Sydney ---------> Hobart '25

Gurrig said:
Current leader to be protested? on 'sheeting sails' rules. Shock protest against yacht on brink of historic Sydney Hobart victory. Anyone care to enlighten us?
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Can’t pole out the clew of an a-sail is the basic issue. You have to pole out the tack. Lots of lovely photos of the boat approaching the finish line like that, so doesn’t look like they were aware…

Slight unintended consequence of the crack down on whisker poles being used to open up the sheeting angle of jibs on a reach. But that’s what the rule says.

I was surprised that a boat at the sharp end of the fleet didn’t know that to be honest.
 
Putting the protest aside for the moment, interesting that currently 7 boats in the top 10 on IRC are double handers. And this in a race with breezy headwinds for much of the distance, where one might expect the weight of gorillas on the rail would be very advantageous.
So is a crew now superfluous, or indeed a handicap, for offshore racing?
 
More to do with the optimum rating band in the prevailing conditions happening to be the same as the bulk of the D/H boats. And that the best sailors in that band currently are choosing to D/H. For example go look up the sailing CV of Alexis Loison on Min river.
 
dunedin said:
Surprisingly to still get 2nd place after such a clear breach of the rules. I wondered if DSQ or at least a 10% places penalty. Still on the podium is very generous.
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The facts found make interesting reading.

They only flew it for the last 2 miles. The time gained was calculated at about 2 minutes. They were unaware that it was not allowed. They stated that they did it mostly because they wanted to free up 1 person to tidy up as they knew the press would be waiting as they would be leading overall.

On that basis, I think it’s a tough, as in it’s just enough to drop them out of the overall winner’s spot, but fair as in the context of a 600 mile race they win by an hour, it actually meant nothing and was not an intentional decision to cheat.

But you cannot fly a sail in an illegal way and win the biggest pot.
 
flaming said:
The facts found make interesting reading.

They only flew it for the last 2 miles. The time gained was calculated at about 2 minutes. They were unaware that it was not allowed. They stated that they did it mostly because they wanted to free up 1 person to tidy up as they knew the press would be waiting as they would be leading overall.

On that basis, I think it’s a tough, as in it’s just enough to drop them out of the overall winner’s spot, but fair as in the context of a 600 mile race they win by an hour, it actually meant nothing and was not an intentional decision to cheat.

But you cannot fly a sail in an illegal way and win the biggest pot.
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Does seem slightly odd to get to that level of competition - and yet apparently not know the basic rules of the sport!
 
flaming said:
More to do with the optimum rating band in the prevailing conditions happening to be the same as the bulk of the D/H boats. And that the best sailors in that band currently are choosing to D/H. For example go look up the sailing CV of Alexis Loison on Min river.
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Clearly the weather did suit the smaller boats rather than the biggies for a change, which is nice.
But looking at just Class 6 IRC, it does appear that a full crew on the rail is indeed either superfluous or simply a handicap!

Of the 14 finishers in Class 6, eight were double handed and 6 fully crewed. Yet only one crewed boat, Love and War an old S&S 34 in its ideal upwind conditions and big age allowance, managed to beat any of the double handers. Otherwise 8 of the top 9 places were taken by the double handers, with the crewed boats filling up the rear - and outside the top 50 on IRC overall, even in a race won by the class leader.
Also the crewed boats had a higher retirement rate than the double handers.

Crews Union had better look out.
 
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