Harry,

no worries, I am not offended, just curious. You should not mention me (or Wouter) in the same sentence as Robbie. He is at olympic level, Wouter and me are hobbyists and weekend warriors. I thought you were being sarcastic becouse both Wouter and I are very vocal and quick to flag our opinions, which dont mean that we are 100% correct all the time. Everybody should do their own evaluation on how much sense there are in posts here!
A professional sailor rarely have the time to post here as he is too busy sailing.

A professional would do what he could to avoid damage to equipment or injuries, but accidents do happen. Hitting another boat or forcing it into a "no options" position is poor sportsmanship in my eyes.


About F16 building, if you really want to build a boat, go with the Blade. But that is a topic more suitable in the F16 forum or the homebuilders forum.

Thanks Rolf and Jake for answering the question about a spin boat coming into the circle on starboard.

One thing that I 1000% agree with, that translates to all classes, is that the guys who are good avoid conflict basically at all costs. I've had many, many, many conversations with Wally, Cliff and others at the top of the H16 fleet. You never see them in a protest, because even if they screw up colosally (which is rare), and find themselves in the middle of the fleet, they'd rather duck everyone else and focus on getting back to the top of the fleet, rather than monkey around calling for rights. I'm sure they do their share of calling for room, etc. but the point is, they don't push it because when you start down that road, you're focusing on the wrong stuff and you'll lose the fleet. Anyone who's ever raced in a fleet of 60+ boats can appreciate how fast the train goes by, and when you screw up, you count the number of boats you lose by 5's or 10's.

Mike

In support of Jake's comments. While sailing the Tiger Worlds in Cangas, Spain there were two ways to go down wind and the middle was avoided. So half the fleet was coming in on Port and Half on Starboard. We were rounding five deep many times and there was not too much chaos, actually. The wind was up and the starboard boats easily rounded within the two boat length circle will keeping inside rights. As Jake insinuated it does take teamwork and understanding to do correctly.

A right of way boat coming into the 2 boat circle and keeping rights in the circle is allowed a tactical rounding. If rights change at the 2 boat lengths the new right of way boat is allowed a seaman-like rounding. Notice if rights are going to change when you move into the circle that will decide it for you while you are a long way out.

Later,
Dan