The last time I sailed the Alter Cup in 2003 in F-18HT's, we had a block fail for the spinnaker retrieval system during a race. We were first around the weather mark and lost 5-6 boats trying to get the spinnaker up and down with the jammed block sheave. We clawed our way back and passed a competitor who blew a tack at the upwind finish line to finish 4th and felt pretty damn good about it. Later on the beach, we found out this competitor had filed for redress for a similar issue. He won his redress and was given a higher placing than ours in the race. We felt cheated but I think my teammate (Jason Sneed) and I felt better not trying to get a better placing with redress. The block failure could have happened on any boat so we did not think it was fair to request redress.

Peer pressure in a fleet can make a big difference in rules enforcement and I think that is what is working in the A-class to keep the racing clean and fun. Rule breakers will find themselves somewhat ostracized by the rest of the fleet if they practice that behavior.

Bob Hodges