I thought you are not allowed to wear things that will absorb water and make you heavier.

To avoid a very strong skinny guy that can sail with minimal weight in the light breeze and then tie on 50 pounds of water to his shoulders when it's breezy. To avoid the health (back and neck) risks associated with sailing this way all day? Reduction of mobility? The risk that someone might actually wear something heavier than water (i.e. they sink)?

Yeah, that is the reason for the monohull sailors -- they don't want them putting water bags on their backs and physically damaging themselves, hiking out with all that weight on their backs.

There are other ways to distribute weight on a body. Put weights on their ankles or wear a weight belt like scuba divers wear. Make a rule that the added weight on the body cannot be above the waist. Whatever.

In the case of catamarans, weight above the waist is not going to hurt sailors physically if the sailors are trapezing, because their back will be supported. But, regardless, it would help if the rules can say added weight to the crew must be at or below the waist.

That would discourage women crews from having breast enhancement surgery. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Primarily this is a safety issue...carrying corrector weight on your person is not wise. But I also think this rule may also be written to prevent people carrying weight soley for the purpose of increasing their competitive advantage.


As for the Tornado ballot, I voted against the proposal. While I sympathize with the likes of Darren Bundock & company over the concern for super-lightweight crews showing up at light wind venues...I don't think this is a major threat to the well-trained teams. I don't like the idea of changing a long standing tradition in the class just to accomodate an abbrerant situation (Qingdao). It is unfair to penalize the light teams in light air venues while no such penalty is prescribed to heavy teams in high wind venues.

Mike.

I agree. And I am looking forward to hearing the results of the vote of the Tornado Class.

I assuming they mean weighed when wet?

Jeez . . when are you guys going to download and read the rulebook?

Jeez...that appendix H is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of in all my years of sailing. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! A weekend regatta will now take a week.

You guys don't read the rule book much, do you?

That appendix has been there (in substantially the same form) at least since 1997. (That's as far back as I can find them on-line.)

Hasn't seemed to affect us that much along the way.

I know here in some races crew where wter weight on their bodies for trapping so when they are in the water it compensates and dosen't try to drown them.

So like I said the weight is a double punishment. First put weight on that crew and then make it static.

leave the weight rules out and it wouldn't be a problem of course. It still begs the question..if you penalise light guys in light air, why are the heavy guys not being penalised in heavy air?
To be fair, why not have all boats fitted with weights and stow or be rid of them in appropriate circumstance?

This is why they have banned trapezing with really big heads.... okay. I have taken it too far.

Let's hear from a heavy weight opn that. How would it feel to be penalised for having a weight that suited the conditions??

Why...

Because that is not the game we have traditionally played.

You could have a racing class which said... all teams will weigh 350 lbs.... Weight will be added to the boat to get to 350 lbs.

Will people think its more fair to race in this class? Will they WANT to race in this class... How heavy would you have to be... before you said... Nah... not fair... don't want to compete.

Fact of the matter... the mid atlantic Hobie 16 sailors have been trying to build support for the Payload 700 class... boat and sailors must add up to 700 lbs. Its been tough to generate much interest. What does this say about Fair and support of the class.

I read sections of the rule book before just about every regatta to stay fresh thank you very much. That was sarcasm.

No, I don't. And it is a good thing, because otherwise I probably would not be racing at all. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

You know that it all comes down to the manipulation of fair sailing. If you are good, I do not believe that the minimum class wieght is an issue to you. Tornados do not need this complication in the class and I for one voted against it. I think somewhere on the second page of this thread, Rolf responded the decline in the Tornado class, stating that it is not happening, it is just flat. In Europe and Austraila this may not be the case. But in the US it is the case. I began racing Tornados in the late 80's and there were active fleets around the country. Our fleet in Hingham, MA was 15-18 boats and 80 boats turned up for the 1990 Nationals. Now there is no fleet and the last Pre-Olympics/Nationals were what 12-14 boats. Convince yourself the fleet is healthy and active, but you are only kidding yourself. Add to this the costs involved in running a campaign these days and you will additionally see why this class and others are struggling and why the Laser class is actually growing. You can afford the boat even if you cannot afford to campaign it. Add to this the new ISAF requirements for C1 events and world ranking even to compete in the trials. No more showing up at the trials and just competing. I think that you can join the trials, but without ranking, even if you won the regatta, you would not being on the Olympic team. But, why don't we just keep making sailing less accesable, more expensive and go back to only the elite for Olympic competition. It is sad when you have a sailor with the capabilities and skills that Lars Guck brings to the sport and watch him sit out the trials because of the campaigning costs.