Left: QED? If there’s enough breeze to fly the postponement flag there is enough breeze to fill the sails of these 12 Metres hanging around with their bored crews at last year’s (otherwise spectacular) world championships in Newport… or the ClubSwan 50s (above) which motored out to the middle of the Bay of Palma only to stand by to stand by. With imagination and initially a little courage from regatta organisers the standard of weather information available in 2020 is good enough to prevent much of this waste of time (and fuel). Today’s met models are good enough to allow oceanic racers to duck and dive around low-pressure systems at will so it’s not that the technology is not already there. Suitcase wheels – blindingly obvious but it was at least 200 years before anyone caught on
1400 and finishes at 1900’. ‘Racing starts at 0830 and finishes at 1200’. Or ‘racing starts tomorrow on the posted scheduled times’. Why can’t we give people a race win-
dow for the next day based on accurate weather forecasting and free up people’s time to do other things the rest of the day? Imagine if flex scheduling told you that the next morning was free and the racing was to start at 1300. Round of golf? Go to the kids’ soccer game? A bit of work to do? Family breakfast? Anything but floating around waiting or showing up at the boat at 0830, to be told we are waiting an hour on the dock for the next announcement as to when we are sailing. UGGGGH! Flex scheduling can work for any and
all types of racing. No more drifting around to wait and getting cooked by the sun. Sure every once in a while the weather isn’t going to be perfect and you may miss a morning of decent sailing. But let’s just say one out of 10 are bad weather forecast days. That still leaves nine good time- saving days that have saved hundreds of people literally thousands of man-hours to do things other than be bored to death and tell the same stories for the 50th time.
2 Get rid of the postponement flag I really believe we have to put the post- ponement flag away – for ever. From world championships to beer-can races, Oppis to superyachts, we need to get races started on time. Whether it be to get sailing on primetime TV or so that families can schedule sailing into their busy day or weekend. We can’t afford to sit around and wait any more. The postponement flag is an excuse. Eliminate it. And there would be a trickledown effect that would be fantastic for the sport. There are essen- tially three reasons a postponement flag is used. The RC isn’t ready, the weather isn’t co-operating and a set racecourse is crooked or the starting line isn’t perfect. A.When the Race Committee is not ready I have no comment really. If you are the Race Committee and you are telling a fleet of boats to be at a course at a given time then don’t be late. B. Weather holding up a race? Is the fleet cranky if the racecourse isn’t a perfect windward-leeward within a degree or two? I have a suggestion. When you are on the water… SAIL! If organisers have forecast a window there should be no reason that the weather
isn’t at least pretty good, odds are there is going to be some breeze. But the point is that even if there is just a breath of wind it’s the same for everyone. I can’t tell you the number of times that we have been dialling up to a start and we are postponed to wait for the breeze to ‘settle’. Just start! Not only will you get more races in
which equals more fun (and that is what everyone came for) but also the same per- son is going to win overall if the starting line is skewed 25° or the weather leg is a one-way track. Or maybe it gives someone else a fighting chance. If it turns into a really skewed racecourse shorten it, count it and start again. Never cancel a race that is underway! And maybe it will mean we start doing some more non-traditional things like a downwind or reaching start or something else creative that might be fun. Just start the race, get people going. Drifter? Start the race, shorten the course, go to a new mark. Marginally too windy? Take a reef. If you are afloat the race starts on time. Period. No more delays. C. And with regards to the starting line, onboard computers have created an envi- ronment that forces race officers to try to be perfect. We complain if a starting line is
SEAHORSE 57
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122
