Hi all,
I competed in an informal race at our club on sunday. Four A-cats, Nacra 5.2 (me and my crew), 570 and one Hobie-16. There was one boat we couldn't figure. They were all over the place, missing bouys here and there. When we got to what I will call the upper bouy (we were racing on a lake around some islands) they appeared out of nowhere going downwind. They had cut off almost a mile on what was to become an hour long course. I was certain I had taken the right bouy because I had just watched all the remaining A-cats rounding it (one retired due to a previous injury that was unfortunately playing up. Naturally I was p1ssed 0ff with the cheating. I asked the skipper politely where exactly he thought this upper bouy was located and if he would point it out to me on the map. At that point he started to stutter and mentioned he had forgotten his glasses, and besides it wasn't much of a "race" anyway and he'd probably sailed way more distance than anyone else because he messed up on the first bouy... Excuses, excuses, you get the idea.
Ok, maybe it wasn't a serious race to him, but I still felt like I had been taken for a ride (thats the GA rated version). I didn't feel like filing an official protest for fear of ruining the atmosphere. It was my first informal race at this club.. The way I feel now, the sailing was great, but I sure wish people like this would stay at home or take a voluntary DNF or whatever.

What would you do in such a situation?

You have had words with the skipper, might be worth a chat with the sailing club to ask if kinda stuff is expected in "fun" reaces; it might be that this skipper is known for it and they just ignore him. If it's a known problem, they may be dealing with it in a way you are not aware.

If not a known problem, a chat with the commadore may mean the skipper gets a chat "from someone with big boots" and he then understands it is not appropiate to miss marks. If no joy next time; simply get witnesses and then suggest to the skipper that it's not on; if not joy; PROTEST!

Were there trophys or other awards involved and did he take 1st place? I would think if that was the case, the rest of the fleet should protest him. Where did he finish over all? If there were no awards, what does it matter? Since you are new to there, I would mention it to some of the other regulars and see if this is acceptable to them, and then as Scooby says, just ignor him. If instead he is up on the podium claiming 1,2 or 3rd place...you should menion it to the committee boat people.

If they have a skippers meeting, possibly ask someone to point out all the marks of the course during the skippers meeting.

Since you mentioned that you are new to the club, you might want to leave it at that, or you might want to take him aside and tell him that people are watching, or depending on how much you want to embaress the fellow, you might want to then look directly at him and ask him if he can see the mark locations without his glasses.

Also, enlist the help of one of the other skippers that has been around a while to "keep an eye" on the offender.

Because you are "Norman New guy" there is a need to tread lightly, but if this has been tolerated, there are others that are not happy about it, and will jump at the chance to put an end to it.

Of course there is the possibility that he just made an honest mistake, and "getting caught" will assure it will not happen again.

I'm sure there's one in every crowd... who doesn't sail proper course, or has modifications that are not disclosed, or whatever just to somehow get line honors or corrected wins in "fun" races.

I think they eventually get "found out" and the true fun racers either make this offender's life difficult by disclosing his/her tactics, or just don't consider that person part of the fun race.

The "fun" races that seemed to be the most fun for me were at my local boatyard. An arbitrary course was picked from existing marks depending on conditions, and it was a reverse handicap start based on GPS clocks or whenever the slowest boat started (start time was supposed to be 17:00 for the slow boat. The rest of us calculated our start time based on our ratings). Of course, our N20 was the last boat to start along with an F-24 somewhere around 15 minutes after the flying scott started.

It wasn't windward/leeward, either. Some days it was a rectangle, some days a triangle, and some days the course was more like a drunken sailor's stagger to the nudie bar.

The starting gate was full of boats all figuring "I'm xx seconds behind you, right?", and there were always a few boats that ended up OCS, but with no PRO you couldn't really hit them.

I think the key to the success of that series was that there were at least two or three boats in various sub-groups that all competed against themselves, regardless of which other groups overtook them during the course of the "race".

The finish was usually pretty neat, as most of the groups (unless there was a weather change) were pretty close to finishing at the same time. Made for easy logistics at the dinner table, too. Since there were no awards, it was an easy party, too, with no calculating this or that. Everyone knew who the "cheater" was but for the most part we were using this series to get on the water and practice.

The other thing that I find interesting in retrospect? There were a lot more female and youth sailors doing those. Maybe it was because it was a "backyard" series that didn't involve travel or logistics (just show up), but I think it was more because with no awards there was less pressure, and less yelling by snot captains with inflated egos (like me).

Depends on how serious you guys are at your club, and who is racing. At our beach, when all the F18's are on the water, it tends to be more serious (but not very... more about yuks than anything else) than when its a Heinz 57 start with every imaginibale one of a kind out there. Heck, we raced last weekend and were the only F18 out there, and the RO gave an order to one of the mono hulls to shorten the course, right as we were on approach to round it for the second time. We chased down, and rounded the moving mark on port tack laughing all the way!

Dennis,

I've done similar things before ... it could be very innocent.

In a distance race (up 20 miles and back) I was (easily) 30 minutes behind the lead boats. So when I saw them coming back, I turned and "raced" against them going back (that is until they dusted me). You learn much more by sailing near someone than all by yourself.

Granted, I made no pretense of sailing a "proper" course.
tback

Same here, of course I always notify the committee.

Yes true....In my case "THEY WERE" the race committee! lol

I've never participated in a race that was NOT an informal race. But I don't think anyone would have made a big deal as we usually have things like handicaps for sailing with your spouse or girlfriend as crew(After all you are taking your life in your hands). Sailing with young or old crew or extra crew. Of course I have only done this twice and have yet to finish. But the point is in these informal races it's more about the sailing than the race.

I can say that I have never come across cheating in cat sailing, but more of a misunderstanding of the rules.

However, there is one exception where it was blatant felony of the rules. The situation in question had to do with a race where one of the racers didn't round one of the marks (a huge oil rig). After the race, and before the awards presentation I approached the skipper had asked them if they knew what the course was etc.. only to make things fair before we protested. Needless to say, they "thought" the course was..... and it was at that time we (and few other jumped in) had asked them to disqualify themselves which they didn't. And this is where it gets better; when we approached the race committee, they had informed us we were wrong as the course for our fleet was shortened to the buoy a 1/4 mile in front of the rig and we didn't have to round it per the race instructions. They then in a very flippant manner and told us we should have paid attention at the skippers meeting. At first I thought I had attended on Greatful Dead concert too many in my youth as I didn't recall hearing the amendment. However, four other participants who saw the infraction; with two not having a vested interest as they had to go around the rig, had also agreed that this was not articulated at the meeting and the understanding was all had to take the last mark the oil ring to port..... Needless to say this fell on deaf ears as the race committee stood by the initial race results and was certain about the amended instructions. At the awards presentation there were some strong accusations made about the skipper of the winning boat, his relation with the promoter of the race with something about having carnal knowledge of each other which almost evolved in to some physical confrontation - so I was told as I was already packed up and gone.

They way I look at it, when it comes to cheating, the only person your cheating is yourself. In some cases like the above mentioned yes it is a felony, in other instances it may be a case of not understanding the rules. If the latter, try and the help the person out.

Years ago I was involved in gliding and flying distance was very important as that was the " racing " of the day ie how far in X amount of time. GPS loggers appeared on the scene and a large number of the pilots who I thought were pretty good by their discription of where they went, all started having really bad days.

Now GPS units are almost a dime a dozen so simply ask for the trace off the GPS they almost certainly carried, in fact ask everyone to carry one and download the traces onto a laptop, over laying the records are quite a good learning device and does tend to keep people honest.

OK, I hope getting "caught" fixed it. There were no trophies involved and I even wonder if I'm ever going to hear our corrected scores... It sure fixed my expectations anyhow. Maybe that alone is enough to not end up with a hangover next time. If I race against him again I'll be sure to negotiate appropriate alcoholic compensation for any missed marks. That will insure any hangover is due to the proper means!

As a general note, the example of the oil rig race brings up an important point. NOTHING said at a skippers meeting is official, unless it's in writing (in the NOR, SIs or a WRITTEN amendment).

There are some times when it is desirable to allow changes to be made verbally, but the procedure for this must also be, you guessed it, in writing. This is typically only used for small regattas (such as kids events). The procedure must be robust, however, and this should not be used lightly as it can easily be fodder for redress.

Yes, this is per RRS. There are also appeals cases that refer to this.

Mike

Mike is absolutely correct. Oral changes to the sailing instructions can be made only on the water, and only if the procedure is described in the written sailing instructions. Changes may not be made orally at the competitors' meeting. In fact, there is no requirement to attend a competitors' meeting at all.

Regards,
Eric