Darin Ballington

And I would anticipate that a sailmaker who makes a sail that is out of "spec" will offer to rectify- like any other business. That is different to have a certification mark on the sails. IMO it is a difficult subject where we either want to play by the "big boy" rules or we do our own thing, however it cannot be right to pick and choose which rules you adopt. I think the convention - certainly in the clubs I am a member of, is that measurers will offer the service to club members for free but may charge (usually donated to the club) for the non members.

Hi John, Give me a nudge on Sunday, I have a sheet of material that you can cut a couple of lid spacers out of in my gear. Darin

A straight plug connection is the easiest if you have a pot. Just make sure you “twitch” the rudder before launching to check you’ve plugged it in!

I’m sure that if you worded your enquiry appropriately and requested that any advice be posted on the MYA website that the TO would facilitate this. If you copy me in I will ensure that this is dealt with.

It’s not my place to advise this, but maybe a request for the Class/ MYA Tech Officer to ask the question of IOMICA would be useful. Graham doesn’t follow this forum so an email to him may be best.

Hi John, all good here in the frozen midlands! Well it did snow for a couple of hrs:) I think that you would need to ask the question of IOMICA but my take is that the rules are not changed by the 25 AGM at this time, and as long as the fitting complies with these then it’s still good.

Richard, who has informed you that it is illegal?

All good points, but they still need a paper copy at the finish line as a paper and pen can write the results down quicker when there are a bunch of boats finishing together.

Hi Stephen, You won’t go far wrong if you start with BG sails and design IOM rig setup guide and top tips. The MYA handbook for 2009 also has a good explanation of the basics as a great reference document. https://www.mya-uk.org.uk/kb/sail-trimming-before-going-afloat/ Each design has its own nuances but the basics of rig building and set up are common across all IOM. Once you have a rig set up that is constant and repeatable you can make changes and find the best results.

Having been caught out before, I always book accommodation with a refund option. Hopefully everything is ok for Woodspring.

Put a small triangle/ half circle of deck patch over the front of the pulley to allow the sheet to ride over the top.

The problem with rules diagrams is that they are rarely as clear cut as drawn. The diagram shown, which was fundamentally correct, does not show that the spreader was quite close to the shore, and the wind was gusting and swinging through 30/40 deg or so making the bear away inconsistent, boats were fanned in quite a large arc as they set up for the run. The other element that is missing in the information is that the windward boat bore away and hit the leeward boat as part of the spreader mark incident- hence the discussion about proper course. IMO, the 1st priority in the incident is for windward to keep clear and then protest leeward. (I'm sure that's what will happen in the future As important though is that if it went to a hearing the windward boat would need to persuade the hearing that leeward was not sailing their proper course. It not a cut and dry that you get to the spreader mark and immediately swing left or right to go the next mark for many reasons. Writing a procedure for rounding a spreader mark is just not that simple and as we know hearings are very unpredictable... Happy to be corrected

So, part of the problem is that too many people feel that redress is to be expected, and ask for it. At club level it is an easy way of diffusing a situation and in many cases at club/district level is just awarded to avoid delays or undue pressure on the volunteer race team.. This causes unrealistic expectation when moving to umpired events, where the umpires are there to consider and decide on unresolved incidents. Their major consideration is not the skippers standing around, it is in adjudicating on an incident to the best of their abilities. To bring it back to David's post, a jury will go back to the last known certainty. If the competitors and officials cannot establish any facts, then despite the entanglement they may not award redress. If the contact cannot be seen by the competitors or the officials then there is no certainty, so they go back to the previous known point, quite often this may be well before the two boats are even close to each other and any rules have not been switched on. The above is why the more experienced skippers will find a slot and defend this, both with their boat, and verbally (Politely!) alongside making sure that they can see their boat at all times.

Gordon, I think that in the previous version, if you were overlapping the windward start mark at the time of the start, the leeward boat had to give you room to pass the mark. Am I correct in this?

General interpretations, item 1 is very informative for judges. I think that too often they feel that a decision has to be made based on the rules, without taking into account the race course, conditions and circumstances. sometimes s… happens that no one can deal with.