Rules Question; shorten course

I think we touched on this in another thread by I can't find it. We sail mostly on lakes, so we see shortened courses fairly often due to changing wind conditions. We were racing at my local club yesterday and the race committee set a standard course with a windward and leward mark (A and C) and finish line roughly in the middle of the course. The course called for two laps with an upwind finish. We had some nice wind at the start that quickly faded (naturally, right at the start signal). Given the time that had transpired the race committee decided to shorten course. We're leading the fleet and they pulled up and set anchor to the left of C-mark and we had completed a little more than 2/3 of that leg from A to C. We ran into this a couple of weeks ago at my club and the fleet sailed directly through the line, ignoring the "proper" way to round C mark. I was about the third boat in that mixed fleet race and, unsure of exactly how we should finish, followed suit and we were all scored.

As I approached the finish line yesterday (in the lead this time) I rolled my eyes and cursed myself for not knowing the right answer on how to finish this race but given that I was scored last time by ignoring C as a mark, I sailed straight down the course and through the line (what was C mark now to starboard). I watched for the horn on the committee boat, saw her lift it up and hold it in the air (for what seemed like an eternity) and the horn went back down without a sound. I spun the boat hard, came back across the line, rounded C-mark, and crossed the line in the opposite direction and got the horn (whistle). Some boats behind me finished straight through, some others finished by rounding the mark first.

One extremely knowledgeable sailor (who was the second boat to approach the finish) insisted that the proper finish was the sail "from the direction of the last mark" straight through the finish line as per the how a finish line is defined in the RRS and how I had attempted to finish initially. A protest was filed and we'll hopefully get this resolved (and get the RC back to the right of the mark so this question doesn't have to come up again!). I spoke with the race committee after the race and they explained they started setting the shorten course this way because someone complained that by setting the finish line to the right of the mark favored those that were coming down the right side (as you are sailing) of the course. I can probably see this argument if the race committee is very late getting the shorten course established...but it's not much of a difference. To compensate, they started setting a shorten course to the left of the mark (as it is being approached) thinking that the fleet would need to round the mark first and it would eliminate the favor of extending the target (the mark or the finish line) to one side more than the other. Hopefully this will be an opportunity to get them to shorten on the right side (mark to port) of the mark so there will not be any question.

So, is it correct to sail straight through the line and ignore C-mark or round C-mark first and then finish as part of your rounding?

Straight through.

Time to have a beer with that race officer. So much easier to set up the finish boat on the left side (looking upwind) of the bottom mark and avoid confusion. The price is the time lost sitting in the room - maybe this lesson will be enough. If you set a right-sized finish line, there is no favor.

Unless the sailing instructions specifies otherwise,

32.2(a) applies. Finish line is between the "S" flag and the mark, no matter which side the RC sets up on. "J-hook" finishes are not required (ISAF Case 45).

Sound signals at the finish line are a courtesy, not a requirement - in other words, they mean nothing - and the absence of them means nothing.

While you are technically correct, of course Matt, I think Jake's sharp eye indicated that the absence of a sound signal when a horn was held aloft for his first finish was significant. In this case, without crawling inside the committee's head, I think they were indeed looking for a J-hook, improper as it was. Jake, you'll have to let us know how the hearing comes out. Can o' worms, for sure.

Straight through is the way, you are in the right.

Even if it is obvious that the committee want you to do a hook finish, you have to go straight through because there is always some clever dick at the back of the fleet that will do it right and get everyone else pinged.

I did have a conversation with the RC afterwards (we are friends...heck, we're all friends) and discussed it - I wasn't sure at the time myself. The protest was held and it was determined that the proper finish was straight through the line from the direction of the last mark (not rounding C). The race committee had recorded times for everyone that finished each way and recorded who finished in what direction (which was pretty smart). While maybe not technically correct, the decision was made to finish everyone at the time that they crossed the line and I thought I heard that they made a slight adjustment in the time for the guys that rounded C before finishing (I may have heard that wrong). Everyone seemed pleased with the solution.

Did they say if they would be changing the way they set the finishing boat in the future? Could save themselves some angst ...

I am presuming the RC/finish boat was displaying the proper flag?

Was any other notification of shortened course given during the race?

I wasn't there for the protest but I did discuss it with them prior and I think there was an aha moment when I mentioned it. That's when I discovered that they had been setting to the left in response to a complaint that setting a shortened course at a mark favors the boats to the side on which the line was set (thinking the sailors would need to round the mark before finishing).

I'm still not sure how the line can favor those to the right unless it is set really long and skewed heavily to opposite side from the mark. It's either that or someone was really out of racing position and not optimized to sail to the mark to begin with.

I think the correct method is to set the finish line to the right of the mark (as viewed while approaching it from the course), the line be as short as reasonable (3-4 boat lengths in a 12 boat fleet) but drop the line back to skew it slightly to favor the mark end but not so much that there is any question as to what side of the line is facing the direction of the last mark.

The correct method is to fly the S flag with two sounds, period. No prior signals are required (or advisable, just adds confusion).

The most fair method is to anchor to the left side (looking upwind), setting a line that is no shorter than 6 lengths (mark room on both sides), and is square.

The ideal method is to use a leeward gate, and fly the flag close to one of the gates (so you can call close finishes and no one tries to finish between the mark and the boat). PU taught me to tie up to the mark's anchor, with the mark alongside the boat, or even in it.

The redress in this case sounds like the fairest arrangement given the circumstances. If the RC still thinks they did the right thing, walk them through a scenario where a boat would hook the mark while another comes in under spinnaker, finishing per the book...

Hope this helps.

Mike

I don't think there is any way to really make a shortened course fair for everyone.

By then the race is already a crap shoot and you are just trying to save a race that otherwise doesn't prove much.

The only fair way is to toss it, but those who are leading will feel cheated, of course.

Rarely when there is a shortened course do many or any of the racers actually know what to do, making it even more of a crap shoot.

Just my opinion.

That's a valid opinion, which is actually shared by many folks. There are classes who have policies that forbid shortening or even changing the length of a leg. If the time limit expires, the race is abandoned.

On the flip side, there are those who get very upset when races are abandoned, regardless of the reason.

Mike

We would probably lose about 25% of our club races if we didn't allow for a shortened course. It's reasonable for us and man, talk about being upset if I invested an hour into a race (not to mention the morning driving out to the club, cleaning up the boat, scrubbing the bottom, stocking the cooler, etc) leading the race, and have it abandoned. Makes me mad just thinking about it!

Like all things in life, there are lots of sides and back stories. Most often, if a class has adopted such a draconian measure, it's in response to having too many races screwed up by RC errors, so instead of educating the RCs, they add knee-jerk policies which tie their hands. After a while, sailors get used to it, and justify that as the most fair thing to do ("If the wind quits, it's equally unfair to all").

People like paradigms. I love being told that we can't have downwind finishes for large fleets of Lasers or Optics because the sails have too many digits. Hint: nothing has more digits than a Hobie 16...

Mike

I disagree, Mike - the Aussie 18 Skiff, for example, can have up to 50% more digits than a Hobie 16, baring some form of disfigurement...

doh

Someone has way too much free time...

Mike

Someone keeps lobbing softballs... ;-)

And you're powerless to resist the compulsion... wait, I resemble that remark...

Mike

kind of like that TEST thread....