ILCA and the start.
What do we look for?
1. Sculling
2. Crabbing
3. Rock
4. Roll
5. Body pumping after start (not considered here)
6. Luff and bear way.
1. Sculling.
This is a repeated movement of the helm that is either forceful or that propels the boat forward or prevents it from moving astern.
a. Either side of the centre to propel forwards. PROHIBITED
b. To one side to get to close hauled (on either tack) ALLOWED
c. Continuing from above to below close-hauled, either to get to the start position to rock or to pass behind the next boat. PROHIBITED.
2. Crabbing
a. Backing the sail with offset sculling PROHIBITED
b. Backing the sail no sculling. ALLOWED.
c. Leaning on the boom to back the sail to crab, ALLOWED
In the above, you will initially see the centreboard raised. At the end of the crabbing, the centreboard is slammed down to push the bow back so no sculling is required. ALLOWED. The question is, if this fails, how soon will sculling be allowed and not considered offset sculling?
3. Rock
a. There is no such thing as one allowed rock at the start. Most boats in the “Trigger” probably break the rule.
b. We as judges have to be consistent and only penalise when we have facts not suppositions. As we generally approach from behind at the start, we cannot be sure if the boat accelerates or later slows. We cannot, therefore, penalise. This does allow the “trigger” generally, but if we were looking sideways, not ahead, we could possibly see a breach. Would this be fair, though?
c. What we can do is count, so if we see a second rock, this is a roll, and it's prohibited, we penalise.
7. Luff and bear away
This is especially common in Optis and boats with a large rudder, not so much in the ILCA. The boat gets to head to wind or even passes it to tack and close the gap to windward. It then skulls back to close hauled on starboard ALLOWED.
It then puts the helm down (not forcefully) to go back to head to wind, then skulls back to a close-hauled course. And repeats. ALLOWED.
The luff is not sculling, as it is not forceful, and the guidance allows sculling to close-hauled this applies even if repeated..
Not covered.
1. Body pumping
2. Repeatedly changing course when there are no waves, which to me is rolling, and I penalise.
For another day. Mike Butterfield IU IJ IRO GBR
Many thanks for this useful guide. I would suit is valid for other similar classes such as Europe and Topper?
> We as judges have to be consistent and only penalise when we have facts not suppositions. ... We cannot, therefore, penalise.
> This does allow the “trigger” generally,
This is a problem though isn't it. If there's illegal propulsion that is widely coached and cannot be enforced then the rules are a mess. Especially as if any set of judges were to position themselves to enforce the rule and probably DSQ half the fleet it would probably be resented rather than welcomed.
This inconsistency makes training young sailors a bit difficult, sometimes. At a recent match-race regatta conducted in Thistles (The Larry Klein Regatta at MBYC), a High School sailor competing against adults, who won every race and the regatta, nearly got DSQed in his last race because his team gybed around the last mark and came out with a ridiculous amount of speed. My co-umpire in the boat was reaching for he flag, but decided it wouldn't affect anything. He was already so far out in front. It might have been better for him to take the DSQ in the long run.
Is it because the boat accelerates temporarily to a speed that's than baseline upwind speed, or something else?
You need to observe that speed change to penalise.
Watching carefully ... there is a point each time where he says "sheet it in" then "load it up". That is the moment that deserves our focus.
When he sheets it in, the boat does not first accelerate forward in the boats off-wind direction that results in any meaningful forward velocity. The most that happens is the sheeting-in stops the backward movement.
Rather, he rocks the boat to leeward ("load it up") where he actually is unloading the sail, then simultaneously rocks back to windward with a simultaneous rock/pump. This pump/roll obviously propels the boat with the enough momentum to coast forward against the drag of both wind and water.
For context, I’m an ILCA sailor myself, racing as a Grand Master at regional and national level — but with results that, let’s say, do not exactly strike fear into the fleet :)
That said, about the infamous "trigger" at start...
I am not entirely convinced by the point about the judge’s (i.e., Rule 42 observer's) position. The observer is indeed astern of the starting line, but it is also true that, in most cases, the boats are not seen strictly from dead astern. Most of them are usually angled by roughly 30 degrees to the line, and the boats to the right of the observer’s RIB may present an even greater aspect, sometimes approaching 70 degrees, especially when they bear off just before the start.
From that kind of position, in my view, acceleration can absolutely be judged. All the more so because the observer also has the surrounding boats as a very useful reference.
To me, the real problem arises when improper technique becomes widespread across the fleet. If everybody is doing the same thing, it obviously becomes much harder to isolate and penalize it consistently (and fairly).
And I think that is due in large part to the proliferation of videos in which coaches — including, and perhaps especially, former world-class champions — effectively legitimize certain practices and present them as acceptable.
This to meis not like my comments on the single trigger.
I have no problem with leaning on the boom to move to weather, nor bearing away after.
The rock, which clearly seems to gain speed, worries me.
Doing it more than once as shown, is repeated, and i think i would flag a foul.