Racing Question. Shortened Course Problem

[savageseadog]

An OOD sets a course, all conventional rounding marks, the winds lighten after the start and it becomes obvious to the OOD that he has to shorten course or the fleet won't finish. The course would have taken them mark A to starboard, roughly N to Mark B to starboard, South to Mark C to Starboard to finish in a Northwest direction beyond all the marks. The OOD shortens course intending the fleet to round Mark B then to finish, the rounding at B then becomes a 360 degree loop mark.
The problem is that some boats round mark B as intended, boats that had already passed mark A and were already on their way to mark B, the rest proceeded directly from Mark A to the finish leaving mark B to distant starboard. What was correct?

 

[fireball]

The OOD set a bad shorten course ...

Unless the rules have changed - it's the first group that did the loop around the mark that are technically correct ....

 

[scottie]

Piece of string should go round all the marks

 

[jamesjermain]

Depends on how the sailing instructions are phrased and the procedure for shortening course. I suspect that those who sailed directly from A to the finish will prove to be right unless a three-sixty of B was specifically mentioned. If variable winds were likely this is a v bad course to set and a three-sixty rounding of a mark is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[savageseadog]

Difference of opinion already.

This is the approximate situation

 

[johnphilip]

An OOD sets a course, all conventional rounding marks, the winds lighten after the start and it becomes obvious to the OOD that he has to shorten course or the fleet won't finish. The course would have taken them mark A to starboard, roughly N to Mark B to starboard, South to Mark C to Starboard to finish in a Northwest direction beyond all the marks. The OOD shortens course intending the fleet to round Mark B then to finish, the rounding at B then becomes a 360 degree loop mark.
The problem is that some boats round mark B as intended, boats that had already passed mark A and were already on their way to mark B, the rest proceeded directly from Mark A to the finish leaving mark B to distant starboard. What was correct?

The incompetent OOD has set a bad course and then made matters worse. As the fleet do not pass through the finish line during the race he may only shorten course by establishing a committee boat line at one of the marks. He has changed the course not shortened it which is not allowable. He should have ensured that the course he set was possible to shorten. The shorten course signal should be while the lead boat is on the last leg of the course, he cannot sound a signal and fly a flag to say "come here from where the lead boat has now got to". Send him on an OOD training. Race has to be considered abandoned.

Apologies if this sounds a bit harsh on a well meaning volunteer but correct race management is more likely to encourage a larger and keener fleet. I believe many clubs with a rota for OOD duties organise in-house training or perhaps the club should subsidise RYA training for volunteers

 

[jamesjermain]

Right: I drew it slightly differently because you originally said 'roughly north' to mark B whereas you have drawn it north east. No matter, the principle is the same but the turn at B is more like 260 rather than 360. I still think the A-to-finishers are right.

I presume this is a real case and there was a protest. Do you know the result?

I was once on a race committee in which a dispute arose that eventually ended up at the RYA. Basically we had listed the names of the marks of the course. One of these was the Bas Crublent cardinal mark. In the sailing instructions we said 'leave Bas Crublent to starboard'. We knew we meant the mark refered to earlier but a number of yachts left Bas Crublent rock to starboard, and the buoy to port.

The committee was reprimanded by the RYA for poor Instruction writing and the yachts that missed the mark were reinstated.

The point being that careless instruction writing can lead to unintended consequences and OODs have to accept that.

 

[jamesjermain]

Spot on - a much better answer than mine.