(After the events of last night...)

This is a very controversial issue. The subject has been raised many times and we haven’t found an absolute agreement or fully satisfactory solution.

First of all let’s take in account some obvious facts and differences between Tacticat and real sailing:
· Tacticat races complete in few minutes. There is no time, from a practical point of view, to engage in lengthy protest discussions. No when verbal intercourse is to be held by means of a clumsy chatting among different speaking people…
· There is no committee, jury or responsible actor who can judge the actions.
· Computers are not good at judging human intentions whilst human juries can excel at that.
· Computers are very good, in fact perfect, at determining physical objective facts (Out-of-line events, boat A acquires an overlap, boat X is tacking,…)
· Rules engine programming is the toughest area of all Tacticat computer routines.
· There is no safety risk when sailing Tacticat even in the strongest 60kts gale, not for people (they don’t even get wet), nor for boats (a carbon-platinum-molibden-cryptonite ultra strong alloy <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ).
· Robots have a simple programming, they try to follow the rules but have no capacity to foresee or plan evasions. Have a small set of hard-wired instructions.



From the very beginning we had two possibilities:
· Do as in a real race. Try at all cost not to hit another boat, protest when hindered having ROW. Don’t make risky actions like tacking in front or near another boat… Or alternatively,
· Don’t try to avoid collisions at all cost when you think you have ROW (rights). Let the computer evaluate the status when collision occurs and black-mark the offending boat. Act bold, for instance tack from port course in front of a starboard boat and expect the tack to be completed BEFORE the starboard boat hits your stern (some of you have already experienced it, Robi? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> ).


I can’t say I’m happy but over the time the second option (coined full-contakt Tacticat) has prevailed. So … people usually race according to ALL SAILING RULES EXCEPT RULE 14.


The reasons?.
First option is more sportsmanship, more real, but requires everybody to be well-behaved, to know the rules, and someone that can act as jury.
Full-contakt Tacticat option is, well, more fun, more aggressive, more easy to put in place for beginners…


This issue is not closed. And sailors racing can always decide on applying strict sailing rules and abide to Rule 14.

To tell the truth, most experienced sailors would like sailing strictly, but we are not restricting access and we find usually together a many times national champion and someone who has never raced before.
I, for my self, would like to find the way to make everybody happy. Unsuccesfully so far.

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Another issue is that Tacticat rules engine is buggy. We all know it (or should know it). There is always a risk that you are black-marked and stopped with no good reason.

Well, that’s something we have to live with.

Never had a wrong rules judgement at a real race??? You are really lucky.

Yours,
aestela