2010 Inland Championships & Gill Series

[nigelf]

Chris. How many turns were done by how many boats at mark X or are barging encounters going unpunished? Excellent pictures by the way, Chris and Jeremy.
 

[Jeremy C]

a couple more pics

[Jeremy C]

startline

[Jeremy C]

startline 2

[Jeremy C]

tacking action

[MikeDay]

<div style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; margin: 8px;">That mark rounding photo at post 14 is excellent!  Clearly, Jonno's call for 'room' was not taken all that seriously ...

Mike D
N3533

[Chris Bowen]

Chris. How many turns were done by how many boats at mark X or are barging encounters going unpunished? Excellent pictures by the way, Chris and Jeremy.
 

A grand total of zero.

[Jeremy C]

Congratulations!

Well done Tom Stewart and Rachel Williamson who took the 2010 inland trophy today.


Full results

[nigelf]

Thanks Chris for the information I was hoping not to receive! Having raced for many years under the old rule where you had to retire if you infringed a rule and having witnessed many examples of superb sportsmanship from some of the country's best skippers, I had hoped that the penalty turn system might have persuaded competitors that an infringement could be offset without the ultimate penalty of retirement. Presumably in this instance everyone involved took the view that they were not at fault so a multiboat pileup was perfectly acceptable. Congratulations again for the excellent pictures.

[Kevin]

A big THANK YOU to Charlotte, her assistant (Tom), and everyone else at Northampton SC for a great weekend. If you weren't there, you definitely missed out!
 
Also, congratualtions to Tom and Rachael for their convincing win, although with a different winner in each race it can't be said they had it all their own way.
 
Kevin

[Chris Bowen]

Thanks Chris for the information I was hoping not to receive! Having raced for many years under the old rule where you had to retire if you infringed a rule and having witnessed many examples of superb sportsmanship from some of the country's best skippers, I had hoped that the penalty turn system might have persuaded competitors that an infringement could be offset without the ultimate penalty of retirement. Presumably in this instance everyone involved took the view that they were not at fault so a multiboat pileup was perfectly acceptable. Congratulations again for the excellent pictures.

Nigel, I'm not sure whether there was actualy any contact between the boats / mark. The picture was taken with a 400mm lens on a crop frame Canon camera (equivalent to a 640mm lens on old fashioned 35mm ). This causes everthing to become compressed and boats to appear closer than they actually were. The following is a picture taken 1.75 seconds later and clearly shows gaps between the boats / marks -

[Tom Stewart (Guest)]

Nigel,
I was just a head of this non incident. I thought I had Jonno (3528) stuffed and gybeing out, but a mighty 30 degree shift saved them and they made it round the mark cleanly.
Tom Stewart

[Chris Bowen]

A few more from the weekend -

[nigelf]

Thanks both Chris and Tom. It is very easy to postulate from the armchair although my years as a Race Officer and being pressed into giving talks on the (pre-1980) rules to sailing colleagues makes me take, sometimes, a slightly jaundiced view of what I see or think I see on the water. Tom's mention of a major wind shift might well explain the apparent pile-up - I have been in that situation many times myself. They used to say that the camera never lies but as you say, Chris, long-focus and telephonto lenses can give a misleading impression. I was, I must confess, more concerned at the apparent touching of booms, boats and backsides among the boats behind the leading boats but the most essential element in all such instances is that the skippers concerned can put their hands on their hearts and say "I was not at fault"; as I read the rules it is not for those skippers to say who might have been at fault and if all concerned can deny any fault, there can be situations where there is multiple contact and no one accepting responsibility, all perfectly properly.I had a spell of radio sailing (Marbleheads, 6 Metres and l Metres) where the same penalty turn arrangements apply. The system works extremely well in radio racing because these boats (particularly the l Metres)can turn on a sixpence (old money!) and do even two turns extremely quickly. Two turns in a N12 in a stiff breeze with mandatory gybes included can quickly knock you so far out of contention  that it might be tempting to continue if no one has called "protest", particularly if you have any doubt as to whether you were in the wrong anyway. We are extremely fortunate that our sport is largely self-regulating and I am sure that all those who teach incomers to sail and race emphasise this priceless feature. Prior to the penalty turn system being introduced, there was, in the more competitive fleets, something approaching anarchy and I think I am right in saying that the penalty turn was introduced to encourage the self-regulating element of the sport and remove the somewhat drastic requirement of retiral for the slighest rule infringement. As a final shot, might I say that I hope to be at some of next year's N12 open meetings with my new Paradigm 2 and I know that I had better be on my best behaviour when racing among any who read these comments!

[John Meadowcroft]

I was just thinking how man people had done turns at the weekend.  Near to where I was in the fleet i saw these helms...
Myself (tacked in Jo Richards' water)
Jo Richards - 10 minutes later, big pile up at a mark, but not the one in the picture!
Andy McKee - hit a mark - plain stupid, frankly!
Graham Camm - mark rounding incident
I did not hear much shouting at anyone, it was all very good humoured.
Anyone else got some turns to report?
Finally, thanks again to all involved in organising.  Well done to Tom and Rachel for the Inlands, Jonno & Char for the Gill Series, Arthur and Mary Henderson and Chris Day / Sophie Richards for winning their first races at the Inlands, and to Rosie for putting up with me...