But, to the other side, Rib, you allredy sail a pink coloured Radial mai, aren't you? So, the rhombus perhaps has to have not the red colour or it would become "hidden" on your unique sail (pink colour of the rhombus (aft a while) on pink colour of the sail)!
Oh-oh, again, my dear, we have another poor worded class rule... Time to get new and clear ones, baby, correct?
ciao-ciao
LooserLu
P.S.: At Kiel Week 2007 (biggest sailing event of the world) all the Radials of the female Laserites already had this rhomus at the top of their sails. There it already has been normalty, noboby cared about this rhombus.
show the rhombus
By the way, has there been another woman on the WC since me?
A few facts and reasons on the Rhombus proposed rule change:
1. I understand that some women object to being identified as a women. However there a number of women who sail in mixed fleets who also like to compete for an additonal women's prize. They like to know where their women competitors are on the course.
2. In large fleets, when women have a seperate start and are racing for women only trophies there may also be male fleets racing onthe same track eg Laser Radial Worlds and Europeans, Laser 4.7 Worlds and Europeans. With 3 or 4 fleets each of between 60 to 85 boats they frequently mix on the windward legs and also overlap. Having a quick visual indentification helps both men and women know immediately whether to be considerate to each other by not covering or calling for rights or if they are in the same race maybe be more agressive. At congested mark roundings it also helps to know what the next leg of the course may be for those around you. It can often be different.
3. It is not for Race Committee identification on the start line. Anyone who has sighted a startline of 70 Laser Radial or Laser 4.7 would immediately see that RC's can only work on sail numbers.
4. It is useful for RC's at a finish when for time limit reasons it is important to identify the leader of a fleet that is mixed with another fleet. It is also important for time limit reasons to quickly identify later sailors for end of time limit. Of course computers can sort out mixed fleets but they are no use to a finishing boat when 80 boats are crossing a finish line in groups of 4 or 5 and the whole fleet finishes in 4 minutes!
5. It is also useful fo RC's to know where the first boat is in a particular fleet if a course change is being considered.
6. Could we have asked the men to be identified insted of the women? Yes! Whether Men or Women or tagged makes no difference to te fact that any system will equally identify the "haves" and "have nots".
7. Why did we choose to identify the women and use a rhombus? Because we copied the 470 class who have de facto established an international convention and we have been using it for a number of years at large mixed fleet championships without complaint apart from Lainie Pardey. With RC's used to the 470 system it would be completely illogical to confuse things by adopting a different system that may vary from one event to another.
8. The proposed rule change does not make it mandatory for women to display the rhombus if there are no separate women prizes.
9. For press and TV at major events being able to quickly identify different fleets in when fleets overlap helps media coverage.
10.The system is not new and has been used at top level 470, Laser Radial and Laser 4.7 events for a number of years without complaint. In my experiance by far the large majority of competitors (male and female) like the system.
11. The rule change was not proposed to to waste sailors time or to alienate a specific group of sailors. The benifits affect male and female sailors equally.
Jeff Martin
ILCA Executive Secretary
Oh boy !!! How I love a straight line!!!
Serve to Lead, Bunny.
Gil
Sail numbers distinguish sailors from one another. There is no need to segregate fleets by sex with a rhombus on the sail. Race Committees use sail numbers, or sometimes bow numbers for scoring. Finishing big Laser fleets is complicated enough without having to look at the sail for a rhombus.
If they race in events where there are men in their fleet, being as they're top contenders, you can absolutely bet your boots that they know the sail numbers of their competitors.
....
P.S.: At Kiel Week 2007 (biggest sailing event of the world) all the Radials of the female Laserites already had this rhomus at the top of their sails. There it already has been normalty, noboby cared about this rhombus....
I hope this is my last stab at this subject, but I'd like to also address the comment LooserLu sent about the Kiel Week regatta where "nobody cared about this rhombus".
How do you know they don't care? Did you ask? Did anybody ask??
Maybe they think they MUST show it or be DSQ so they do? Maybe it's too much headache at a huge event like Kiel, to go and find the RC and make a protest about it?
My feeling on the issue was that I was THERE to do exactly that - speak for the members.
If I understand the logical extension of this argument, there is no need for anything other than a sail number on a boat. Minimally, I agree, that is all we need to go racing and is certainly true here in North America at pretty much all of our major championships.
But...
I'm going to sail in the Master Worlds in Spain, in the Laser Master fleet. There will be 404 boats on the water in Spain and 117 in my fleet. So... I could memorize 117 sail numbers and the sailors that go with them... OR I could rely on the fact that I will have to place a red band on my mast . . . my experience tells me that an identifying mark can be useful to competitors.
In particular, I do recall that Hilary Thomas enjoyed being the only woman in the Masters full rig fleet in Chile, and raced wearing a hat with a gigantic rose on it. But . . then again maybe she's just discovered the virtues of the wonderful Radial rig. How windy is it in Roses in September?
Boy, the guys hated seeing that rose ahead of them on the course.
Sails have no gender (at least my parents did not explain about sails and gender to me in my formative years).
Aw c'mon! Lasers have always been good for teaching sailing anatomy in that their masts are male and sails are female.
If I were there, I'd want to race against you! (except I'm a GM now . . ) I paid the same entry fee, so I should be racing in a fleet of 117 boats. Instead I get a fleet of 20 or 30? Sure it's nice to have a separate prize for the first female sailor. But that's not important to me.
Don't TELL me! Jeff has "decreed" that all female entries MUST race in the Radial fleet, right?? <huge sigh> It appears there are only about 20 female entries in total. Gee, the Laser Class is really encouraging women to enter the Masters Worlds regatta isn't it . . . .....
As far as I can see the NOR for the Masters Worlds places no restriction on what fleet a female sailor may race in. I can't see anywhere that it edicts that a woman can't sail in one of the Standard Rig fleets.
However the NOR does say that in the Radial fleets there will be separate prizes for Women as well as prizes for sailors who are "Men and Women combined" - whatever that creature may be.
This is correct. And rhombus free as well.