Superstition and Rules Book

There we were almost at the end of three days of Match Racing at the BUSA Championships and my fellow Umpire says "Isn't it nice to have an event where there is no damage and everyone looks after the boats"

We should have known better - it wasn't 60 seconds later that we get a massive T-Bone. The port tack boat was so far embedded into the side of the starboard tack boat that it could not come upright. Then, having sorted that out, the boat that made the hole runs aground on the way back to the club and has to be towed off the putty.

Don't tell me that it was just co-incidence.

Having to pay attention to the Racing Rules of Sailing I recently purchased a copy of Trevor Lewis's new book on the subject. My apologies in advance for anyone whose boat is called "Dafodill" or "Iris" if they end up in a protest hearing with me.

That aside it is a wonderful reference book with UK, US and Canadian appeals quoted in abundance. Though checking the footnotes mean that the reading is somewhat interrupted and I am not sure that I agree with some of the personal opinions expressed

It might get me sufficiently inspired to look again at how the rules have developed over the years and the way that culture influences the way we interpret them. There are some major differences between the US and UK which are touched upon in the book.