Should Hiking be banned??

Hiking out legality

  • Hikling is great! If we didn't have it already we would allow the change

    Votes: 22 75.9%
  • It would never be accepted in today's anti physical sailing environment

    Votes: 2 6.9%
  • hiking is bad for the sport and it's to bad we have it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Butts on cockpit bottoms should be the rule

    Votes: 5 17.2%

  • Total voters
    29

gouvernail

Super Opinionated and Always Correct
Considering the rabid rush by old out of shape desk jockey weekend sailors to remove kinetics from our game...

I wonder >>.

If Hiking Out and hiking straps had been thought of only recently, would leaning back while sailing up wind be banned??

Think of the arguments>>>

Certainly hiking out is the singular most important factor in upwind performance.

The fastest sailor need only cover the fleet.

If we allow hiking out, everyone will simply hike the entire time and those who cannot will lose and quit.


Hiking uses the physical body to constantly adjust the boat to its optimum angle. soon no one will be steering with their tillers and sails.
 
Yes, definitely. Also people who are good should be banned. Add people with experience (definitely worth banning). People who are good at starting should be disqualified at warning signal. If you can roll tack decently (or detect a wind shift) then you should be liable to a Rule 69 hearing.

However, those with new boats and new sails are likely to become a fast disappearing feature of the sport (given rumours about inter company bickering, non payments, lawyer involvement, supply issues, cost and longevity of sails, etc.)

Ian
 
to the older athletes no longer able to handle the physical strains, I feel your pain, college rugby followed by years of operational combat deployments have left me physically worn out with painful joints and will soon be in your shoes, hence the masters divisions where you don't have to be young and flexible, only a few more years and I can race there!

to the young and obese, SUCK IT UP CUPCAKE! maybe you should take up a less demanding and strenuous sport like sitting around and doing nothing...

HIKE HARDER!
 
While we're banning stuff, can we ban opposing currents? Currents going the right way are good but the ones against us, not so much.
 
Why should it be banned? I mean it is the part of the sport isn't it? Without the hiking out, where's the adrenalin, the feel good factor of flying up wind, lying on the see, with no care in the world!?
Every sport has its 'bits' that makes it the sport to participate in!
Wouldnt banning hiking be the same as not having a keel on a keel boat?
 
I think we should ban individual boats as well, they are only creating differences in performance (such as age and hardware) we also should ban outside boats as well, they only create waves. While we are at it lets ban other competitors too, they only are taking away winning spots from us.
 
... where's the adrenalin ...

Adrenalin is already banned (under the performance enhancing drugs rules) and people using are not banned but disqualified. Same should apply to things like coffee and Pro balance Isotonic Plus (or sugar water at $20 per fl oz).

But ban them all anyway as they will probably be in the upper half of the fleet - adequate grounds to suspect something worthy of exclusion.

Ian
 
Adrenalin is already banned (under the performance enhancing drugs rules) and people using are not banned but disqualified. Same should apply to things like coffee and Pro balance Isotonic Plus (or sugar water at $20 per fl oz).

But ban them all anyway as they will probably be in the upper half of the fleet - adequate grounds to suspect something worthy of exclusion.

Ian

Who's stupid enough to drug themselves for adrenalin, thats just silly! Adrenalin from the great winds and great waves, the feel of being anxious, laughing, HIKING, with no care in the world, only the goal of reaching the shore safely!
Coffee!? It's an everyday thing......... Oh, so are you saying athletes aren't aloud these energy drinks, which isn't anything to do with energy, it's just a way of storage for sugar and all, to burn it off quicklly, instead of taking 10 minutes to eat!
Why though!? personally, When I was younger, I saw people sail, I thought to myself that the hiking looked awesome, and thats one reason I started to sail! Also the freedom you have on the water, your own tactic, youre own thought!
Besides, if everyone's hiking out than, it is fair! If someone has the money to buy a better boat, then good for them!
Im a prime example, I'm young, with not a lot of budget, I bought my first laser, standard rig, quite old, but a great little boat! Other sailors in the club, newer lasers with upgrades, but I still keep beside them in the races!
If youre saying hiking should be banned, that's like saying upgrades are banned, it makes no difference whatsoever!
 
This thread is fun...but just in case ..

I think everybody missed my point.

Hiking is extremely hard work and teh top sailors go through all sorts of special training just to be able to hike hard.

Hiking is pretty much teh only factor in a race when it is windy and teh weather leg is the part of teh race where a sailor absolutely MUST prosper.

We have banned all sorts of kinetics because "it would just become a contst of who could rock or pump the best.

We have benned weights because those weights take a toll on the body.

But Hikin..probably teh most brutal of all teh things we do, is legal.

I Just want all of you to consider this:

if Hiking were something we had started to do recently, Hiking would have been considered for its many drawbacks and it would have been banned.

Why did I start the thread??

because I think banning kinetics is much less justifiable than banning hiking.

I would allow much much more kinetic activity and I would never consider banning hiking.

Removing kinetics from Laser sailing is like removing jumping from basketball.

You could certainly play basketball with a one foot on teh floor rule, and we can sail without pumping, ooching and rocking.

Each game is still a game, but neither is as much fun or athletic as it should be.
 
Who's stupid enough to drug themselves for adrenalin, thats just silly! Adrenalin from the great winds and great waves, the feel of being anxious, laughing, HIKING, with no care in the world, only the goal of reaching the shore safely!
Coffee!? It's an everyday thing......... Oh, so are you saying athletes aren't aloud these energy drinks, which isn't anything to do with energy, ...

Have you ever seen the film "Spinal Tap". If not, don't. One of the great aspects of the film is a review in a major serious UK newspaper shortly after its release where the reviewer did not appreciate that Spinal Tap were actually not a real group and that the rock tour the film was "documenting" was not a real rock tour and that when one of the drummers has apparently died from chocking on vomit (apparently, not his own vomit ...) and that Rob Reiner is not a rock documentary director ....

Ian
 
Have you ever seen the film "Spinal Tap". If not, don't. One of the great aspects of the film is a review in a major serious UK newspaper shortly after its release where the reviewer did not appreciate that Spinal Tap were actually not a real group and that the rock tour the film was "documenting" was not a real rock tour and that when one of the drummers has apparently died from chocking on vomit (apparently, not his own vomit ...) and that Rob Reiner is not a rock documentary director ....

Ian

What's this to do with hiking....? :p
 
I won't stand for any attempts to ban things from going to 11!

But we probably should ban choking on other people's vomit, spontaneous combustion, bizarre gardening accidents and scale models of Stonehengewhile we're at it.
 
I've never understood why anything you can do with your body is illegal short of getting out of the boat or paddling.

ooching, pumping, sculling, unnecessary tacks - I think it ought to all be fair game. If everyone is allowed to do it then nobody has an advantage AND there are fewer rules to have to bicker about.

There is a movie called the Flying Scotsman about a bike racer who developed, among other things, a different cycling position with his chest touching the handlebars. The establishment types were appalled at his newfangled ways (and that he was beating everybody) so rather than marvel at his ingenuity and skill they started banning everything he was doing that was different from everyone else... sad, really.
 
But we probably should ban choking on other people's vomit, spontaneous combustion, bizarre gardening accidents and scale models of Stonehenge while we're at it.

Hell no, you are not banning my scale model of Stonehenge. It confuses my competitors.
 
The flying scotsman and Greg Lemond changed cycling forever. Look at the time trial bikes of today and those silly helmets too! And don't forget aerodynamic frames and water bottles and performance enhancing drugs.

I think that the boat was actually designed to hike out in order to keep it upright and still move upwind. Hook your feet under the strap, sneak your cheeks just over the gunwhales and have fun.

I don't know about the modern day fully battened hiking togs being in the mind of the sailors of the 70s but we could look to some ancient video to get some idea.

I guess if you want to be a purist then not only should you sail with a sail that is still from the 70s but in bell-bottom jeans and the *new* nike track shoes that were just out like these guys ....

http://youtu.be/V3uhghIrwQY
 
I have sailed in a Fireball regatta where my crew and I started the day in full length jeans and decided we needed shorts so we ripped half the legs off. I remember we didn't have a knife and tehe seams were really tough to tear across. As I remember, we used the spin pole to pound on those seams against the corner of the main harken swivel cleat and managed to cut all four of the triple thickness seams.
 

Back
Top