Hypothetical: Race called for by committee boat is "triangle, sausage, finish.(ABC, AC, Finish)" A Competitor sails a "triangle, triangle, finish". Question to this forum--is sailing out to and around the extra mark grounds for a DSQ, or is it just punishment enough that extra ground was covered by the sailor?

No DSQ... no foul... the course still passes the string test (a string trailing rounds all of the marks in the right direction in the right order) even though extras are rounded.

Hi Troy, What grounds is there for a DSQ? Why talk of "punishment" at all? In other words, all requirements are spelled out by the rules and any penalties occur only when the rules are broken. No rule is broken in your example, so no penalty is needed. The rule book is quite short and can be read in less time than the forum on a busy day so, just like the forum, it should be read often! The payoff for racers will be better than the same amount of reading from the forum!



Mike Fahle Toledo

On a related note, as I understand it, even if the race committee do see a boat miss a mark but that boat otherwise finishes OK (you can "finish" without sailing the course), they cannot do anything about it other than protest; which makes a lot of sense to me...



From RYA/USSA Guidance to Appendix A



"A5. Race committees are reminded that, in the absence of a SI to the contrary, they must give a finishing position to any boat that starts and finishes as defined. If the RC believes that a boat has not sailed the required course they must protest her (under the last sentence of rule A5 they cannot disqualify her without a hearing nor score her DNF)."





Regards,

Colin

www.sailwave.com