Trap at the finishing line

Since 2 years I have seen this situations seveeral times, they evolve very quickly and most of the time the umpire decission are different.
As sailor I can gain or lose the match within seconds wich is fine but I do belive that small details have a big impact. What do you think about?

Case 1: Yellow with outstanding penalty before finishing line. Yellow has to avoid collision right after both boats have crossed the finishing line. Yellow Y flaged at position 4.

What is the umpire's desicion and who wins the race?

Case 2: Yellow with outstanding penalty before finishing line. Yellow has to avoid collision before both boats have crossed the finishing line. Yellow Y flaged at position 4. Yellow crosses the line first.

What is the umpire's desicion and who wins the race?

Case 3: Yellow with outstanding penalty before finishing line. Yellow has to avoid collision before both boats have crossed the finishing line. Yellow Y flaged at position 4. Blue crosses the line first.

What is the umpire's desicion and who wins the race?

Starbord boat tacking

Here a situation that happens very often. Yellow boat wants to keep the right side but blue is able to cross behind, one possibility for yellow is to tack in front of blue, but...Blue Y flag at position 5. What ist the umpires decision if:

A) At position 4 the boats are on a collision course
B) There is no collision course at position 4 (blue crosses behind) but blue luffs to a collision course while yellow is tacking

Trap at the finishing line 2

Here two new cases at the finishing line:

Case 4: As Yellow at position 2 (no overlap) I try to slow down as much as I can. If B passes to windward I have the opportunity tu luff.

Is it an option for Blue to overlap leeward, what are the risks? In this case, who wins the match?

Case 6: This one is much at one time, and probably cauzsing some penalties: My Questions:

a) Y clear ahead at the Zone, does Y have the right to ask for room to tack at the boat (position 3)?

b) Did Y his/a penalty (position 5)?

c) Does B have the right to go inside at position 5 (I assume yes according to the previous answers)?

Black flag in Prestart at the MR Europeans in Sopot

Description of incident:

During pre-start manuevers Blue on port did not keep clear of Yellow on starboard. There was a contact resulting in cutting one of two stern lines holding the cameraman at the stern of Yellow. There was Y flag.

Umpires penalized Blue for breaking rule 10. Few seconds later it turned out that cameraman standing on Yellow’s stern is not able to hold on in his previous position and have to get on board.

Umpires initiated black flag penalty on Blue due to safety issues claiming that Yellow was not able to continue racing.

Note: Cameramen were present at all boats standing at the stern and being supported by two additional lines.

Questions:

1. What should the call be?


2. Was the action by umpires appropriate in terms of rule C8.3?


3. Can you consider cameraman as the normal part of equipment?


4. Can you consider safety issues as the reason to initiate black flag penalty?

1 Penalize Blue, however;

(a) There need not have been contact with the boat; if Yellow had to take avoiding action could be sufficient.

(b) If the contact was only with the cameraman or part of his equipment (support rope- camera etc) then it would be a green and white flag.

A cameraman and any equipment he carries is not part of the boat (Call MR 21) another example would be contact with an observer

2 No. The situation described does not fit any of the criteria contained in C8.3, (a), (B) or (c).

3 No (call MR 21)

4 Yes - but not for this reason.

A better course of action in this case would be for the umpires to request the race be abandoned, which a race officer should do in these circumstances. (This is what the umpires should do if the ropes simply broke without there being any contact.)

Alternatively the umpires could do nothing and Yellow should request redress. The PC would then make an appropriate decision. (Which in this case would probably be a re-sail).

Leebow tack in the Prestart

This is one of the nenalties we gave during the semifinal at the Gstaad Ski Yacting this year.
By loking at the picture it's quite a simple case:
The reason for the penalty yellow got at position 4 is not particular interesting. Rule 13 applies for the yellow boat and even if the yellow boat had completed his tack there is still rule 15 who requires yellow to give the red boat room to keep clear as yellow become right of way boat by it's own action.

From a tactical point of view it's more interesting discussing alternatives of yellow.

Let's consider the following facts:
Yellow is on port and on collision course as red has a higher speed the yellow.

Option 1:
Yellow tacks faster in order to gain the right of way position as leeward boat rule 11. If the red boat is now not able to slow down his speed the red boat will become clear ahead of yellow. In this case yellow will fully control red and my push him further to the left side and keeps control of the right side of the starting line.

Option 2:
Instead of tacking, yellow may start to bear away hardly, ease the main and keeps the pressure on the gib, resulting during a short moment in a collision course but keeps bearing away and therefore she is keeping clear of red.
In this case red can not start to alter his course towards yellow and have to keep sailing his course.
The result will be yellow cross astern of red, gains the right side of the prestart area and is in control of red.

What do you think about this 2 options?

Why a Match Race Academy

Match Race Academy: Why a Match Race Academy

Lugano Match Cup 2007 and IU Seminar

After the inaugural edition of last year the Circolo Velico Lago di Lugano is organizing also in the second edition of the Lugano match cup.
This year the event will be over two weekends with a Gr. 4 match Race for Swiss match racing Teams and a Grade 3 event open also for teams from other nationalities. During the Gr. 3 event ISAF in collaboration with Swiss Sailing will also organize a IU Seminar open to umpires who intent to participate in an IU seminar.

Program
-10 – 11 March 2007 Act I
8 Team with 4 Streamline, top 4 team will qualify for the Gr. 3

-16 – 18 March 2007 Act II
10 Team with 6 Streamline

-14 – 18 March ISAF International Umpire Seminar

Registration

Act I and Act II, please send an email to: peter.schmidle@matchrace.ch

IU Seminar, please send an email to: juergkaufmann@matchrace.ch

Read more from the 2006 Lugano Match Cup

Download Notice of Race Act I

Download Notice of Race Act II

Download Application for IU Seminar

BMW ORACLE Racing wins the petit final in the jury room

BMW ORACLE Racing team won its match on the water over Luna Rossa on Saturday afternoon and followed that up with victory in the Jury room on Saturday night.

TSS Chart (c) www.matchrace.ch

Based on the official notes of the jury (see below) this is how the accident could happened on the water, however the chart is only our best guess as we haven't seen the incident on the water.

During the last ACT in the match between BMW Oracle (BMWO) and Luna Rossa (LR) occurred a collision
BMWO intends to dip LR at ca 70% up to the weather mark, (see position 1-5) and therefore gaining the right side and an advantage at the windward mark. LR takes shortly before the crossing to port (pos. 5-6) we assume to defend the right side of the course. The contact was caused by stern of LR coming up quickly (pos 6) in accordance to the umpires. BMWO despite his hard luff had no chance to avoid the collision.
The umpire Chris Simon expected a dial down from LR which could avoid the collision, but not a tack .
The umpires penalized LR for R 13.1 (tacking boat shall keep clear see LR pos. 5-6)
Normally an umpire decisions is final, but in an incident with damage the rules allow to protest with a red flag. This open the chance to ask for redress during a hearing, what both teams did.
The jury penalize LR under rule 14 (avoiding contact) and BMWO was awarded the redress for the next match as they had no second boat measurement compliant.
Therefore BMWO get’s his second point and wins the petite final finishing 3rd in the ACT 12.

Peter Islers view from http://www.bymnews.com/
BMW ORACLE Racing, on the collision between USA 87 and ITA 86: We did a number of tacks into the centre of the course and back out with Luna Rossa always holding the starboard hand advantage. In the final one, the gap had closed, our duck was bigger and we were in the dip, going behind them or expecting them to do a normal lee bow. Instead, James [Spithill] waited too late and turned right in front of us, the stern swung into us and smacked into our bowsprit. The umpires ruled that Luna Rossa had tacked too close. Red flags went up on both boats which means it will go to protest. The umpires' verdict is telling, but it still doesn't guarantee that we're 100 percent home and free.

BMW ORACLE Racing, on dipping a starboard tack boat: It was a starboard to port lee bow. The ability for starboard tack boats to come in and lee bow, effectively a dipping port tack boat, has become a more important manoeuvre in the game. The problem is that you have to start your turn sooner because you have a port boat that is dipping you and he's a bit of a moving target. He's allowed to move because he's trying to avoid you.

Jury view from: www.americascup.com
After listening to evidence from Italian skipper Francesco de Angelis and BMW ORACLE Racing skipper and helmsman Chris Dickson, along with the Umpires on the race course, the Jury gave a verbal finding:

- The two boats were on a collision course;
- At approximately five boat lengths of separation, USA 87 bore away to pass behind ITA 86;
- At approximately 1.5 boat lengths of separation, ITA 86 luffed up and went into a tack;
- USA 87 attempted to bear away further but then luffed up sharply;
- There was a collision;
- It was not reasonably possible for USA 87 to avoid a collision;
- Luna Rossa luffed and tacked in a position where contact between the boats was extremely likely;
- Luna Rossa broke Rule 14 (avoiding contact);
- BMW ORACLE Racing is eligible for redress;
- Both boats are damaged too badly to sail on Sunday;
- BMW ORACLE Racing is awarded one point as redress as they are unable to race through no fault of their own.

Usefull Race Management Files

During the past years we collected a few very helpful files used to organize match races.
Some are official ISAF Forms some are been developped by race officials over the years.

From time to time we will update this post and ad more information.


Latest update: 19.1.06


From ISAF

Notice of race
http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/mrnofr.doc

Sailing instructions
http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/mrssi.doc

Please make sure that you download the new version for every event as they are updated from time to time


Grading form and
http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/gradingform.doc


Grading criteria
http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j/vFsA?k&MenuID=j0qgGbk4971qOqF?


Umpire Invitation letter
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/umpireinvitletter.doc


Umpire assignments during an event
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/umpireorganization.xls

IU Report
http://www.sailing.org/raceofficials/iureportform2005.doc

Price money scale
http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/ISAFPrizemoney.doc


From Mario Mino ITA

Paring List
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/pairingmatchrace.zip

From other sources

Technical Event Planing
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/mrplaning.xls

Registration forms
http://www.matchrace.ch/download/files/registration.xls

Take a tour on a IACC Yacht

 

 

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Match Race Training in Lugano

The two weekend match race training camp organized by the Circolo Velico lago di Lugano concluded today with the inaugural Lugano Match Cup, 5 Teams from Switzerland and Italy competed in the first Swiss match race of the season.
A double round robin and a highly intense final between team De Micheli SUI and team Mazzoni ITA where sailed this weekend.
The matches where sailed on the Streamline, 22 feet boats who will be used for the UBS Alinghi Swiss Tour.

Final Results:

1: Sacha De Micheli SUI
2: Fabio Mazzoni ITA
3: Matteo Minetti SUI
4: Jan Van de Kruck SUI
5: Luca Zanardi SUI

The Lugano Match Cup was the first Act of this event, others will follow during the season to give the teams chances to improve there skills for the UBS Alinghi Swiss Tour and prepare them for the match race circuit.
A special thank together with all the volunteers goes to the Zürcher Yacht Club who provied 2 of the 4 boats for this training.

Logo for the Match Race Academy

Here is our Match Race Academy logo. A special thank goes to the designer Gregor from Noise AG.