conflicting rule of this appendix.

Do we need wording added to Appendix D?
What do you think?
J

UMPIRE Call; Moving backwards through the water in 2013

Just below is an animation depicting a situation I encountered last weekend at our local match race winter series in Lelystad. Blue and Yellow do an normal dial-up after entry, but then get into a situation where I didn't know any more.

Before you read any further, take out your rulebook and read 22.3 and C2.9, please.

Wind fairly light, maybe 2 Beaufort; Boats heavy and big; J109's.
We start with 10 - P/SB - Yellow changing course 16 - giving room - Blue under 10 is doing everything she can.
Blue tacks - completes and becomes ROW under 11.
Yellow, to windward, is keeping clear.
Blue stops - does not push her boom, but uses her jib to stay head-to-wind and then starts moving backward.Yellow becomes ROW because Blue is moving backward - rule 22.3 as changed by C2.9 - no 15.
Blue moving backward swings her stern - and is effectively tacking, but still keep clear boat under C2.9. Yellow in the meantime stops and waits. But forces being as they are - even for heavy boats - eventually starts to move backwards. She's never changed tack, so still SB.
At the same time as Yellow is starting to move backward, Blue looses her backward momentum and starts to move forward again - Tack is complete, now on P.
Because Yellow moves backward Blue becomes ROW. Does Blue have a 15? No - she acquired ROW because of Yellow's actions. If Yellow hadn't started to move backward Blue would not have become ROW. Yellow realizing this is going to end in trouble, tries desperately - doing everything she can - to keep clear.
Blue, not wanting to get a collision either, bears away as hard as she can.
But we end up with contact anyway.


Before the 2013 rules, Yellow would have stayed ROW and only because she "changed course from going forward to going backward", with a 16 limitation. In the new rulebook she's keep clear boat.

In the old rulebook I would have penalized Blue for not keeping clear. Blue choose to do this risky manoeuvre and must bear the consequences if it didn't work. Only if Yellow had pushed her boom out, to get to move backwards she would have been penalized - then the situation becomes her "responsibility".

Under the 2013-2013 rules I'm not longer sure.

Does Blue have a 16? If yes, I would penalize Blue , if not - and by deduction Yellow had the 16 - perhaps Yellow should get the penalty. But what is the difference then between the old rule and the new?

If Blue started forward - as keep clear boat - before Yellow started to move backward, Blue does not have a 16. She "changed course" before she was ROW.
If Blue started forward, after Yellow was moving backward she does have a rule 16 limitation. But could she tell?
I couldn't say who started first, neither could my fellow umpire. And we were concentrating on that - not manoeuvring a sail boat.

Anyway, both boats where doing everything the could, once they realized the collision was going to happen.
Still penalize Blue for getting in this position? But she's ROW!
Penalize Yellow for not keeping clear? But she had no chance to so. She didn't push out her sail to go backwards…...

We ended up giving a green flag

But I'm not happy.
Should have been a yellow AND a blue…………
Or what?

Give me your opinion, please.

Umpire Call; Returning?

Both Blue and Yellow are over early. Due to not enough people on the starting vessel the RC is a little late in calling them back. Yellow and Blue sail back to the starting line to start. This is what happens:

In position 3 the Blue boat on Port, forces Yellow on Starboard to gybe. The boats have no contact but it is very close. Blue protests in position 4.
You are the Umpire in the green rib. (and you are alone). What is your decision?

Crashing the Gate

Today a analysis of a situation from the ESS Act 1 event, recently sailed in Muscat, Oman.
The fleet is comprised of eight boats this year and because of the short courses that means that at any given mark there are usually multiple boats involved. Particularly so at the first windward mark and first gate.
(I've left out non-relevant boats to make it a little less confusing)

Here is the static picture of the incident:

ONE

Three boats on port and one on starboard, all approaching the leeward gate.

The Grey boat is right of way, Red has to keep clear. Purple is crossing Yellow and keeping clear under rule 10. When Grey enters the zone of the right-hand gate-mark she gets mark-room from all other boats for that mark. Grey can, as long as there are only other port boats and no starboard boat on a collision course, make a 'tactical' rounding. She's not sailing to the mark, but pointing above it to get a better 'out of the mark' position.

Subsequently Red also enters the same zone en gets mark-room from Purple and Yellow. She must however give mark-room to Grey and keep clear as windward boat.

TWO

The first critical moment comes when purple gybes to starboard. She becomes right-of-way boat on a collision course to Red and Grey. She keeps clear while gybing and changes course within the restrictions of 16.1. But, from the moment Purple has gybed, Grey is no longer right-of-way boat, only the boat with mark-room.

THREE

Grey sails another couple of lengths before starting to turn. Remember, she's still doing that 'tactical' rounding. Purple is 'forced' to bear off because of Red. Red is forced in that position because she must keep clear of Grey. Rule 10 is infringed and Grey is forcing Red to do so, but outside the room that mark-room provides.

She cannot be exonerated under rule 18.5. In order to get exonerated Grey should have turned towards the mark much earlier and forget her tactical rounding. As soon as Purple gybed, Grey should have responded.

FOUR

Next we have Yellow and Purple. Because of (Grey forcing) Red, Purple never enters the right hand zone. Yellow enters first and is now keep clear, inside boat (with mark-room) toward Purple in position 6. But she must still give mark-room to Grey and Red.

Hoping for an opening she continues, but next to the mark sees no path and crashes into the mark, getting stuck on it, with her bows on either side.

FIVE

 

After Yellow has entangled herself with the mark, she's hit by Purple from behind.
Purple breaks rule 12.

Here is the animation of the incident:

ANIMATION

Several boats protested in this incident by raising there Yankee flags. Grey was penalised for forcing Red to break rule 10, outside the room mark-room provided. Red was exonerated. Purple was penalised for breaking rule 12. Yellow took a voluntary penalty for hitting the mark.

That's it.

You've just witnessed 20 seconds of an ESS race from an umpires point of view.

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 – 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.

Platu 25 Match Race 2011, Greece; We have a winner!

In front of the harbour at Piraeus, the two Greek crews of Stratis Andreadis and Andreas Karalis match raced today in the Platu 25's for the first spot in the 2011 championship. A nice steady breeze and plenty of action and emotion. It took four matches but Stratis and his crew managed to get first to the necessary three points to win.Well done and congratulations to the whole crew!

For the umpire team it was all hands on deck - specially since the Platu is a fast turning boat in these circumstances with plenty of boat speed and acceleration. And then the transitions become the issue.

Umpiring in match racing is not about rule 10, 11 or 12. Who has right-of-way or who has to keep clear is not the difficult issue at a certain point. It is rule 15 en 16;
Is the the keep-clear boat given room to respond when the right-of-way switches?
Or, does the course right-of-way boat change course so fast, that the keep-clear boat has no opportunity to keep clear, however best she tries?
Transitions is the thing.

Some calls are decided because a boat does not respond, or is not giving enough room to the other to keep clear. Those calls can be decided fairly easy. But most calls are in the fine line between doing enough to keep clear and giving enough room to do so. And then the difference can be in seconds. Or both boats are to blame.....

From the umpire (MR) manual: 

D 16 Umpire More Consistently
Another contribution to improve our umpiring is to strive for consistency. The aim is to provide the competitors with the same call for the same situation. The figure below illustrates at the top how decisions may vary in a certain situation like the luffing maneuver illustrated in Figure 2
 
If Blue reacts too slowly she will be penalised. On the other hand, Yellow will be penalised if she luffs too quickly. In between, there is a “grey” area where we have difficulties deciding who should be penalised, and, therefore, we wave the green flag.

As our umpiring is improved, the 'grey' area will gradually shrink. And we can imagine that one day we never have to wave a green flag in this situation; we give either a blue or yellow penalty. At the same time, we may expect the competitors to improve their sailing so they can drive it right to the edge. With this development we end up in a position where we may decide to give a blue penalty in a certain situation, but with just a tiny change in the maneuvering of any of the boats we give a yellow penalty instead. We arrive at the paradox that seen from the outside, the penalties given in match racing seem more and more random as competitors and  umpires improve their skills. Such a development clearly contradicts the ambition of making  umpiring more clear and consistent.

In order to avoid this development, we should in certain situations penalise both boats, a Twin penalty. (A double penalty is two penalties on one boat) In doing so, we get an intermediate area where we decide that both boats have broken a rule. This development in our umpiring can be illustrated this way: 

With a luffing maneuver like the one illustrated in Figure 2, there may be occasions where we decide that the contact occurred both because Yellow luffed too quickly and because Blue responded too slowly. A green flag in this situation may be misinterpreted to mean that no rule was broken, whereas our decision in fact is that both boats broke a rule.

We can signal this decision by waving both the yellow and blue flag. Considering penalties, it makes no difference, but we clearly communicate to the competitors that they are inside the 'grey' area. When there is clearly contact between the boats, somebody should be penalised. If the umpires cannot decide, after using all the principles of GEN CALL 1, they should consider penalising both boats.

I'm clearly not doing enough Match Racing - I had way to much fun today getting to give a twin penalty.....
I was almost there, but then my fellow umpire blamed his boat.....

aaaaah, foiled again....

Life is hard.
J.

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 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.

LTW Readers Q&A (51): Loosing the flag?

Gaston asks:

I had the following situation once before. I wonder what the umpires think about this:

During the pre-start my opponent lets his (only) Y-flag fall in the water. He can no longer protest. The rest of the pre-start I'm trying to prevent him from picking up the flag from the water. (Unfortunately he eventually succeeded).

Imagine this situation: My opponent has no Y flag and I violate the rules in the pre-start time and again and then win the race. How far can I go? Will there be a time when the umpires will decide enough is enough and go for rule 2 without any Y-flag being displayed?

 
To answer your question I had a look at rule C8.3:

C8.3 When the umpires decide that a boat has
(a) gained an advantage by breaking a rule after allowing for a penalty,
(b) deliberately broken a rule, or
(c) committed a breach of sportsmanship,
she shall be penalized under rule C5.2, C5.3 or C5.4.

If the umpires decide that you deliberately break the rules and/or commit a breach of sportsmanship, because you know your opponent cannot protest, they will use this rule and start handing out penalties. Preventing someone to pick up a flag - using the rules - is fine in my book. That falls under the same heading as preventing someone to enter. As long as you stay within the rules, perfectly legal. But if you start breaking rules to prevent the other boat from picking up its Y-flag, you break rule 2 as well. (See also Case 78)
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.

SWC Kiel 2011; Day 2

Ten flights today. Another nine and we will have completed the second round robin. For results, please go to the Kieler Woche results website. USA is doing extremely well in the Match Racing with the two T’s in first and second place.

When is a boat no longer ‘at the mark’? In case the boat does not gybe or tack directly after – a boat is no longer ‘at the mark’ as soon as her stern has left the mark behind, will be the answer most of you will or are going to give.

And when no longer ‘at the mark’ a boat still might have mark-room – that continues until both boats have left the zone – but it does not ‘exonerate’ a boat for breaking a right of way rule any longer. Simply because he’s no longer rounding the mark. The boat is no longer ‘at the mark’ where RRS 18.5 can protect its manoeuvres.
But a boat is still at the mark when she, for instance, tacks around it. Her stern will first have passed the mark, but then after the tack, maybe again not.

I’m having trouble with the grey area in between. I’m usually stating what I think at the moment I feel the boat is no longer ‘at the mark’, only to discovered sometimes I spoke to soon.

In the pre-start you see the trailing boat chasing very very close behind the leading boat – if possible to force a tack once she gets her nose overlapped

If that happens, while rounding the leeward mark, which rule do you think Yellow breaks?

J.

SWC Kiel 2011; Day 1

Lots and lots of rain. Typical Kiel-week weather. In between some shifts and wind we managed to do nine (of the ten planned) flights with four matches each. If we manage to do the double round robin by Monday, we have Tuesday for the quarter – and semi-finals, and Wednesday for the finals.

Sometimes it’s just doing the matches. Not all are exciting, not all are fought over with tooth and nail. Some are just matches, practically over and done with at the starting signal, because of a better pre-start by one of the boats. The cover the leading boat is doing on the beat, usually is enough to prevent the trailing boat of gaining on the downwind. We as umpires just have to follow and stay close enough (and concentrated enough) to be able to pick up if boats are getting close to each other again.

For those of you who want to follow what is happening here in Kiel, there’s is some extensive television coverage during the day.
Go to: http://www.kieler-woche.de/segeln/tv/tv.php. I’m afraid it’s all in German for the most part, but the action is no less spectacular on the water.

As for Homework this time: Study Call Ump 43 and the answer a THIRD question: When is a boat no longer ‘at the mark’?

J.

Delta Lloyd Regatta 2011; Day 4

Wind, rain, wind, rain, 13 flights, out at 09:00, in at 19:00.

The Match Racing did some catching up and we did the complete repechage and the gold round robin, with silver tacked onto the three match flights for good measure to use all eight boats

Most issues I myself encountered where about the two length zone. Was the overlap there or not. Sometimes you decide that in a split second and it has big consequences for the boats rounding the mark. It is extremely useful to have a wing-boat to call the zone.

Which reminds me. In contrary to normal usage, you cannot take “too much mark-room”. The correct way to describe a boat that rounds too wide i.e. is taking more space then she has under mark-room, is not keeping clear, while not being exonerated under 18.5.

In the match we umpired today the first leeward mark rounding ended up with the Yellow boat going in the gap while she had no mark-room. She infringed rule 11 and came out of the rounding in control. We already decided on a Yellow penalty and after the rounding we added the red, signalling that Yellow had to take the penalty immediately.

The second penalty was at the finish-mark. This time Yellow did have an inside overlap, but Blue did not leave room between her and the mark. She also did not keep clear as windward boat. Blue crossed the finish-line before we signalled her penalty, but Yellow had to bear away and was still not finished.
Blue did come up again to do her penalty, but at that time Yellow had crossed the line, winning the match.

Rule 18 still has a big impact – match racing included.

Delta Lloyd Regatta 2011; Day 2

A late start due to lack of wind, also means a late finish.

We went out on the water around eleven and came back ashore past seven o’clock. After being dismissed for jury work after our debrief we went for dinner and I’m now back at my hotel room. It’s half past eleven.

Today I want to ask you about two situations which were raised by one of the umpires after debrief. Not situations that happened on the water – more like a theoretical exercise.

In a match race, Yellow and Blue are both head to wind next to each other with half a boat space between them. Both start tacking, Blue going to starboard and Yellow going to port. Timing is the same, rate of turning is the same. At the end there’s contact between the boats both on the transom corner.

If either one would have stayed head to wind and the other would have turned the contact would not have occurred…..

Who gets the penalty? And why?

 

Second scenario, in match racing, but now tacking towards each other.

Blue on starboard luffs and starts tacking. Yellow on port also luffs and starts tacking at the same moment going to starboard.

When they both have completed their tacks, the bows touch each other a second later.

Who is to be penalized and under what rule?

I’ll give you my opinion after your initial comments.

J.

Delta Lloyd Regatta 2011; Day 1

The match racing today went as scheduled in a fairly steady breeze of 20-25 knots. Nine flights with four matches. We are sailing in two groups – changed from three since the number of competitors is only 19, instead of the predicted 24. So we sailed four flights in group A and five in group B.

The level of Match Racing is really high. With these fast Elliots and the skill of the ladies they can move really fast and we are concentrating really hard to keep up.

So rules 15 and 16 are predominant in the decisions we have to take on the water. The boat who gets right of way must initially give room to the other to keep clear (RRS15) and a boat with right of way that changes course must also give room for the other to keep clear (RRS16)

We had a call today involving the latter. A Blue boat clear ahead on close hauled course luffed to head to wind. The Yellow clear behind followed, a little to windward - not quite head to wind. Without backing any sail – possible in this breeze – the clear ahead boat stopped and started moving backward.

The clear astern boat came closer and closer and a few seconds later there was a contact. Yankee flag on Blue and Yellow.

We penalized Yellow for not keeping clear under rule 12 and/or 11 (the final contact was in an overlap position); Initially the Blue boat had to give room, because she changed course from forward to backward. But she did that. Yellow could easily have luffed more- or even tacked.

She however, did not do that and the boats had a slight contact.

Penalty for Yellow.

Tomorrow the predictions are good also, so we hope to continue with our scheduled nine flights.

J.

Protocol? How to hand over a Penaltyflag in MR

Once in blue moon it happens that an umpire boat breaks down and the wing boat has to take over. It happened to us yesterday. That in itself is not a problem. You change position and start umpiring. In our case r the umpires managed to get another boat, and they came back to take over again.

Afterwards I started wondering what should be done if in the time the wing boat was umpiring, they had given a penalty, and how that penalty should be handed over?

If the umpire boat puts up a new flag that would technically be a 'new' penalty. See RRS C5.2
(there also should be a sound signal - but in any kind of breeze that might be missed)

And rule C 7.4 (c) is no help either.

After some discussion we decided that transferring the penalty flag from one boat to the other would be the most correct solution.
That, or let the wing keep umpiring.

What do you think?

Messages - a situation at a windward mark

Boris Kuzminov is asking me about a situation at a windwark mark trough his facebook page
Messages - a situation on windward mark: "- Verzonden met Google Toolbar"

The situation is in a friendly Match Race between the Blue and Yellow boat, and it looks like Blue wants to slow down the other, but that does not succeed.
See also http://live.vsk-match.com/vsk_match/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1764&sid=2f3ca81b5e4d518973143c7b99e0bee3

Right, this is how I see this:

In position one, Blue enters the zone (which should have been two hull lenghts in a MR) clear ahead. That means that she's entitled to mark room. Besides that, she's also right of way boat.

In position two, Blue is still entitled to mark room - she has luffed but has not passed head to wind - and Yellow still must keep clear.

In position three; the same applies. Blue is ROW either under rule 11 or under rule 12. Yellow is still keep clear boat.

In position four, Blue is no longer right of way boat. She becomes keep clear boat under rule 11. She's still however entitled to mark-room. If she is taking that Mark room she shall be exonerated for not keeping clear under rule 11, a rule in section A (RRS 18.5(a))

Because Blue never passes head to wind, so the second sentence in rule 18.2(c) never applies, she keeps being entitled to mark- room. Rule 18.3 also never applies because boats are not approaching the mark on opposite tacks.

In position five the boom of Blue is touching Yellow. Blue does not keep clear. Having mark-room she must be able to sail to the mark and sail her proper course at the mark. Yellow is preventing her from doing that.
Therefore Blue is exonerated for not keeping clear and Yellow penalized for not giving mark-room

Yellow Penalty.

LTW Reader Q&A (48); Virtual Match Race call

A LTW readers Q&A about a situation in virtual racing. It’s from Alexander from Harrislee, Germany. He writes:

A friend and me do a lot of sailing in RAL and on Virtual as well. Here we have a virtual Match Race Situation, where we are not sure who is right.
I think that Aquabat infringes rule 16.1. He’s changing course and not giving me enough room to keep clear
He off course thinks completely different and thinks I did not do enough to keep clear ( my boat is Fix oder Nix) . So witch rule applies ?

"Agubat" vs "Fix oder Nix"

Alexander did not tell us which boat was Yellow and which was Blue. I’m assigning Blue therefore to Aquabat (the leeward boat) and Yellow to Fix oder Nix (the windward boat)
After the Yankee flag (one either boat) I would display a yellow penalty flag.
Perhaps you want to analyze the situation yourselves first, before you read my reasoning after the break?