So... no more throwouts are coming in the 16 race regatta.

It looks like Johnny and Charlie need to run the table and score bullets the rest of the way if the two teams stay true to form and continue to fight it out for the top two spots for the next 3 or 4 races.

Or attempt to draw a foul on Robbie...ever watch AC matches?

That's a lot harder to do with other boats around to use for blockers. The AC guys only have to worry about one other boat in the area. Great racing in any case. May the best team win. I hate light air...but it does bring out the best. Any mistake is huge in light air, and trying to make up distance is nearly impossible unless you get that one lucky shift.

Lovell and Ogletree roll a snake eyes (1,1) but still in second with two races to go.
http://www.sdyc.org/results/tornado/index.htm

Looks like Johnny & Charlie pulled it out by winning the last four races . . .

Final Results

And the Chu's squeeze into third! Yeah!

Holy cow, I bet Robby and Hunter were pretty crushed at the result.

Way to go Charlie & John!!!

Ugh! That must have been nerve-wracking for both teams. Almost a pity to have two teams so close in performance. Any hope of them working together towards the games?

There's more here than meets the eye.....

Commentary from the scene.

Drama, drama, drama. What happened?

From SDYC :

"In winds of 5 1/2 to 8 knots, they won Sunday's races by 59 and 71 seconds, after their protest Saturday against Daniel/Stunzi and Norman and Gary Chu for team racing against them was disallowed the night before. The competition got feisty at times."

Aaaa...that would be a "No".

Gee, Jill was pi**ed off. Sounds like the game was extended to the protest room for strategic reasons. Guess we will never know..

Well... a protest where you call someone a cheater will piss you off! Escpecially if they call YOU a cheater.


quite a bit different then a protest over a judgement error on the race course or a rules interpretation while racing or in measurement.

Those protest papers.. ought to be made public!

It's one thing to loose.... It's quite another to have your integrity questioned.

Wouldn't you have to specify which rule you believed was being broken?
Was there a specific allegation made?

"Cheating" is a broad allegation. It also cast questions about the integrity of the team making the protest to state that they made a false claim.
The only way to clear the air is to make the FACTS known.

Mark,

sorry if I insulted you, Jill, Robbie or others. Was not the intention.
I was just leaning back in the couch and thinking about the state of the "game" the olympians are playing and how different it is from the level I sail. In that perspective, not much should be a surprise when the olympic berth are at risk. Last time Jill was that worked up was when we disscussed charter boats, remember?

When two or more teams train together for years, they need to be careful not to give even the appearance of cooperation out on the race course. This could mean doing more than avoiding obvious blatant fouls against an opponent, but also more subtle things like not pushing one's right of way against a training partner while doing so against a competitor. Certainly, it's a tough line to walk.

In the end, it made little difference...protest was disallowed, Lovell & Ogletree still had to win the last 4 races and they did.

Well, all we know is that a protest was filed claiming that Robbie and some team... not mentioned publicly, were in cahoots and team racing with the effect of trying to drive Johnny and Charlie down in the standings.

The protest was tossed out.

So, the protest is probably unsportsmanlike conduct... aka cheating.

This just stinks!

I agree with you.. ... its a small community... better for US Sailing to publish the papers and facts found then have us speculate about it.

If it's a pile of [censored]... so be it.

From Olli's Blog for Saturday:

"Here are some big news of the day (if that’s what you want to call it); there is a protest underway by 808 against 836 and 804 for team sailing during the first race. I believe the accusation is that when 836 was in second place last time at the windward mark they slowed down which allowed 804 to catch up or something like that. I don’t really want to get into details as Pat was called as a witness and I don’t know if the hearing has concluded.
But personally I really don’t think anything like that would be going on from those teams. I know both teams personally and know that they would never even consider anything like that. There are lot of big kelp beds on the race course that we struggle to get through at times that really slow us down. This can make racing here very frustrating, in the light stuff especially. "

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