I would rather have fun while racing, then meet you at the keg post race and talk about the race, not argue in the jury room.
Jury room time = less time at the keg, just sayin

Not moving while cursing your air conditioning for not being able to keep up at idle?

Fleet racing in any boat is about going fast. Knowledge of the rules can help you to place yourself in the best position in a crowd, but generally speaking your odds of winning are better if you focus on getting out front and avoiding other boats like the plague (or an old wife, to borrow a phrase above).

Match racing and team racing put the emphasis on using your boat handling and rules knowledge to the forefront to control the competition. This concept works best with boats that are equal in speed, and that do not have dramatic acceleration capabilities, as it keeps the competition from being a runaway.

Statistically, it's probably like a 1 percenter game within our 1 percenter sport...

Mike

I wonder how that ruling helps to stop future collisions, the judges must have said oh black tricked yellow by giving some room therefore it was okay for yellow to continue on port, even though if yellow had tacked early enough black would have held it's line on starboard and no collision.

or having your daytime running lights kill the battery while at idle... in summer...?

No rule requires one boat to anticipate what the other boat might do. This boils down to "did yellow react fast enough" to how black physically presented his boat to him. I think yellow eased their main and started to bear away pretty fast once it became clear that black wasn't actually tacking. You could argue that yellow should have tacked but I would counter with the fact that it's a crewed boat and it takes coordination to tack a boat without throwing people in the water. I think the attempted duck was a reasonable action...he just wasn't allowed enough time or opportunity to do so.

Hadn't thought of that, I bet daytime running lamps are hard on an alternator if you spend a lot of time in traffic. Especially if it's hot out.

I watched a Worlds Opti team race video on Youtube the other day and it is was all about positioning the team to foul, or block the other team. While good for kids(to learn the rules) it was very over the top and excessive use of the rules to win, which IMHO is not racing.
Just my opinion though

could it be agreed upon, then, that Match, Team, Fleet, and Cruising are all separate disciplines within sailing that require different techniques, rules, and application?

So that rules and conduct acceptable in, say, match racing would NOT universally apply to other disciplines?

Does that make any particular discipline more or less relevant?

To my feeble mind, match racing looks more like MMA fighting while fleet racing is more like a footrace. Team racing may be more like cycling (with the teamwork)?

Does match racing skill translate into good fleet racing results?

Actually, match races are umpired. Penalties are levied on the water. Protests that require a hearing are unusual, and much less common than in fleet racing.


When a right-of-way boat changes course, she must give the other boat room to keep clear. See RRS 16.1.

If Yellow wanted to go to the left side of the course, then she could have tacked when Blue (with the black sail) luffed up. Since she didn't, I presume Yellow wanted to go right. When Blue turned head-to-wind, Yellow was free to continue on her course (and she did). When Blue turned back down, she was bound by RRS 16.1 to give Yellow "room to keep clear" (which in match-racing interpretation means Yellow must do everything reasonably possible to avoid Blue). At that point, it's a judgement call by the umpire(s). If Yellow does everything she can to avoid Blue but still makes contact, then Blue breaks rule 16.1. I presume that's what the umpire(s) determined.

If Blue wanted to go right, then she could have held her course (or altered course/speed only enough) to force Yellow to tack. Then Blue could tack and go right. If Blue wanted to go left, then she could have either pinched up to cross Yellow with speed, or altered course/speed to force Yellow to take a bigger duck (and then accelerated to the left).

Instead, Blue luffed up early, freeing Yellow of the need to tack (or duck) to keep clear. When Blue turned back down, she did not give Yellow the opportunity to keep clear. Had Blue luffed up later, or turned down earlier (thereby giving Yellow room) then the encounter might have gone the other way.


I'd argue that some of the rules do require a boat to anticipate what another boat may do, but those rules do not apply here. In this case, I believe you are correct.

I hope that helps,
Eric

Eric is spot on here.

As to the disciplines and differences, the rules are remarkably similar for most aspects of fleet, team and match racing. And, this works well. The rules are interpreted, and plays are developed, based on these rules, for team and match racing.

Some of these plays work equally well in fleet racing, but for the most part, you lose the fleet when you tangle with a single boat, so most sailors neither learn/understand the rules, nor race this way. About the only time match racing tactics work in fleet racing is during the last race or few races of a series when two boats are very close in points, but not in danger of losing to others (typically two boats fighting for the overall win at a week-long nationals, for example).

Mike

I don't buy it's a crewed boat so we couldn't tack arguement. This isn't their first rodeo and a team that's got their act together is going to talk and their going to anticipate things not going the way they want. They will know their outs and how to executed them. They didn't tack because it would have basically been game over anyway. The duck had a lower chance of success without contact but if they made it they would have been in control, going where they wanted and there is a good chance they would have led black into the mark on starboard assuming they were close the starboard layline.

Some may not like seeing the rules used this way but it takes some gray matter sort it out and for me I like watching better sailors than me figure it out.

I know that you know that I know that these guys are racing at a high level and are very likely ready to maneuver that boat in any direction and that it is probably a realistic expectation that these guys would be anticipating needing a quick tack - but the rules do not require that. I agree with your practical interpretation but that's not the same as the legal one.

Thanks Eric that got through the bone into my grey matter. Having said that if someone hit me on port and won in the room I would drop him on the way out

Easy Jeff. There are lots of scenarios where that can and does happen. Being on port doesn't make you a total target.

Mike

I think someone pointed out earlier that match racing is about the only place where "hunting" is a good strategy to protect your lead. I think that black boat could have hunted yellow before throwing the head-fake tack and really messed with them.

When is it considered a "tack" and not just a luff to windward? When you cross the direction of the true wind? When you change the clew of the sail(s)?

Take a look at the definition of Leeward and Windward, which states "A boat's leeward side is the side that is, or, when she is head to wind, was away from the wind.... The other side is her windward side", and the definition of Tack, Starboard or Port which states "A boat is on the tack, starboard or port, corresponding to her windward side".

When a boat turns head to wind, she remains on the same tack. The moment she passes head to wind, she is on the other tack.

RRS 13 states "After a boat passes head to wind, she shall keep clear of other boats until she is on a close-hauled course. During that time rules 10, 11 and 12 do not apply". The boat is on the new tack the instant she passes head to wind, but she must keep clear until she turns down to a close-hauled course.

I hope that helps,
Eric

The luff / fake tack aren't the problem in this case, it was the turn back down that caused the problem. Black was always the ROW boat, but is limited in her ability to maneuver when in close proximity to a giveaway boat trying to keep clear.

It's very situational, as I noted before. Had the wind been less, and/or the boats going slower, the port boat probably would have had been able to tack away or dump sails and spin down harder to duck.

Mike

It's difficult for me to pick out the nit picky stuff in these decisions, if the yellow boat had ducked earlier there would be no doubt in anyone's mind, as it is the yellow boat would have pushed me into losing concentration and focusing on them and whether I had to avoid collision. To my feeble brain the luffing decision leading to loss of rights to me doesn't stand up either as black luffed up and yellow luffed up then black came back on to it's course first therefore yellow should have kept luffing up and tacked.

If you can, you should try to get a ride on an umpire boat for a match race. Listening to the live calls from the umps is very educational.

Mike