Had there been damage, it could have been bad for you.
I feel for you though, sometimes it's really hard to anticipate their (lack of) reaction.
Mike
Please Explain how it could be bad for him if he had rights and wasn't doing anything wrong, unless you mean getting hit by a scow on an A. That would probably suck.
Damage always, most definitely, sucks. It also opens the door for a RRS 14 protest (yes, the rule where a ROW boat CAN be penalized for collision with damage). We all know that anything can (and does) happen in the room, even when the judges aren’t biased and think they have a slam dunk solution.
If you're on the same course and paid the same entry fee, giving everyone a pass because you are on a cat will do nothing to open their eyes and make them pay attention.
It’s not about giving anyone else a pass. I’ve witnessed (and actually prevented) an attempt to take action against an entire fleet of cats due to the perceived actions of three boats (the threatened action was to uninvited the fleet ever again). I lost a ton of respect for several officials that day (also renewed my faith in a couple).
I’m not saying it’s right, or OK, but especially when we’re guests at someone else’s party, we have to be careful, or risk not being asked to come back. I know that’s probably too much for some folks here to wrap their heads around, and I’ve said too much about this already, so I’ll leave it there.
I was pretty ticked off at the time - but we laugh about it now. You just really have to watch your overlaps at the zone in that kind of mixed fleet and making some vocalizations doesn't hurt either. Running down a gaggle of J24s at C-mark while they're dorking around with a gybe drop of that ancient symmetrical spinnaker is P.A.I.N.F.U.L! ;-) Talk about a pinwheel!
Rick White wrote about it many moons ago… SLOW DOWN TO WIN!!!
Mike
