Over-The-Line, Thirty, and Confused

This week I’ve been writing a lot about the July 12 SLVT Qualifying Matches. The races were remarkable, and the skippers displayed a high level of skill that truly pushed some limits of SL Sailing. One example was the skippers’ use of the start line as a tactical aid to outmaneuver opponents during the three minute prestart. Carmen Foden won Race Three essentially before it began when she skillfully pushed Glorfindel Arrow over the line during the final seconds of the countdown. A somewhat similar issue also occurred in Race Four between Gemma Vuckovic and Astro Marksman.

However, in both of those matches the post-race Penalty Committee disqualified skippers for start line errors, citing the SLVT Regatta Rules, the RRS-SL, and RRS Rule 30.1. (The Rules for Sunday’s Round Five Regatta were also posted here on Metaverse).

The trouble is that neither the SLVT Regatta Rules or the RRS-SL actually discuss Start Rule details or how they should be applied. That’s not really an error, however, since over-early rules rarely come up in ACA racing, and the prior three SLVT events were pretty tame and orderly. Last Sunday, however, that all changed! As LDeWell Hawker put it,

“We actually saw sailors go ‘hunting’ for their opponent hoping to draw a infraction giving the opponent the dilemma of a penalty to be completed after the start.”

This certainly wasn’t a bad thing; actually it was a very exciting development and made the races pretty fantastic to watch. Carmen Foden herself confirmed Hawk’s impression:

“I was out for prestart blood in the races… I’ve lost all the large events I’ve entered due to poor starts so I figured I’d mix it up to gain an advantage on the line without going over early. … Sunday was me showing off 3 months of practice…
I had so much fun hunting Astro; I was out to draw prestart fouls.
I think Astro was too.”

Carmen’s right; I spoke with Astro, and he strongly agreed the prestart sparring match added an important dimension to the races. In fact, you can see a video of Astro practicing his prestart match tactics here.

My point (as if I ever had any point) is just that emerging prestart tactics make it important for race organizers to clarify the “Start Rules.”

In case you doubt that, since Sunday I’ve asked more than a dozen avid ACA33 racers a pretty simple question: “If you cross the Start line early, do you have to go around an end buoy before recrossing the line?” I received at least six different answers. That might sound surprising, considering it’s a ‘yes/no‘ question, but remember: We’re talking Sailboat Racing.

Thirty-something

The basic ISAF Start Rule is Rule 30:

30 STARTING PENALTIES

30.1 I Flag Rule
If flag I has been displayed, and any part of a boat’s hull, crew or equipment is on the course side of the starting line or one of its extensions during the last minute before her starting signal, she shall thereafter sail from the course side across an extension to the prestart side before starting.

30.2 Z Flag Rule
If flag Z has been displayed, no part of a boat’s hull, crew or equipment shall be in the triangle formed by the ends of the starting line and the first mark during the last minute before her starting signal. If a boat breaks this rule and is identified, she shall receive, without a hearing, a 20% Scoring Penalty calculated as stated in rule 44.3(c). She shall be penalized even if the race is restarted or resailed, but not if it is postponed or abandoned before the starting signal. If she is similarly identified during a subsequent attempt to start the same race, she shall receive an additional 20% Scoring Penalty.

30.3 Black Flag Rule
If a black flag has been displayed, no part of a boat’s hull, crew or equipment shall be in the triangle formed by the ends of the starting line and the first mark during the last minute before her starting signal.If a boat breaks this rule and is identified, she shall be disqualified without a hearing, even if the race is restarted or resailed, but not if it is postponed or abandoned before the starting signal. If a general recall is signalled or the race is abandoned after the starting signal,the race committee shall display her sail number before the next warning signal for that race, and if the race is restarted or resailed she shall not sail in it. If she does so, her disqualification shall not be excluded in calculating her series score.

There’s a wide range of interpretation of the above rules in both Real Life and in racing emulations. For example, the Percy Priest Yacht Club in USA (A club I picked totally at random) covers Rule 30 by saying simply that any over-early boat needs to go back and re-cross the line. There’s no discussion of  ‘end buoys.’

In SL Sailing that simplified interpretation doesn’t work very well, however. It’s fairly easy for an unrestricted SL skipper to game the system by sailing directly down the middle of the Start line during the last several seconds… then pop over when the clock hits 00:00. Having said that, it’s also true that starting boats are usually clustered around the race line in SL when the  Countdown begins. For safety reasons or by accident the often incidentally cross the start line after they raise sail. It makes little sense to penalize them for doing so.

The American Model Yacht Association has a good, short discussion of how the Start Rules can apply to a sailing emulation; they endorse  a variation of Rule 30.1. I’d suggest for the remainder of SLVT we consider using their system.

A Note on Flags

The use and importance of flags in sailing has a long history and tradition. It’s built into the Rules of Racing as well. I would never argue against signal flags in any context, but lets agree the flags are “legacy” forms of communication, and just ornamental. They have nothing to do with the actual race. The RL yacht club example I cited above and the AMYA pay homage to the ‘flag system,’ but they don’t use it. I think they correctly see that the issue is to announce the Rules for any given race beforehand and update the fleet at racetime. In SL, text communication and notecards are fairly efficient. In a busy race where skippers have reduced draw distance and selective graphics, putting out a ‘flag’ is arguably a wasted effort if its the primary form of communication. (And did I mention it intimidates the hell out of new sailors?)

Suggestion

1. I think it makes sense for race directors and regatta organizers to announce the ‘Starting Rules’ they wish to use. Of course, its entirely their choice to decide what fits a particular event  (including ‘no rules‘ or a decision ‘not to even think about it‘ ); there is no right or wrong here.

2. Specifically for the SL-VT Regatta, as I mentioned above I’d suggest any further races use Rule 30.1 as adapted by the AMYA. In other words:

If any part of a boat’s hull, crew or equipment is on the course side of the starting line or one of its extensions during the last minute before her starting signal, she shall thereafter sail from the course side around one of the end markers to the prestart side before starting.

Does that make sense to everyone?

It may seem like a small issue, but the winners of Round Five were decided based on ‘Over-Early‘ rules issues, and the problem is now guaranteed to come up repeatedly as we move on to the SLVT Finals. To quote Carmen Foden:

“I just hope the race committee has their rule books handy in August!”

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