Extreme start for Alinghi in Lugano

Well, that was certainly exciting. Alinghi capsized in the very first race in the iShares cup in Lugano. You can see the sequence on the iShares Cup 2008 website

We started out normal enough. First start at 14:00 hours. Only the wind wouldn't settle. Each shower brought a big shift between these mountains surrounding this lake. Race office Peter Moore had a hard time getting the course set up. Especially because once you drop a mark here, the weight goes down for 200 meters. Not something you then change five minutes later.

Once set up, we started and even during the start sequence the wind veered off 40 degrees. Suddenly we had a reach course, going fast in between huge raindrops and squalls.

In one of those squalls Alinghi couldn't bear off fast enough and capsized. We were ahead and to leeward of them. At a certain point it becomes inevitable. You see it happening in slow motion. One hull flying, higher, higher and then even higher until the mast was almost parallel to the water.

One crew member dropped from the flying hull onto the mainsail. Another hit his face and got a cut lip. Fortunately that was the extent of personal injuries. The boat however didn’t sustained the incident without damage. I’m not sure, but I heard the mast broke while they tried to right the boat. Perhaps it was already weakened by the impact on the water.

The boat quickly overturned with the mast and sails straight down. Meanwhile the other boats continued racing in heavy showers and occasional lightning in the hills above.

You can certainly say this was an Extreme start for this event.

Alinghi overturned,with crew and support -staff making her ready to be righted.

Holmatro and BT getting ready for the final race of the day


Until dark the riggers worked on te spare mast of the class to get it ready for Alinghi. When I arived this morning, the boat was gone from the carpark, ready to sail...

UK Halsey Rules Quiz 24

In case you've missed it, UK-Halsey Sails has put up a new rules quiz (24) on there site. Click on the picture to go there:
If you've been a regular visitor of this blog and followed the discussions, you should be able to answer this one straight away.

For those of you visiting the UK-Halsey Sailmakers site for the first time, have a look at all the previous quizzes. The animations are very good and the cases interesting.

iShares Cup Lugano

When this post is scheduled to appear on the blog, I will hopefully travel the very final part of my trip to Lugano, Switzerland. The bus from Malpensa airport (Italy) is scheduled to arrive at 00.30 in Lugano.



I'm going there to umpire for the Extreme 40 Class in the first of the iShares Cup events. In total five are planned this year. In September I also hope to do the final one in Amsterdam.
If you want to know more about these 'monster' 40 foot cats go to the website: iShares Cup 2008
With a team of 6 umpires in three boats we are going to chase these boats around Lake Lugano.

The rules which apply are the same as used for Medal Races: addendum Q with a few changes because of the size and speed of the boats. If there's any kind of breeze blowing I'm afraid we will need to revert to a zone system. We will not be able to keep up with them.

If I have a chance I'll keep you in the loop with a few pictures and stories.

Look To Windward READERS Q & A | 6

Received a Umpire Question from AndraZ, which I think is worth to share with you:

Hi Jos!
This weekend I was umpiring a GR3 match race in Sicily and a situation happened, where I had a different call than the other umpire. Later he had no way to discuss it since he had to leave early...
I'd be really glad if I could sort this out, with your help or help of your readers, if you don't mind.

I'm attaching the situation:
Timeframe: two minutes to starting signal
Situation: chase around the starting boat
Conditions: 10-12kn wind, no waves

• step 1: boats enters two-length zone clear, so Blue has no right of room as inside boat;
• step 2 & 3: clear astern boat keeps clear, does not try to go inside;
• step 5: Yellow boat tacks inside two-length zone;
• step 6: Blue boat tacks inside two-length zone;
• step 7: boats are overlapped, Yellow starts closing the gap;
• step 8 & 9: Yellow closes in, Blue does not respond, there is no contact, Yellow luffs and protests

And here is my story:

• step 1: rule 18.2(c) applies, since boats are not overlapped and are not approaching to start
• step 2-4: nothing special happens, Blue is keeping clear
• step 5: Yellow tacks inside 2LZ, 18.3 should apply, but C2.6 says: "If two boats were on opposite tacks and one of them completes a tack within the two-length zone to pass a rounding mark, and ..." Starting boat is not a rounding mark, therefore we go back to basic rule, 18.2(a)
• step 7, 8 & 9: Blue boat is inside overlapped boat, so Yellow should keep clear

Conclusion: yellow boat was required to keep clear under 18.2(a) and she did not
Decision: penalty to yellow

What is your opinion?
Many thanks,
AndraZ

I agree with the penalty, but not with the reasoning. Can you find out why?

Clubsailing 2008 at KWV Langweer

In my region the local representatives of my MNA set up a competition for clubs some years ago.
It gives members of clubs the opportunity to experience racing without having to own a sailboat by using boats from local sailing schools and companies who rent out boats, for a minimum charge. (We pay € 5,- per boat for the evening to cover insurance)

It is hugely popular, with at the moment four divisions of each five teams in three boats.
In the spring and early summer each club in a division does one evening with two races.
Yesterday evening my club KWV Langweer did this year's races in nearly perfect conditions. Nice breeze, open water, almost no other boats and very sportive and fair racing.

I've uploaded some pictures to my Flickr account, so you can have a look.

Like I said each team has three boats and the points for each boat is added up to get a team result. We don't do Appendix D (team racing rules) because for these beginning sailors the rules for fleet racing are complicated enough.
With in total 5 evenings that adds up to 10 races. Depending on the total, after a final evening with all divisions together, you can promote to the next division or be degraded to a lower one.
Last year our team promoted to division two and this year they had a hard time getting good enough results to stay in. Not yesterday. My team scored a second and a first place. Well done!

Definitions | 15

Postpone A postponed race is delayed before its scheduled start but may be started or abandoned later.

The difference is in timing. Postponement always happens before the starting signal with AP. Abandonment always after the race has started. Postponement is signaled with AP, which is sometimes accompanied with sign flag H or A:



Even if you can't see the flags, you can count the sound signals. Postponement is always signaled with two sounds, abandonment with three sounds.
If you have a hard time remembering which was again the H or the A flag:

• H (for home) is red like a traffic light which means stop, but expect a different signal later (ashore).
• A (for abandoned) is blue, for the disappointment that there will be no more racing (today)

It makes a great deal of difference if the postponement is canceled ashore or on the water. According to the RRS a warning signal will be given one minute after lowering the AP. If that would be done ashore, nobody would be able to be on time for the start. That's is why in the sailing instructions normally this time is extended to 30 or more minutes, depending how far the race area is from the boat park. Starting a race without adequate time to get to the race area, can be grounds for redress, provided you made every effort to get there.

In addition to sign flags A or H, AP ashore can be hoisted with a numeral pennant, whereby the meaning of the pennant- i.e. 1, 2, - till 6 - will signal the number of hours a race is postponed from the scheduled starting time. So if first pennant number one is used and after an hour exchanged for pennant two, the postponement is extended with one more hour till it is two hours after the original scheduled time. If there's no numeral pennant the postponement is for an indefinite time.

There are some interesting nicknames for AP. Well at least in my language. Translated we call this flag 'the rattail'. How about in yours? If there are any names you like to share, please leave them in the comments.

MEDAL RACES at Delta Lloyd Regatta

In difficult circumstances the medal races were done yesterday at the Delta Lloyd Regatta. Close quarters, lots of press boats and 20 to 22 knots of Easterly wind. Since Medemblik is at the inner West coast of the IJsselmeer, big rollers came in. Combined with gust up to 26 knots, you can imagine we all got drenched.

The sailors in some of the classes had a hard time keeping their boats upright and a few capsizes determined the outcome.

As for protest, we did not have that many. All in all, about 10 flags most of them for mark touches. Two yellow flag penalties and the rest for part two infringements, either greened or red flagged.

We prepared for the medal races by going over Addendum Q, talking about positioning and communication, checking for possible close scores - in case of a match race between competitors and possibilities for redress. The way these races are set up, is in some ways very different than normal fleet racing, but close enough to get confused sometimes. The rules are different from the ones in Match Racing.

There's no longer a difference in the voluntary penalty and the umpire initiated penalty, both are one round including a tack and a gybe. But a boat not taking a penalty when it's clear she's broken a rule, will get a second penalty. One for the the part two rule and one for breaking the basic principle.

Getting well clear to take a penalty means that other boats can protest if they have to avoid a circling boat. If the boat taking a penalty pauses her round because of another boat, the penalty is not taken promptly and that will result in an additional one from the umpires.

The exoneration rule takes precedence over any conflicting instruction. If a boat doesn't get enough room and touches a mark the umpires can exonerate her without the need for a protest.

It's always a challenge to get in the right mind set. You tend to focus to much sometimes on the exceptions and forget the bigger picture. One thing I definitely need to improve, is recognizing a boat braking rule 42 in these wind and wave conditions.

News item can be found here, and for results go to this page

ISAF Q&A 2008-003

A new Q&A has been published on the ISAF Website: Q&A 2008-003

I have never heard of a case like this, but someone must have, otherwise it wouldn't have been up there.

This Q&A answers a couple of questions about a boat who wants to rescind an already handed-in retirement. For instants after she has subsequently has discovered that she hadn't broken a rule. The actions and non-actions of the RC and the PC are discussed. Good Q&A actually

I find also interesting that the expiration date of this Q&A is 1 January 2013.
Which makes it valid until the end of the next rule-cycle. Usually Q&A's have a "shelflive" of a year. I'm still wondering what the actual meaning of that date below all the Q&As is. In the policy it is states that after the expiration date, Q&As either have to be included in the next rulebook or considered for a new call or discarded. But the ones from 2001 are still up there! Are they still valid? Or are they expired? Why keep then up there? So what's the deal?

With this new date of 1 January 2013 it is clear that this is not going to be changed in the next rule cycle, but up for review for the next.

Update 23/05/08 16:12 hours: The Q&A has disappeared from the front page and the Q&A page. I don't know what this means. Apparently there was something wrong with it?

LTW R18 Case Studies | 5

Part 5 from the rule 18 Case Studies: LTW R18 Case Studies Part 5.pdf

First Day Pictures Delta Lloyd Regatta

Just to show you we have had perfect conditions on the first day, some pictures of Delta Lloyd Regatta from Medemblik.





For those of you who recognize the "fast" moving Judge in the last picture, send a comment and I'll give him your message.