Talking of Culture

There were a couple of new Team Racing Rapid Response calls published on the World Sailing site recently.

One to the effect that if two boats overlapped at the zone attempt to push inside a boat that got to the mark infront of them and over which they have no room then both boats should get penalised. The other said that if the inside boat pulls out and has to do a turn in order to get round the mark then this is not a penalty and so the incident stays "live" and a boat can be penalised.

Much of the idea is to discourage boats from barging in and crashing together - keeping the sport as a non-contact activity. However, for Fireflies and students sailing in the UK this requires a massive cultural shift.

It lead to discussions as to whether every contact should be black flagged - as there is the possibility of a penalty under Rule 14, if there is damage. However, the thinking was that there is no time limit on the black flag - so a penalty can be imposed when the damage is discovered - which will be after the race. That begs the question of what sort of penalty and opinion seemed to be that half a race win would be appropriate. I don't think that this is going to be popular but how else do we prevent boats being trashed?