Course Proposal - Rule Change Proposal - Snipe Class International

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Rules Change – Submitted Proposals

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From Luis Soubie

Summary: Change on race course and speed limits

Affects:

Constitution By-Laws Class Rules

Deed of Gift x Rules of Conduct NoR or SI Template

Other

Objective: Update class courses

Proposal (include current & proposed changed wording- changes to be shown in red):

To replace W-L 5 legs courses for a W-L 4 legs courses, with the finish at the end of the second downwind leg, eliminating the last upwind leg, when 3 races are scheduled for a day.

To eliminate Olimpic course

To set a wind speed of 18 knots, to go from W-L course to triangle course

To allow “ISAF outer “ courses with 2 laps on the outer loop instead of one

To unify the wind limit at 23 knots

Reasons:

1)It is physically impossible to race properly 9 upwind legs of 10 minutes each in one day. Not even Olympic sailors, who train all week at the gym are fit to do it, so we cannot expect that in our fleet of amateur sailors we con do it.
2)Our class during the years kept the W-L 5 legs course and added a 3^rd race a day. A decade ago this major events had 2 races a day and usually 7 races in total.
3)There is many masters, women, juniors and mixed crews, or just amateurs crews in the major regattas. 3 long races a day with 3 upwind legs each is just too much, and even those few who think that can do it, doesn´t enjoy that last race, social events at land suffer and you can see the club empty minutes after the fleet arrived because everybody is so tired . In time, they will stop coming and we will end racing major regattas with the locals and 10 more top sailors
4)No class (that needs hiking) in the world races 9 upwind legs a day
5)If the wind is too strong for a downwind leg, we should go straight to the reach. The Olimpic course solves nothing. Is not one thing and is not the other. If it is to windy to have two downwind legs is also windy for one.
6)Ending the race at the finish of the downwind leg gives the Race committee more time and doesn´t need to go to windward buoy for the finish, nor wait for the whole fleet to come down.
7)Outer course by ISAF, with an additional loop is a good option, and has a first upwind leg that is short, and a reach. Maybe not for major regattas with more than 35 boats, but for smaller fleets is great. And many big events with multi class racing, with maybe 6 to 9 racing courses at the same time and some classes sharing the course, uses the outer course and snipe fleet is not attending because is not a “class course”.
8)Snipe can sail up to 18 knots downwind with not much trouble, even 20. The 16 knots limit, sometimes leads us to sail races with reach with not enough wind, very boring. We should go straight to the triangle course, if not at 18 knots, at 16 knots, but eliminate the pass trough the Olympic course.
9)The wind limit should be one. What is open water? Is Lake Ontario open water? Is Rio? Some “not open water” venues have very strong wave condition, like Buenos Aires or some lakes. 23 knots is a good and safe sailing limit.

15-02Courseproposal_1.pdf

Phil Richmond

04/28/2015 - 19:40:09

I don’t have a problem with SCIRA approving a new 4 leg Windward and Leeward course to its roster, but not to replace the currently utilized 5 leg course. Reasons # 1,2,3 & 4 given for this change are really just a bit silly. I believe that our current time required criteria for conducting a race under the Rules of Conduct for Championships requires a race to be configured to be sailed within the time limit of an hour (60 minutes) to an hour and a quarter (75 minutes). Assuming that this is still so what possible difference would it make if a course had 5 legs or 15 legs as the RC still needs to construct the course to meet the time criteria? If you have a 4 leg course the legs are just going to be longer to accommodate the time requirements, right? I don’t know where the assertion comes from that no class today is sailing 3 races a day with 9 “hiking” legs comes from at all. SCIRA has had no problem for this in our championship sailing that I have heard of at all, or any other class either. But, if you want to reduce the “hiking” time than reduce the required amount of time for a race to, say 45 minutes to an hour and not by giving up a perfectly good course that has served our sailors and the Class well for over 25 years!
Also, while reason # 8 is accurate in stating that 18 knots of wind a snipe may sail a downwind leg OK, it forgets that a hard chine centerboard racing dingy, such as a Snipe, also does quite well on a reach when wind is at or above 14 knots. The boat is actually well designed for this. We make the reach legs tactical by setting the triangle at the equilateral rather than the right triangle used by ISAF and spinnaker classes. The equilateral triangle means that our skippers must make tactical decision as to go high at first and then set the pole to come down or to go low at first with the pole up and then drop it later. Most Snipe sailor live to get good reaching and to reduce reaching to only when the wind is 16 knots or above limits the fun of sailing the boat as well as denying its design. And, obviating our traditional Olympic course, which enjoys both reaching and downwind sailing by only having two courses offered does not comport well with the earlier statement made in reason # 8 that acknowledges that a Snipe can go downwind “with not much trouble” in 18, or even 20 knots of breeze.
Lastly here I do not understand making an issue when there is none on the topic of “open water” differences. Race officers are supposed to be selected because they have considerable local experience in the selected venues. If they can’t figure out what the conditions should call for then get somebody else in to do it. We are also supposed to have a SCIRA Representative at all of these championship events to help guide the PRO through these types of decisions. No, we should Not have one wind limit to fit all occasions for safety. It is for the varying conditions of competitions that we experience regularly that we made the differences in conduct in the first place! Junior sailing and women’s sailing usually require different parameters for conduct. So too, recognizing that wind, temperature and wave conditions can and do effect our management decisions is also important.

Jose C. Alegria

04/29/2015 - 20:23:54

-Only one thing, regarding 15-02 (courseproposal): Nothing against new courses allowed, but I am against 3 races per day ! 2 races per day, as it has always been, is enough. This new fashion "olympic" 3 races model is awful. Specially because of the two waiting periods between races. 4 races over the week-end or 6 in three day events are perfect. Our class motto is "Serious sailing, serious fun.", not "spend the whole day in the wáter, get tired and go to bed".