Hello Sailors,
It was great to see all the boats on the water last week and get the season started.
As we all know, the wind wasn’t very strong or consistent on Wednesday evening and then it faded almost completely. This prompted the Race Committee to shorten the course in an effort to get the race finished before dark. Although a good strategy considering the situation, the shortening of the course was not done in a way that is consistent with the Racing Rules of Sailing or the CSYC Sailing Instructions. In addition, a Protest was filed along with a few other boats questioning this action, therefore the race will not be scored and included in the spring series.
In this instance, RC decided to shorten the course at the Start/Finish line. The issue here is that the start finish line was not a Rounding mark or Gate on the course and actually became a “Change of course” not just a shortening of course. The proper method of shortening the course would have been to shorten at the next mark on the course which would have been Mark 7 for the first start, and either Mark 4 if no boats had yet rounded or Mark 7.
As most of us only help with RC once a year, we can all continue to learn and be prepared to make calls like this that will certainly come up again.
I look forward to seeing all of you on the water this week.
Best,
Michael Kline
CSYC Race Director