Nice Rules Clinic at AYC on Saturday.

Keith, Alec and David were also listening from the cat fleet. It was great when the ONLY photo shown in rules talk was from a Tuesday night race on West River!

Terry Hutchinson gave some insight into his most famous rules fiasco…. (it cost New Zeeland the cup). The video showed the whole affair. After fouling Alingi in a port starboard at the weather mark… They were several boat lengths ahead but must take their penalty. The penalty is a tack and come past 90 degrees to the wind for 2 seconds.

From Terry’s point of view… They were past 90 for more then 4 seconds…. before the flag dropped. They lost the race by 2 secs! His point… It doesn’t matter what you think… it only matters what the judge can see or think.

Best line of the talk… I stink in the room making my case. … I want to sail hard and then enjoy the time at the dock afterwards. I have a sort of Nascar attitude where Rubbin’s racin and unless I have a hole in the boat.. I keep on racing.., no flags.

About the rules… Not that much has really changed for this cycle. BUT… if you read the new formulation of the rules a little too quickly… you might think the game is changed.

Be careful on your reading of the new term “mark room” Make sure you distinguish the two pieces of the definition.

Also, the new rule which would seem to give an overlapped group of down wind port tackers an excuse of Hey… I could not give you “the starboard tackers “ Mark Room for your tactical rounding is not what it mayseem. The judges emphasized that the overlap has existed for quite some while and the port tackers MUST give way to Starboard and cannot claim Crap… I just could not make way for you at the three boat length circle because of the overlaps … so sorry no room starboard.. you must bail out to avoid a collision. If you try it… you will be flicked. The game has not changed. The new rule is intended for rare instances when some one jibes into a position and the port tackers could not have anticipated this move and have no where to go.

Again… if you think the rules have changed …. Re read them or find an interpretation in the sailing press. They really have not changed that much. JW's and Bructas summary's match the AYC clinic.

Scooby, we asked about what the near the mark is. Answer it was a common sense definition given the conditions on the water.

Mark