How things change
There was an interesting discussion at the BSDRA Thames Valley Team Racing Champs about the procedure for dealing with protests.
Quite a large faction of the umpires felt that, where there was a protest and one of the boats did a turn then the incident was dead. Another faction felt that the spin was irrelevant and that, provided there was a flag and hail we should penalise the boat that was in the wrong, even if this was the protestor and the other boat had taken a spin.
We went with the latter view, as it is undoubtedly technically correct. After all,once lodged a protest cannot be withdrawn without the consent of the protest committee and unlike judges us umpires is keen.
However, I do feel that this is a change of game. If a spin is taken, and the competitors think they have dealt with the incident, shouldn't the umpires stay out of it? There are arguments both ways and getting in there will educate and can prevent bullying but I think it is a change in the way we have been playing the game and could come as a shock to some sailors.
Quite a large faction of the umpires felt that, where there was a protest and one of the boats did a turn then the incident was dead. Another faction felt that the spin was irrelevant and that, provided there was a flag and hail we should penalise the boat that was in the wrong, even if this was the protestor and the other boat had taken a spin.
We went with the latter view, as it is undoubtedly technically correct. After all,once lodged a protest cannot be withdrawn without the consent of the protest committee and unlike judges us umpires is keen.
However, I do feel that this is a change of game. If a spin is taken, and the competitors think they have dealt with the incident, shouldn't the umpires stay out of it? There are arguments both ways and getting in there will educate and can prevent bullying but I think it is a change in the way we have been playing the game and could come as a shock to some sailors.
posted by Nigel Vick at
1:45 AM
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