Simon, I really dont think the discussion here goes around finer points. The downwind rounding is one of the fastest and most complex situations you get on todays course. As the discussion here have showed, it is not very clear and widely understood what the rules say you can and shall do. If it was clear, surely the correct and full answers would come pretty immediately? I have scratched my head over the explanations and implications here as I am certain many others have done. Dont you agree that the rules are rather complex?
It is probably pointless to take the "rule complexity" discussion much farther. But it sure would be nice to have some open but experienced minds look over the rules and form much simplified alternative. Who knows, it might even work very well. Gurra is looking at it, and I know some others also are thinking along the same paths.
Yes, the rules are complex.
The thing is that the rules do need to be fairly complex as we are racing something (a boat) that cannot go in all directions (i.e. dead upwind) we race on a track that has things on it (other boats / sand banks / shipping etc) and the track itself moves, we cannot change direction quickly. We sail around things (marks), we start from a start line that is not marked, just the ends of it.
If we simply had port and stbd; what happens when one boat is sailing higher than the other; we need a rule for that too; what happens when we need to sail around something like a mark. P-S may be enough, but not always. what happens when we sail towards a sand bank?
Could the rules be made simpler by a complete re-write?
Yes, we could get rid of a lot of the "x rule switches off and Y applies". BUT it would mean a complete change to the structure of the rule set.
It might be nice to have a set of "starting rules; sailing to windward rules; rounding upwind marks etc" BUT how would we document the point one set changes to the other??? It is a complext sport we take part in.
Try sitting down and writing some rules, but just to ensure that each time 2 boats meet on the race course; one has to give way to the other; the simplest might be "biggest has rights, but is that LOA/ LWL / tonnage? etc....
I like the concept of the simplified rules for starting racing, but they are not enough for serious racing.
