The Bosun
The Esteemed Editor has declared his total opposition to RRS 69, the rule he nevertheless adopted as the name for this website. (Bosun, Irony is not dead!)
(I’ve been attacked, and from one of my own writers! Given my propensity for making wild, inaccurate statements, The Bosun here at Rule69 dares to use my own words against me! My corrections are in parentheses…)
He dismisses it as “ridiculous”. It seems that any notion of regulating misconduct in sailing is abhorrent to him. The anarchic (We won’t be using that word around here. Let’s go with rebellious. And in truth I haven’t dismissed the entirety of the rule, just the majority of it) instinct is understandable; the lack of logic is not.
Whether he adopts this position as ‘an opinion genuinely held’ (as the libel lawyers like to say), or as an act of provocation is not clear. Either way, I am happy to respond. (My opinions are rarely, nay never, regarded as “genuinely held”).
The rebuttal is simple: how else would Tempesta propose to control blatantly unsporting behaviour, if not by some provision in the Racing Rules? How else to discourage acts of deliberate cheating or intimidation that might not be adequately covered by the RRS Fundamental Rules, When Boats Meet, Conduct of a Race, etc?
(First of all, that’s Mister Tempesta to you. Secondly, and oh how I hate getting in the weeds with this, but I’m not really too concerned with most of it, except the “Bad Manners” part. This sport or almost anywhere does not need the manners police determining what is or isn’t bad manners. It is gross overreach, subjected to the whims of the nanny police and should be eliminated from the rule. If I tell you to fuck yourself, well tough shit. It’s called free speech. Grow up and move on.)
Like all good law, the object of Rule 69 is to act more as a deterrent than a punishment. Once a sailor understands the scope of the rule the mere thought that a breach might incur DSQ – or worse – should be enough to keep their behaviour reasonable. (But it isn’t, people are indeed punished, and often because of tight-sphincterd rules fetishists).
A few people are, of course, so competitive that they lack any self-control, sense of sporting honour or respect for the rules. They are beyond help, so Rule 69 is the only way to curb their excesses. (Yes, this sport is full of assholes who meet that definition. From Olympians boarding competitors boats in a fit of rage to the local douche(s) at your club).
Presumably, the Esteemed Editor is not one of them. (Shockingly to many, I am not. I loathe the entire protest bullshit. Some aggrieved twat screaming some perceived rule infraction, and then telling a story in the protest room that is as if he swallowed a four-way hit of acid an hour before the hearing. Naw, I have avoided it like the plague.) – The Bosun.
