The on the water stuff always has a component you can't control. The racers and PC will decide if what finally happened was fair or not. Who knows... maybe the mark boat farked up the ground tackle and did not communicate this fact... whatever... stuff happens. As a sailor I can understand the issues that come up in the heat of the moment. RC being unprepared for the conditions is less excusable.

Last race, it's blowing 20 K with 3 foot seas for a big boat distance race. The PRO decides to delay the start by 30 minutes to allow the host fleet additional time to sail the 15 miles into the wind to the start. We got the message on the radio. so OK!

The problems started with check in at the committe boat... not a seperate check in boat. in those conditions... it was a bit dicey to sail by for mandatory verbal check in.

Indecision on the PRO's part as to even run the race stopped him from posting a course before the scheduled 5 minute sequence.

Picking up the course in the 5 minutes pre sequence was not safe either. The PRO was short handed and decided he had to personally man the radio to announce the course sequence. Eventually the course info got out over the lousy radio as other boats repeated the course back to the RC. The PRO was clearly getting very frustrated.

The real problem was that he called for a down wind start and could only put the the small RC flags on the course side of the boat for safety reasons. So with invisible flags and faulty radio use on his part... start times were a complete mystery.

So.. the RC work was probably the worst of the season since they were not prepared for the conditions but it was the same handicap for everyone racing. (I later came to find out he was a dear dear old friend).

What I believe is inexcusable is messing up the stuff you can control... eg the NOR, SI's, last minute class splits and all of the stuff that should be clear before you leave the house to go sailing.