Greg, I do remember, that and plenty of other incidents at that regatta which made me scratch my head and say "Really???" If you recall, I was also on the PC, and we had a few really late nights. Rules 2 and 69 were discussed a few times, which thankfully is pretty rare, but never pleasant.

I've seen all sorts of head games (and worse) over the years, both as a racer and as an official. It's almost always impossible to prove intent, and sometimes people just deny it all ever happened once they're in the room and realize the severity of the situation.

You'd think that since Rule 18 has been around for about 20 years, and we've used gates for about that long, people would stop using the excuse that they don't see port as being overlapped in that situation. We either need to dramatically improve our training, or maybe implement requirements to pass a basic test before entering a race?

My biggest pet peeves are bumper boats (pileups at the start line or gate, with no turns or protests, usually more of a problem with Optis), or the blatant kamazazi port boat crossing through a starboard-tack parade, doing a penalty turn, and still coming out 10 boats ahead: a clear violation of the Basic Principles and specifically 44.1(b).

Back to the point about dealing with the wrong-rule-yelling bullies: typically, holding your ground and not backing down on the water will give them the clue that you're not a pushover, and they'll leave you alone after that. Otherwise, protest, protest, protest.

Mike

Last edited by brucat; 10/07/16 08:00 AM.