The Bosun responds to the latest chapter in the Rule 52 saga.
Well, that didn’t take long. Just four days after we reported on the proposal by World Sailing’s Oceanic and Offshore Committee to score boats using automated technology in offshore racing separately from conventionally-sailed entrants, the opposing forces wheeled out their big cannons.
Storm Trysail Club Commodore, Andrew Weiss, released a 1,000-word broadside that can be boiled down to one sentence: “F–k off WS – we’re the clubs, and we’ll make our own rules.”
The Weiss statement begins with the usual bleat about how they weren’t consulted. Huh? There has been lively debate over computer-driven systems within the offshore community and WS for years. There is an American representative on the Committee. The various positions on the issue are well known (and consultation isn’t an automatic right, anyway – felons aren’t consulted before each new criminal law is drafted).
The STC Commodore then uses language that gives the impression that the World Sailing proposal would be a mandatory imposition. In fact, it is qualified as a “recommendation”. The independence of individual Organising Authorities to omit or amend Rule 52 is not under threat. WS even provides guidelines (Appendix M) as to how OAs can do just that.
The proposal is essentially only an attempt to have the sport honour the spirit of the basic sporting principle of Manual Power, as expressed in the RRS.
Nevertheless, Weiss seems so desperate to defeat the WS Committee that he openly touts for support. His letter ends by saying: “If you lead a race committee or serve with an Organizing Authority — here or abroad — and agree that Rule 52 should remain the Organizing Authority’s call, write to rule52@stormtrysail.org and we will be in touch about where your voice would do the most good.”
Here’s the reality. Seven of the yachts contesting the recent Maxi World Championships were using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) 3-D laser camera technology. That input, via onboard software and powered winches, delivers incredibly accurate real-time automated trimming. The TP52 class is so concerned they are contemplating a ban.
Is the Storm Trysail Commodore aware of this development? Is that really the direction he wants the sport of offshore racing to take?
The principle that allows OAs the discretion to change rules is so that they can respond to conditions particular to an event or location. For example, if the geography of a race made adherence to a rule impractical or unsafe, then the NoR or SIs can be amended to accommodate those factors.
But it was never meant to confer carte blanche authority on OAs to override the RRS or Special Regulations at will, or whim. Otherwise, why have rules at all?
Also, it seems illogical that clubs are happy to accept the absolute authority of a rating system such as IRC – which they would never dare challenge – yet reserve to themselves the right to amend or ignore a fundamental and longstanding rule of their own governing body.
How can an owner build a new boat with any confidence when the Organising Authorities of the events they intend to enter might have different, and changing, rules?
Any sport, especially at the international level, must be regulated with the primary purpose of making competition as fair as possible. Surely it follows that those rules must also be globally consistent.
Independence is all very well, but not if it leads to chaos.
The Bosun
