Poor Seamanship

[robmurray]

I had no choice but to sail through a Cowes week fleet. I generally try not to spoil anyones race but in this case had to tack through on starboard. Twice I had to tack to avoid literally being rammed and these boats could easily have avoided us with no detriment to their race. These racers are more of a menace than any powerboat. And I am someone who likes to race.

There should be some way that innocent cruisers can "protest" racers or one day someone is going to get killed

Thoughts?

 

[Trevethan]

I have a general rule.. if its bigger than me or there's a lot of them I keep clear, even it means turning about and going in the wrong direction for a while.

Racers are a menace.. I used to race dinghies as a lad and even then some skippers were more interested in winning than in following the rules of the road.

 

[ccscott49]

Racing skippers are only interested in winning thats the way it is! I just try and avoid them, I'm fed up with being slagged, one day I might get very pissed off and put 36" of iriko (clad with stainless) bow through the arseholes, but I try not to! Remember what I said on another thread, when I was told "I'm racing" I said "I'm a lunatic, you'd better f....ff!

 

[Trevethan]

you can afford to get a little mad with all that weight and wood thickness behind you.. *g*

 

[ccscott49]

Yeh! But the consequences of getting mad are too terrible to contemplate! Can you imagine splintered fibreglass all over the place, boats running into one another avoiding the mess, other boats stopping to see the mess, running into one another! Maybe I should give it a try! *G*

 

[Guest]

I was out there both on Saturday & Sunday, Gosport <-> Beaulie. I took a slightly different view to you. It is Cowes week with lot's of racers, when I approached the fleet I furled the genoa, motored and avoided all instances and got thanked many times apart from the racers who had chartered their boats...I always do this during Cowes week as it really is their week and there is an awful lot of them. Maybe as an ex racer my attitude is coloured towards the racing skipper whose sees cruising folk like me as moveable obstacles.

Pete

 

[ccscott49]

Hope you had your cone up!! *G*

 

[AndrewB]

Protesting.

Only "interested parties" (i.e. interested in the outcome of the race) can protest. But if you feel a racing yacht has committed a really flagrant breech of the IRPCS rules in relation to you, it is open to you to complain to the race protest committee.

Under rule 69 of the Racing Rules: "When a protest committee, from its own observation or a report received, believes that a competitor may have committed a gross breach of a rule or of good manners or sportsmanship, or may have brought the sport into disrepute, it may call a hearing." In theory at least this can result in disqualification and reporting of the offender to the national authority responsible for the race.

 

[Guest]

Re: Protesting.

Probably if you can quote a few breaches of the Col regs (surely more relavent anyway) in your protest and copy it to the local marine authority it would force them to take it more seriously. Action of any sort is probably only worth the effort if it was a really serious incident. Much better to take early avoiding action and give them a bit of bad air in the process.

Cheers

The Lash

 

[jimi]

I'm just giving up dinghy racing due to the tossers who use rules when its to their advantage & ignore them when it is'nt!

Jim

 

[peterb]

Re: Protesting.

It isn't just a breach of IRPCS, it's a breach of the racing rules. Under the IYRU Racing Rules, a racing boat meeting a non-racing boat must comply with IRPCS. But I agree, it's time that there was a better method by which non-racing boats could protest.

 

[Guest]

Racers ? Sailors from Hell !

There is a big difference from dinghy sailors and club cruisers that have a dabble now and then.

But the bastard format of a sailor is undoubtedly the all out racing sailor and boat. The bigger they are the more they bully the rest of us to get out of the way. And they know we will. Whatever tack.

He has no real love for the sea which he proves on a regular basis by shoving two fingers up to his fellow sailors and the colregs. He has only the mental capacity to absorb that he must try and win at all costs and failure to do so is disaster. Something that the rest of us grew out of in childhood. Apart from that they may be a decent human beings.

What to do ? There is nothing we can do.

One accepts that the World is neither fair or unfair - it is just the world. These nutters are always going to be around.

Personally, I fell that Cowes Week and all 'racer' only boats should be moved to Scapa Flow and the place roped off !


I now await the traditional response for this thread from racing sailors who will now tell us how racing technology has benefited all the rest of us.............

These people need not apply.

Racers ? See you in hell !

 

[ccscott49]

It's a great pity you have been driven to give up a sport you so obviously enjoy because of tossers! Sorry to hear about your daughters condition, I would be tempted to allow the condition to completely stabilise, before taking to sea again, does she suffer sea sickness badly?

 

[jimi]

Thanks. I may try another club to see if perhaps there is a slightly different culture! However I would observe that whlst competition brings out the best in some people it has the complete opposite effect on others.
When she is sick which only tends to happen in less than 10% of sails, she just tends to have a couple of big "Hughie's" and is then OK.

Jim

 

[ccscott49]

That doesn't sound too bad, sounds more like the "thought of seasickness", if you know what I mean? She maybe needs to watch what she eats before sailing. I bet it won't be a problem, how old is the lass? You're based Dartmouth? I used to be at Noss with Englander, and Dart marina in winter, 2 1/2 years, when t was cheap!! My local was the DA, I know a bunch of people there.

 

[AndrewB]

Cruisers? Sailors from Hell !

The pottering cruising-yacht skipper, never having had the discipline to hone his own sailing skills properly, has only limited control over his own yacht, and does not appreciate the skills of others. The sort of guy who has to go through a three minute rigmarole about port wine and wind abaft the beam in order to work out who has right of way. Such people are unnerved by the sight of another yacht sailing or tacking within a couple of lengths of him.

No racing skipper I have ever sailed with has expected cruisers to yield their proper right of way as a matter of course. It can be a positive nuisance if they do. During a race, a right-of-way cruising yacht crossing the course of racing yachts is simply regarded as something to be factored into the racers’ strategy for that leg. Only beginner racers, at the back of the fleet, get tangled with cruisers.

What racers really dread though is the cruising skipper who is panicked into giving way and changing course unnecessarily. This throws everyone's plans out and is more likely to cause trouble than prevent it. It is a tribute to the skill of many racing helmsmen that there are not more accidents caused by such behaviour.

 

[blackbird]

The fly in the ointment

I hasten to say that I speak as a cruiser AND a racer, so I try not to be partisan. There are silly, inconsiderate people in both camps. But there is one aspect of the colregs that may be significant. Can't remember the rule number, but it's the one about making an early and definite move if you are the "give way" vessel. That is the one racers routinely ignore, even if they do intend to dodge niftily around the stern with a metre to spare, or whatever. That does make it hard for any skipper to decide whether to trust the fast approaching racer or take his (or her) own action. He (or she) may not know if he (or she) is going to be bullied or not until it is too late. There are too many instances of bullying to make that trust a foregone conclusion.



<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by blackbird on 08/08/2002 11:29 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[jtwebb]

Re: Cruisers? Sailors from Hell !

I trust this was written with tongue firmly in cheek. I can control my cruiser and try and avoid racing boats but that requires anticipating their moves. This can be difficult given the numbers involved. In general it is OK but I find that Cowes week skippers are arogant in the extreme and think they own the Solent. They do not and perhaps I should change my currently helpful attitude. Starboad tack from Southampton Water into Cowes Harbour. Some friends refer to them as 'animals' both on and off the water.

J Webb

 

[ghostwriter]

Re: Cruisers? Sailors from Hell !

you sure you know wot yer saying ?
-a cruiser is less skilled
-a racer is more skilled

sor of like saying : the ones that try to drive at 120mph on the M1 are better drivers than the ones take it a wee bit easier

there is skill (and lack of) on either side of the sailing spectrum, no need to polarise it that way. and anyway , easy to say for you with your steel oceansteamer....racing or cruising , you're always on the safe side ;-)

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Cruisers? Sailors from Hell !

At any time of the year, I used to avoid the solent like the plague, winter is'nt too bad, I started going outside the island some years ago, after being frightened and slagged by the "very compotent" racing skippers, who always behave like gentlemen!! I will continue to go round, the scenery is better aswell and theres considerably less to run into!! If and when I come back to the UK I will continue the tradition of the Scott family boats!