Joined: Wed Jan 06 2010, 09:58PM Location: Angaston Sth Australia Posts: 6
On the point about observers having a better view than competitors, I made it clear to the skippers during the briefings that the camera was only for the purpose of assisting the finish line observers getting the order of finishers right. It was not going to be used as evidence in any protests. I haven't spent any time looking for a rule against using visual aids in protests but I do believe it would be grosely unfair at the very least if a protest was made against a skipper after reviewing the video of the finish.
In club and some minor ranking events we have for expediency used land marks as start marks. For example a bus stop post on the opposite bank of the lake and a rock on the near bank. Nothing wrong with an 80m wide start line if the first leg is plenty long. But some clown always asks if round the ends applies
Clearly, if a post on the bank is declared as a finish mark and that post is touched by any part of the boat before the line is cleared then it's a penalty. Whether the boat also hits the bank or not is not relavant. Take the case of fouling ground tackle. If the boat snags the ground tackle of a mark ONLY then no penalty. BUT! if the boat snags the ground tackle then subsequently pulls the mark into contact with the boat then it IS a penalty.
"How about if a boat dips the finish, drifts back to the course side, then clips a start mark on the way back to the bank? Still a penalty?"
Ok got me there. Yep sure does start getting grey don't it. Perhaps the opinion of the NJ I reported earlier is the simplest (if not pedantic) way to approach this. That is the one that thought that regardless if the boat had cleared the line, if the mark is touched on the way back then its a penalty. So the moral of the story is...Just don't hit the *^#$ mark! Ok that's it, no more mr. nice guy!!
Now to digress it tiny bit. What about the penalty itself?? Here's the common example of how it should not be done. A boat finishing on starboard tack contacts the port end finish mark. On being called by the observer they would then bear away, gybe then break the line again but on port. If you want to get a dirty look from a skipper (or at the very least a confused look), tell them they haven't actually done a turn and must redo it correctly before finishing.
