THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE SOLUTION!

Thanks Paul

Couple this with what ever wind range the club, class, PRO wishes and you then you have let racers know what to expect by declaring guidelines for the racing and not rigid standards.

By declaring that these decisions will not wind up in the jury room you don't have to worry about how to measure, where to measure.. when to measure...... Indeed the experience of the RC will be the key factor to a succesful event.

Is there a loophole that I am missing

Mark

After reading the postings here I have to say I am a little bewildered. At first I took the theme of the thread to be a little "tongue in cheek", but it has become apparent from the response from “you guy's (and gals)” in the US that you treat this quite seriously? I have never seen or known of a problem such as this (or the core argument –limits set) ever to have been a problem in sailing/racing in Australia!
For a start, to my knowledge, there are no wind strength limits set for the start or continuation of any race in Australia (apart from a few classes that have an upper limit set, but only for their state or national titles). The responsibility for setting a course is entirely in the hands of the “officer of the day” at the venue, and if a course can be set and the rescue craft can navigate around that course safely then the event is run. Whether a sailors starts, races, and finishes, is entirely their responsibility. The OOD has the right to abandon the race if, in his opinion the conditions become too dangerous (usually based on the abilities of the rescue crews to be able to ensure the safety of the sailors), and he has the right to “shorten the course” (or abandon) if it looks like the conditions are, or have become too light for any one to finish within the standard time limit set for the completion of the race. Every one accepts these conditions (and control by the OOD) and races accordingly with never any recourse to the jury room for situations as described in previous posting here?

The lower wind speed limit rule for sailing is traditionally set for a class of vessels to be used as a guideline by a race committee to ensure that boats have manueverability against current, wave and wind direction and obsticals. Should the RC determine the vessels have manueverabilty to sail around the course and out manuever each other strategically then it is alowable to start the race. Should the RC determine that local conditions are not favorable to run a safe race in speeds over the lower limit due to inability to manuever around obsticals or against currents or heading into waves then the RC has the perogative to delay race. None of these conditions existed. My concerns here with your comments are two fold. 1) Using that term "Drifter"in this thread of dialogue is inappropriate. The only drifting in that race was performed by sailors at the start who did not approach the start strategically with boat speed and timing. Instead they set up on the line in Irons. Waiting for the flag and horn. Once the race began no one had difficulty getting under way. Those who chose the drift on the start tactic were however at a disadvantage because smarter sailors had chosen to approach the race start finish line from a moving "at boat speed" start. In fact many sailors all week committed too early to the line and continued falling off and luffing to hold that line while in Irons. No boat had difficulty making it to the RC start line that day from the beach or from the moment the class flag was raised. 2) Tactics. No one individual boat drifted to an or disadvantage advantage position while the race was underway. Current had no negative effect that day. No drifting occurred. No wind direction oscillations occured. IN fact some boats changed position in the race and the skills of the sailors were tested. It was required that the sailors look back and determine if the fleet or others may be covering thier position and register that information against a choice to choose a different tack on the downwind leg. THis race was not a sprint in the wind it was a very good race requiring fleet tactics of choosing lenth of tack and direction as well as execution of individual boat handling and sail handling technical tactics.

Well said Jack.

Good analysis of what occurred.

Mark