Greetings members,

Yesterday looked a mighty fine breeze from the race committee’s perspective, who were Russell Wenham and myself, and it prompted Russell to announce to the sailors that they were lucky the race committee wasn’t sailing, or everybody would have moved down 2 places. As far as we were concerned, the breeze was the right strength and the right direction ( nor east), but from the sailors perspective, they reported it as very shifty and difficult to predict. However the race committee did make one major mistake, I misjudged the appetite of the sailors and it was proved 2 packets of biscuits is inadequate for 20 sailors as several of us missed out getting our sugar fix……….so it seems in the future, I may have to supply biscuits by the cartons, rather than packets. I tender abject apologies………….of course, otherwise the race committees administration was flawless, tsk tsk.

The race was a Mark Foy start, and although it was a longish course, the predominant feature was how well the early starters did. Russell and I were watching carefully the finish placings to see that the course length was fair, and decided it was correct, but we have to take our hats off to the early starters for showing up the expert later starters, of course things would have been different as aforementioned if the race committee were competing most of them were hardly caught until near the finish. This prompted me to peruse the new MF statistics and there have been several changes, including Marks handicap now being sorted. There were a lot of rules breaches that the race committee noticed, quite a few less exonerations than should have been done, and 1 lodged protest which was withdrawn in favour of repairing the boat. One of the RRS breaches many sailors suffered from, was happening right in the race committees view and it was obvious few sailors were aware of the proper procedure for dealing with it……….so here comes edification which I have time to give since todays match racing is cancelled and it is pouring outside.

Boats near us were rounding a bottom mark and beating up to the top mark. The bottom mark was about 5 metres from the lake edge and many sailors were rounding it and if wind direction was favourable staying on port tack until they came very close to the lake shore and needed to tack out or hit the shore. Most left it too late to take any action and were forced to do a panic tack before hitting the shore and fouling the boat still on port tack on their hip. The RRS have rules which allows for this situation and if followed correctly everything should operate smoothly.

Firstly, in model yachting, hails like “I need to tack”, or “tacking for water” or “I’m going to tack” hold no prerogative for the other boat to follow, neither will they stand up in a protest hearing. Secondly, a last second hail and tack is unacceptable in giving the other boat room to keep clear. Thirdly, if there is 2 or more boats on your hip, you must give time for each of those boats to hail the boat on their hip. So, what rules apply?

20  ROOM TO TACK AT AN OBSTRUCTION

20.1 Hailing

A boat may hail for room to tack and avoid a boat on the same tack. However she shall not hail unless

[a]  She is approaching an obstruction and will soon need to make a substantial course change to avoid it safely, and

[b]  She is sailing close hauled or above.

20.2 Responding

[a] After a boat hails, she shall give a hailed boat time to respond.

[b] A hailed boat shall respond even if the hail breaks Rule 20.1.

[c] A hailed boat shall respond either by tacking as soon as possible, or by immediately replying ‘You tack’ and then giving the hailing boat room to tack and avoid her.

[d] When a hailed boat responds, the hailing boat shall tack as soon as possible.

20.3 Passing On a Hail to an Additional Boat

When a boat has been hailed for room to tack and she intends to respond by tacking, she may hail another boat on the same tack for room to tack and avoid her. She may hail even if her hail does not meet the conditions of rule 20.1. Rule 20.2 applies between her and a boat she hails.

Appendix E  RADIO SAILING RULES

E1.3  Rules of Parts 1, 2 and 7

[b] Hails under rules 20.1 and 20.3 shall include the words ‘room’ and ‘tack’ and the sail number of the hailing boat, in any order.

E2.1  Hailing Requirements

[c] The individual digits of a boats sail number shall be hailed; for example ‘one five’ not ‘fifteen’.

 

So these are the rules that cover this particular situation, I have left out some other rules from these rule clauses which are irrelevant to this situation. So;

1  You can only hail if you are sailing close hauled or above. 20.1 [a].

2  You must hail early enough to give the other boat time to respond. 20.2 [a].

3  If there is more than one boat that needs to respond you must give enough room for that to happen. 20.3.

4  Once you have hailed for room to tack and you are given room, you must tack, even if there is a wind shift which allows you to point up and not need to tack. 20.2 [d].

5  Under Appendix E, your hail must use certain words and hailed numbers system. E1.3 [b] and E2.1[c].

If you do not follow these rules, don’t expect to win any arbitration protest.

Now we must congratulate our podium winners, Allen Anderson, Tony Taylor and Cliff Bishop, well done in triumphing over a big fleet, it was a delight to my heart. Cheers Tom A