- Rule 42 Enforcement
a Violation in the 505 Class

By Peter Alarie

Reading through the sailing instructions at this year’s 505 Worlds in Malmö, I was both surprised and outraged to learn that the fleet would be subjected to on the water judging for Rule 42 (Propulsion). The SI’s had invoked ISAF Appendix N of the Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS), which empowers the judges to hand out immediate penalties if they think there is a violation of Rule 42. I made a quick tour of the dinghy park, seeking the opinions of other racers. No one else seemed to share my excitement over this potentially hot issue, and to a person everyone thought that I was overreacting. “Relax,” said one of my fellow Americans, “it is really no big deal. If you play by the rules, you will not have a problem.”

Well, truth be told, I have a few problems with this. First, I do not think that ISAF or any individual judge should be actively involved in telling the sailors how to race and behave on the racecourse. Secondly, I do not think that on the water judging is fair or effective. Finally, I do not think that Rule 42 (in its current form) should even be in the RRS. I believe that ISAF has really handled this issue poorly, and they are making a really big deal out of what should be a non-issue.

Before I go any further, I need to issue my disclaimer. As a racer I am very thankful for the judges and other support people that volunteer their time to make our racing possible. Without these people and their considerable efforts, we would not be able to enjoy sailboat racing the way that we do. In what follows, I am not taking shots at any one person in particular and I hope that readers will keep this in mind. I am only offering commentary on the system, not the people involved. Let me also say that every year I contribute back to the volunteer system, by both judging and running events, so I will not regret offering a few observations for consideration. Okay, back to the good stuff...

My biggest problem with what went on at the Worlds is that I strongly believe that ISAF and individual judges should be seen and not heard. Traditionally, sailing is a sport that relies on the individual competitors for rule enforcement. If you feel that someone broke a rule, you protest them and there is a hearing. The judges hear the testimony and make their decision. It is a time tested system that lets the racers decide how they want to play the game, and for the most part this system works very well.

It is not a perfect system, and people certainly do things that are against the rules, but that is their decision and they will have to live with the feelings that come with being a cheater. If you see someone break a rule, you also have to decide what to do, weighing the consequences of initiating a protest or letting it slide. It is a system of balances and I for one feel that it works very well, particularly in the 505 class where people are much more interested in riding a nice wave than sticking it in at 1.75 boat lengths and demanding room!
We do not need judges riding around in motor boats initiating protests based on what they see.

When you let the judges onto the water and empower them with initiating protests, you create all sorts of problems. Perhaps I have more experience with on the water judging than most, having competed in many national and world level team racing events where active judging is an integral part of the racing. In three-on-three team racing, it is standard to have 3 umpire boats that follow every race, giving the umps a 1:2 ratio of boats that they have to keep track of. In addition, this ratio is effectively eased by the fact that in most team races, boats from opposing teams are paired up, so each judge boat only needs to track one “pair”. One would think that with this type of arrangement, getting “good” calls out of the umpires would be easy. However, if you ask anyone that has team or match raced at this level, there is almost universal displeasure with the results of this system. 
Calls are consistently blown or missed entirely, and this has an adverse effect on the racing.

Some teams have gone so far as to “play” to the umpires, forcing their way into a foul situation and throwing a flag, knowing that the odds are good that the incident will be green flagged (no foul), or that the other team might even be penalized!

I know this has little to do with Rule 42, but it does illustrate some of the shortcomings of on the water judging: the judges are rarely in a position to make a meaningful call; their justice is arbitrary; they are rarely qualified to even be making the call; and the judges are not shy or hesitant about changing the outcome of a major event. These are harsh words, but as I said, I have also been a judge at these events and I would say that most of the above points also applied to me in many of those situations!

With Rule 42 enforcement in a fleet race, the positioning of the judges is not as big a problem, but the calls that they hand out are arbitrary. They cannot see every boat at every minute, so you can get flagged even though there are 10 other boats on the course doing the same thing. At this year’s Worlds, Ali and Jesse were flagged for pumping on a leg that I was also pumping on. I literally heard the whistle as I finished a pump, and had to look around to see who got bagged! This instance calls into question the qualifications of the judges. I spoke to the head judge after the race and asked him about the call. He emphatically stated that surfing conditions did not exist on that leg and that Ali and Jesse were in violation of Rule 42. I can tell you that there were surfing conditions, as we were also pumping and catching waves! Who is right here? You have no recourse if you are flagged, so you suck it up and do your turns (or accept your DSQ if it is a 2nd offense!), but in this case it was the wrong call and they were unjustly penalized. I can tell you that our boys were pretty pissed off at the system then, despite being one of the teams that told me to “relax” about it before the event began!

The bottom line is that no matter how much training a judge goes through, they will never be fully qualified to enforce Rule 42. There are simply too many variables to the surfing or planning puzzle, and unless you are in a boat on the same area of the course, you will never be able to tell when those conditions are present or not.

In talking to the judges at the Worlds, they know that it is hard to make these calls correctly. They have worked to understand the new Rule 42 interpretations (see the so called “white paper” on the ISAF site for the complete write up), attending training seminars and talking to competitors. They know it is difficult to get it right, yet they do not hesitate to make the call and flag someone in a marginal situation, thereby changing the regatta for those boats! Is this what we want at our major events?

I feel that ISAF has handled this whole situation poorly. Because of some problems in the Star and Laser classes, ISAF decided that there is a serious problem with Rule 42 in our sport. They have launched some serious initiatives to correct this “problem” and are strong arming classes into compliance. No one thinks that we have a Rule 42 problem in the 505 class, yet we had on the water judging at the worlds. Who decided that we needed that? Here is the governing body of sailing telling us how to play the game, creating a huge issue where there was none before. I have been sailing 505’s for almost 20 years, and I have never heard of a Rule 42 protest, and I have never seen any actions that would have required one!
But here they come, ready to tell us that we are all cheating! All of the International Judges have been required to take special training on the topic, and have been “instructed” by ISAF to go to these events and enforce Rule 42 by the new interpretations. Seemingly we have no say in this, and I think it is wrong to be subjected to it.

Finally, I think that Rule 42 itself needs some serious work, to simplify it and make it easier to understand. 
I feel that many of the prohibited actions should be allowed, such as ooching. Ooching is a very powerful weapon, one that is almost impossible to detect, yet they are trying to regulate it. The V-15 class has simply allowed it and it makes the sailing more fun, allowing you to catch waves much sooner. I am not sure how the rule should read, but there must be a better way. The Rule 42 Interpretations paper is almost 5 pages long, and while it does clarify some issues, it raises many more questions. 

I would suggest that ISAF try and simplify this rule, and then put the enforcement back into the hands of the competitors, where is ultimately belongs.

TANK TALK - FALL 2003