It sure looks and sounds like it in the video, but Karl would be the one that knows.

I had to watch it in slo-mo a couple of times to make sure there hadn't been contact with Karl. I still would not take bets on who would be ruled at fault between Karl and Skip if this went to the room. Blame can be passed up the line.

Jay you are Killing me!

I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything, or I'd need a new keyboard!

Reminds me of the Newkirk/Holmes 10 Commandments of Sailing:

1. Thou shalt not be a barge butt.
2. Thou shalt not overstand the gate with the kite up.
3. Thou shalt not lose sight of which section of the bridge the boat ahead just sailed through.

There are seven others... lemme cogitate.

This is a highly unusual situation, we don't normally have video. And, in more than one instance, I can see testimony that doesn't quite add up to the pictures.

Based solely on the video (no testimony), I agree with Matt's analysis; although saying that ARC (Wave) didn't start correctly assumes that he never corrected before starting (granted, a moot point).

While RRS 44.1(b) requires a boat that has broken a rule to retire if she caused serious damage; there is some leeway, in that Wave may not have thought she broke a rule (and who knows what they were thinking at that point?).

Wave definitely hit Stray Cats (you can see the shock in the pole-mounted camera at 1:25 in the video), AFTER coming up to do so. It was a rather light tap, so Karl may not have been aware of it.

After viewing the video, I don't think Wave has any hope of saying that Stray Cats forced Wave to hit Adrenaline. There was too much room between the Stray Cats and Adrenaline, and Wave did too much maneuvering to be considered innocent. Wave should have sheeted out and stopped after hitting Stray Cats (there was no point at which Wave had a shot of making it across the line without barging).

Mike

Cogitate away... We gotta have this.

Oh, no. None of these are on my list:

1. Have fun.
2. Pointy end up.
3. Don't hurt your crew.

Mike

Yeah, I want to hear these too. Have to say in all the years I've sailed against Kirk he has never barged. Of course, How would I know I'm always at the pin.

I love number three. "Hey Holmes, Which section did they go through?". Probably that one. "NOPE". Bong.

I wish those pics would get re-posted...hint,hint. I lost 'em. That carbon mast faired much better than the sc-22 from this year. Tad is still sailing with it.

I remember Mary pointing out that Newkirk signed his name on the bridge with a carbon fiber pencil (or was that Todd?).

I've never hit a bridge.Yet.

I was talking about the quote....

Always good for a reprise...

There was a great shot from up on the bridge also.


I guess I need to work on my Jakenese.

Hey!

Don't throw me under THAT bus!

Hey stop killing my resale value :-P

After reviewing the play!: The Nacra Infusion and ARC 22 are both barging. The ARC 22 comes up after realizing there is no room above the N20, making contact with the Infusion. (Time to react?) The ARC then bears away and approximately 2 seconds later makes contact with the N20.

I think there is a possibility the Infusion could be at fault being that the ARC tried to come up to avoid contact with N20. In doing so the ARC makes contact with the Infusion, then bears away to avoid further contact.

Also contributing is the fact that it is not a 1 design race, so boats have varying speeds per point of sail. And the start line seems to be set up on a starboard beam reach so the boats cannot slow down by pointing perpendicular to the start line. Therefore boat speeds are pretty high, not allowing much reaction time.

I am new to racing and I want to understand what happened, and what the rules say should have happened. Based on the video given and knowing nothing else but a basic (but far from complete) understanding of the rules, I have some questions/comments.

It looked to me like Stray Cats collided into Team Wave who then, as a direct result of that collision, hit Team Adrenaline.

1) Were there two incidents, or just one? In other words, according to the rules, are both collisions considered separately, or as a single incident?

2) It seems clear that Stray Cats hit Team Wave. Stray Cats was windward and had no rights. Is that correct or am I missing something important?

3) Team Wave did hit Team Adrenaline, but it seems a case could be made that the second collision was a direct result of Stray Cats' failure to keep clear and thus was also Stray Cats' fault.

Based on what little I know of the rules, I expect that Stray Cats was required to retire because of the incident.

Am I making sense, or do I need to review the rules?

Just to clear things up, there was no contact between skip and karl. There was cleary enough room for skip to sail straight and not hit anyone meaning in no way could karl be held responsible for the collision between skip and i. Or he could have rubbed hull against hull with karl doing little to no damage and karl would be at fault. Instead skip overreacted and drastically altered course bearing off trying to make the line rather than bailing like karl and in the process hitting me. Karl in no way forced skip to bear away as I mentioned before there was adequate room for skip to bail without bearing off.
My opinion is skip got flustered (as do the best of us) saw karl coming in hot which wouldn't be shocking in an f18 start, and reacted in fear turning into me.