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Board » Flag Officers » Rules and Decisions » SOL RULES OF RACING

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Hi All ;)

During the final part of 2014 , in association with Corporate , and with the other members of the Managemnt Team, we identified the need for making clear and public those rules that are expected to be adhered to in SOL.

The attached paper ( that we like to consider a dynamic one ) illustrates some basic common rules that we are all expected to follow. Some are as they have always been , although not too much pulicized ; some have a new look .

I want to draw your attention to the concept of "unpires" . For the time being it is only a "proposal" , on which we would like to hear the maximum possible amount of opinion . It involves a new step up in administering SOL, but we may get there soon.

Untill the "Umpire system" is eventually in place , any decision on doubts, disagreement and protests will be made by SRC , and ultimatly , by the Sailonline Chairman.

Looking forward to comments and opinions.

Thank you
SOL SRC
;)


--- Last Edited by WIN at 2015-07-20 17:11:12 ---
Thank you for your work on this statement of basic 'rules".
I see this as an entirely reasonable proposal and suggest that it be enacted in its current form. I particularly like the bit about the crew of TEAM boats not being able to sail their own individual ones as well.
The essence of sailboat racing is to make your strategic and tactical decisions based on the information available to you and other competitors - weather at present and forecast, position relative to the fleet and also to the course, current (not a factor in SOL)and so forth.
This would be negated by the ability to simultaneously "test" different options via having access to more than one boat.
Love your work.
Simon
One of the beauty of SOL is it's simplicity. These rules are very simple to understand and simple to follow.
Well done.
Thank you all involved in running this great platform.

Antonio
I agree with other "posters".. :-)
This proposal is simple, logical and easy to understand and follow.
I too am glad to see the proposals re:Team boats.
Therefore I agree that they should be adopted as soon as is reasonably possible.
Good work guys!

--- Last Edited by Calmwater at 2015-01-11 15:04:38 ---

--- Last Edited by Calmwater at 2015-01-11 15:05:03 ---
As I read the rules, they do not prevent "Boat Sitting" by several repetitive "sitters" who are each sailing their own boats----which is precisely what the rules are intended to cover. I would suggest a more exact re-phrasing to carry out the real intentions.
I would also like to see some sort of symbol which indicates in the listings that a "boat sitter" is in control- and who it is!
Otherwise, how is anyone to know that the "rule" should be applied. A rule that is not, and cannot be, applied is no rule at all.

--- Last Edited by Rod at 2015-01-12 02:17:32 ---
If it breaks, it's not strong enough--if it doesn't, it's too heavy.
Rod - I think this bit covers your first comment "• Only one other skipper can act as a boat-sitter for a subject boat during one race."

As to your second - maybe it needs to be announced in the forum, the same as for Team boats.

Anyway I think that the SRC are after comments on the 'Proposal' and not the rules :)
I think the idea of an Umpire is good, maybe a pool of them rather than just one to spread the responsibility.
Is there a list of candidates or is the SRC after nominations?
Alan !!

you said it very correctly ;)

and ......for the time being ...we are after comments ..;)

I am sure that if the umpires concept will be adopted and be manageable it will be easy to setup a group ready to be rostered ;)

will see......
The umpire concept is nice for when we have loads of people sailing our races. Right now I don't think there would be enough protests/issues to really need such a way to divide the workload into chunks for different people.

I think 2 umpires would be nice. Leaves room for one to be unavailable (holiday) for a while. They can consult each other (and ultimately the SRC chairman) in more difficult cases.

And when things grow in a way that it's just too much for 2 people, the framework is ready for it.

----
Regarding boatsitting:
I'm not really sure why we are limiting this to 1 boatsitter. This means that once you've asked someone to round a mark for you, that's the only person you can ever ask for help again during that race, which could last weeks.
Can we have an exception for a boatsitter who's just there for "a couple of commands", instead of something like "at most 25%"?

The rule seems to be aimed to the
"I'll be back Sunday, but the race starts Saturday, can you start for me?"
-scenario, where the boatsitter makes decisions, and is in full control, it's a skipper.
and not taking into account the
"Go get some groceries, husband"
"Couple of minutes, wife, I need to round a mark"
"Let me do that, and just get them groceries"
"But... my friend tacked this boat two weeks ago"
-scenario, where the boatsitter purely executes and does not make decisions, it's a helmsman.

----
Of course, this kind of thing can hardly be enforced, but sailing is a gentleman sport, and we should be able to trust each other not to cheat secretly, only in plain sight :)
So, I don't see the need to make the rules such that we can enforce them, IMHO it's more important to make them such that everyone agrees.

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2015-01-13 00:36:27 ---
Huib !

1) Umpires

I agree with you that today we have not enough protests and unrest ( thankfully ;) ). This is why the thing is a project for discussion , rather than a set procedure, and until then SRC will handle eventual situations.
As to numbers , what I have in mind is nomination of a group ( 4 to 8 ) and rostering one of them to each race depending on availability .

2) Boatsitting

I was of your opinion about the limitation to one boatsitting skipper per race. In the end the majority of the MT study group decided to stick to one . I will represent the need to exclude Ocean races from the limitation. Will see if we can agree to it.

Thank you for your input !

Piero

PS : "when I go to grocery store" was not part of the equation for introducing rules on boatsitting ....because my wife would never "DARE" asking that when I have a mark to turn !! LOL ;)
Viva dear friend Piero.

Just two comments on this document and an equal number of suggestions.

Comment 1 - The “25 % rule”
I’ll put a simple example to help further discussion and to introduce my suggestion.

Example: The field race is a square. “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D” are start, turning waypoints and finish (in “A”), respectively.
Each leg has a length of 5 nm, so total length is 20 nm.
Between “A” and “B” waypoint you are stuck for one day inside a LP where your “outside hand” gives #22 DC’s for sailing the boat out of it and he just manages to sail 2,0 nm (less than half of leg “A-B”).
In the “B” waypoint you (the sailboat “owner”) go to the helm and give the #23 DC.
In “C” goes the #24 DC.
Finally for turning “D” waypoint and reaching the finish “A”) you give the #25 DC.

With the “25% rule” you are inside (by a large margin) in the penalty area at once where your “outside hand” just made 2,0 nm for you, or, 10 % of the total race length.

My suggestion is to change the rule in order to affect not the number of DC’s but the total race length (in the example 20 nm), where the leg lengths are measured between the race previously fixed waypoints, to avoid the discussion about the real sailing lengths paths.
In the above mentioned example the penalty would have to be applied if the “outside hand” made 5 or more nautical miles ( …. ≥ 5,0 nm).

Comment 2 - Penalties
The penalties should be equal to every skipper, SOL member or not.
The implications, obviously, are different.

Big Hug!
Sail Fair.

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