gamesmanship whilst racing

[Birdseye]

I'm sure that the ultra purist and very serious minded IRC types would disapprove but what have the rest of you come across as gamesmanship.

Two ideas I know of

First is to use the individual dsc call. Works really well on short handed boats and the alarm cant be ignored.

Second is the staged theatrical where one of you crew, whilst alongside or near another boat obviously looks up at the competitors mast. Then turns to another crew member and points to the top of the opponents mast Then turns round and chats to the other crew who also look at the mast top, maybe shake heads etc.

 

[sarabande]

It has not been unknown in close RORC races for stainless nuts or worn bolts to be thrown surreptitiously on to competitor's deck....

 

[michael_w]

One wheeze I've heard of is as follows:

At night, very light wind and Charlie Arch-Rival is breathing down your neck. Take a bit of wet kitchen towel and slap it on your sternlight. Wait a while and do it again, and again, and again.

Mr Arch-Rival is convinced you are getting away from him as your sternlight gets dimmer and dimmer. Cue much sail trimming, stomping about on deck, shouting at the staff and generally getting worked up. The disharmony will slow him down.

 

[Old Harry]

I seem a bit of a thicko here , but how does that work with a Tricolour

 

[savageseadog]

Luffing at night. Was it luffing or proper course?

We once got in a head to head situation with a rival boat during an offshore race. It was early morning after a long night, the wind was dying, the tide against. As we made less progress a crew member was studying the nav declared we were going backwards, after a look about, indeed we were! We were about two boat lengths ahead of our competitor and about a boat length to windward. I asking the crew to extract the anchor from the bow, locker as quietly and discreetly as possible and drop it. The crew on the bow weren't visible behind our jib, so unseen and unheard our anchor bit and as we stopped the impression of our rival going backwards in about 2 knots was incredible. The look of horror on the face of our rival's skipper was a sight to behold. What followed was about an hour of dummy anchor raising, the interesting point is that it's virtually impossible for the boat behind to steal a march on the lead boat in that situation. "Stealth anchoring" was muttered later at the bar.

 

[bbg]

Singlehanded offshore race. After 10 days of racing, we were about 20 miles from the finish and for the last three days and nights, one boat had never been more than a mile from me.

At this point it was about time to gybe towards the finish so I did. My competitor was a couple of hundred meters away before I had gybed, and within seconds after the gybe he called me on the radio. First question was, "so are you ever going to gybe". Very truthfully I said I reckoned I would probably not gybe for a couple of hours. Knowing his VHF was down below (mine was at the companionway and I could talk on the radio while sitting in the cockpit), I kept him chatting on the VHF for another 15 minutes.

Eventually I asked him when was the last time he'd looked outside. End radio chat followed by a very quick gybe by him. Beat him by six minutes, with two other boats between us.

 

[Mark-1]

From the other perspective I remember a guy telling me his chosen tactics for a Club X-Channel race, quite clearly trying to get me to copy a dumb idea. (Basically which tack to start on.) Except the more I thought about it and the more I thought about the anticipated weather the less dumb it seemed. Until it started to seem like a risk well worth taking. In the end we were the only boat to start on the "seemingly less advantageous" tack and stuck to our convictions for several hours. It paid off.

 

[langstonelayabout]

Second is the staged theatrical where one of you crew, whilst alongside or near another boat obviously looks up at the competitors mast. Then turns to another crew member and points to the top of the opponents mast Then turns round and chats to the other crew who also look at the mast top, maybe shake heads etc.

When dinghy racing (in the 80's) on a few light days we had similar PsyOps:

We were the proud owners of the club's first genuine 'Harken' block. It was set up just under the gooseneck but the bright piece of rope was led under the decks to tension a piece of bungy elastic. Of course, this did nothing but the rest of the fleet didn't know that...

Cue a few light days, usually after getting out of a bunch at a race mark:

Helm: (audibly) Hey, just pull the control line in a bit, will you.
Crew: Sure. (pulls line in, then eases it a bit) That OK? (both staring at the rig)
Helm: Yes, much better. I can feel the difference.

Both helm and crew smile at each other, check the rig again and then surreptitiously look around to see the rest of the fleet tinkering madly with their rigs and control lines. Yes, we won on handicap

This worked a few times before a few interested competitors 'helped' us rig the boat before a few races, discovering the truth about the 'control line' .