RSS Part 1 Rule 4 Decision to Race
The responsibility for a boat’s decision to participate in a race or to continue racing is hers alone.
Many years ago when I first started competing this responsibility was placed absolutely on the competitors. Race Officers would always run a race if it were physically possible. I did one race in Ireland (or rather was one of a number of boats deciding not to compete) where the Race Officer stood up at the briefing and said that there was no way the Race Committee was going out to start everybody in the conditions and that they would be starting from a shore based line (so they could cope) - within 10 mins two boats starting were back in one with a broken boom, another with a broken arm. Another National championship race (which I did do) where a 90+ fleet entered and only 3 boats finished, the rest mostly needing towing back in with major failures (me too with mast bent like a banana and rudder pulled out of the transom).
That the Race Officers would always run a race kept the responsibility for deciding to race absolutely on the competitor. Race Officer stayed well out of such considerations.
However, these days, sometimes races are cancelled because of poor conditions. Thus others have started to make the decisions about participation. I can appreciate that in the world of litigation and compensation the Race Committee have to cover themselves but I wonder if this blurring of the decision process is moving some of the responsibility away from the competitor in practice (e.g. "Race Committee thinks it is OK so I'll give it a go"). True that the written instructions are still clear but people knowing the Race Committee would cancel if things were too bad implies that the Race committee think conditions are OK.
Ian
The responsibility for a boat’s decision to participate in a race or to continue racing is hers alone.
Many years ago when I first started competing this responsibility was placed absolutely on the competitors. Race Officers would always run a race if it were physically possible. I did one race in Ireland (or rather was one of a number of boats deciding not to compete) where the Race Officer stood up at the briefing and said that there was no way the Race Committee was going out to start everybody in the conditions and that they would be starting from a shore based line (so they could cope) - within 10 mins two boats starting were back in one with a broken boom, another with a broken arm. Another National championship race (which I did do) where a 90+ fleet entered and only 3 boats finished, the rest mostly needing towing back in with major failures (me too with mast bent like a banana and rudder pulled out of the transom).
That the Race Officers would always run a race kept the responsibility for deciding to race absolutely on the competitor. Race Officer stayed well out of such considerations.
However, these days, sometimes races are cancelled because of poor conditions. Thus others have started to make the decisions about participation. I can appreciate that in the world of litigation and compensation the Race Committee have to cover themselves but I wonder if this blurring of the decision process is moving some of the responsibility away from the competitor in practice (e.g. "Race Committee thinks it is OK so I'll give it a go"). True that the written instructions are still clear but people knowing the Race Committee would cancel if things were too bad implies that the Race committee think conditions are OK.
Ian