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Identify the culprits, two strikes and you earn a demotion with a DSQ score.

Gates, gates and more gates, add to that a couple of outer buoys to add a little more luck to which course you opt for. Won't be long before we just forget the adrenalin filled racing part of the sport and just set boats off every 30 seconds and just do time trials. Hang on there, I may of stumbled upon an idea here, time trials with no promotion or relegation, surely not, well maybe just for the seedings? Concentrate on ways of identifying the culprits and bringing them in line instead of watering down what we love, racing around, not boring sailing around.

I was at both events and personally favour an in/out gate with a set of spreader clearing marks. If we are honest, all options can create issues due to the control area and its proximity to the marks of the course with the prevailing wind direction. This is one of the limitations of our discipline. The higher the level of competition the more that the windward marks become an issue, the boats and skippers tend to be matched more equally and the competitive spirit higher, leading to more skippers arriving at the same time and more carnage and frustrations. We all know the issues and all fall foul of a misjudged lay line and the resultant pile ups, although never our fault!! If correct then the windward gate should reduce this by offering two options splitting the fleet, however as we know the gate tends to be used when the course setting is not easy so getting a fair split becomes difficult. To minimise the unequal gate they are usually placed closer together which then pushes more of the problem to leaving the mark. IMO the clearing mark option with an In/Out gives a further option to split the fleet equally as these can be offset to allow the gate itself to be within a visible range, and using the clearing mark to create a more equal next leg of the course. Pierre and team did this very well in France IMO and is the option I try to use when setting a course in difficult conditions, although it does then require more vigilance by skippers and race team to police.