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Royal Ocean Racing Club's Cowes - Madeira Race preview

BYM Sailing News - 58 min 34 sec ago
Course: Casquets (P), Ushant (P), Ponta de Sâo Lourenço (S), Quinta do Lorde. Approximately 1,480 miles The Cowes to Madeira Yacht Race organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club is certain to provide some challenging and spectacular ocean sailing ...

Royal Ocean Racing Club's La Rochelle Race preview

BYM Sailing News - 1 hour 9 sec ago
Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club with the Société des Régates Rochelaises and the Royal Yacht Squadron. Course: Cowes – Needles Channel –Eddystone (P), Ushant (P), Chaussee de Sein buoy (P), PA buoy - off La Rochelle (P), ...

St. Moritz Match Race: Adam Minoprio & Torvar Mirsky join stop ranked sailors

BYM Sailing News - 1 hour 23 min ago
With the 6th St. Moritz Match Race taking place between 2-7 September, once again the world’s best Match Racers will be on the starting line as eight of the top ten sailors from the ISAF world ranking list have ...

Vendee Globe: Dee Caffari and Aviva Ocean Racing team at Skandia Cowes Week

BYM Sailing News - 1 hour 34 min ago
Dee started Cowes Week with an invitation to the funfair. The British entries in the Vendée Globe were asked along to a photo shoot that placed them in a typically ‘British’ seaside setting and what better place than a ...

La Solitaire du Figaro: Course modification for final leg

BYM Sailing News - 2 hours 9 min ago
 Following the postponement ashore to the start of the third and final leg of La Solitaire du Figaro race this morning, a modification to the course was announced to the skippers this afternoon.   Because of the 40 to ...

Skandia Cowes Week: Louise Morton's Espada lead fleet home

BYM Sailing News - 2 hours 45 min ago
Louise Morton and her super-hot girls team on the 1980-built Farr-designed Quarter Tonner Espada have had an amazing week. They started off with two seconds on the first two days and things just got better and better from then ...

Skandia Cowes Week: Louise Morton's Espada lead fleet home

BYM Sailing News - 2 hours 47 min ago
Louise Morton and her super-hot girls team on the 1980-built Farr-designed Quarter Tonner Espada have had an amazing week. They started off with two seconds on the first two days and things just got better and better from then ...

Volvo Ocean Race: Green Dragon leaves Cork on 2000 mile qualifying passage

BYM Sailing News - 3 hours 19 min ago
The Green Dragon Volvo Open 70 set off for her mandatory 2000-mile Volvo Ocean Race qualification passage from her base in Cork this morning (08/08/08). The boat, which is sailing with a crew of 13, will head south to ...

Bermuda & Norway: Dockwise receives contracts for transportation of large semi submersible drilling rig

BYM Sailing News - 3 hours 39 min ago
Dockwise Ltd. announces that two new contracts have been awarded to its subsidiary Dockwise Shipping for the transportation of one of the largest semi submersible drilling rigs and various floating equipment. Dockwise Shipping will transport the new build 6th ...

Olympic Games: Six Sailors amongst flagbearers at Beijing Opening Ceremony

BYM Sailing News - 4 hours 8 min ago
Six sailors will feature amongst the 204 flagbearers participating in the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. The International Olympic Committee announced the list of the flagbearers for the 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) shortly before ...

Simrad OneStar 2008: Simen Lovgren and Kjell Ulrik Sandvig win first leg in Norway

BYM Sailing News - 6 hours 39 min ago
The first leg of the solo regatta Simrad OneStar in Norway got off to a fresh and wet start this week. A rough and confused sea sent some of the sailors in to a state of seasickness, but most ...

Olympic Games: Finns and Ynglings practice racing abandoned

BYM Sailing News - 7 hours 56 min ago
  The British Yngling team was first to the hoist after practice racing was abandoned at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre on Thursday. Sarah AYTON, Sarah WEBB, and Pippa WILSON (GBR) are favoured to win gold in the Women’s Keelboat –Yngling ...

Olympic Games: Teams under starter's orders, but GB Finn and Yngling sailors keeping cool

BYM Sailing News - 8 hours 19 min ago
The countdown clock has reached zero days to go, and the 2008 Olympic Games gets underway with the Opening Ceremony at 2008hrs in Beijing tonight. For Team GB’s sailors competing out in Qingdao, this marks the culmination of their ...

Skandia Cowes Week: Polish Naval hydrographic survey ship, ORP Heweliusz, visits Isle of Wight

BYM Sailing News - 8 hours 35 min ago
Visitors to Skandia Cowes Week will undoubtedly have seen the grey Naval ship moored in the Central Solent during the week. She is in fact the ORP Heweliusz, hydrographic survey ship from the Polish Navy. According to Geoff Banks ...

Skandia Cowes Week: Chris Tibbs forecasts light winds and rain

BYM Sailing News - 8 hours 38 min ago
  Today could be one of the lightest days we've seen so far at this year's Skandia Cowes Week. According to weather expert Chris Tibbs a west to north-westerly air stream with a band of showers will cross southern England this ...

Olympic Games: Ben Ainslie aims for second Finn Gold

BYM Sailing News - 10 hours 34 sec ago
  Unbeaten in the Finn since 2004 Ben Ainslie talks to Robert Deaves about his preparation for the Olympic Games, the competition he is faced with and his thoughts on the future. Without doubt Ben Ainslie (GBR) is one ...

USA Olympic sailors, John Dane III and Austin Sperry, to appear on Today Show

BYM Sailing News - 10 hours 29 min ago
  Olympic sailors John Dane III and Austin Sperry were taped for the Today Show late last night in Beijing, and are slated to air on NBC the morning of Friday, August 8 pending breaking news. Please check your ...

3 Boat Lengths in the 2009-12 Rulebook

Live Sail Die - August 8, 2008 - 00:16

One of the bigger changes in the new rule book are the changes to the mark room zone rules.

The previously blury 2 boat lengths is now a more solid 3 boat lengths. Here’s the new definition of a zone:

Zone: The area around a mark within a distance of three hull lengths of the boat nearer to it. A boat is in the zone when any part of her hull is in the zone.

I had someone ask me the other week how I thought 3 boat lengths would change the tactics in Team Racing. The short and long answer is that it won’t. The new Appendix D changes the definition back to 2 boat lengths…

D1.1(a) In the definition Zone the distance is changed to two hull lengths.

There will be a small change in the rules effect on Team Racing. One of the reasons behind changing 2 boats lengths to 3 was to seek to clear up a lot of the confusion with the hazy distance that was two boat lengths in the 2005-08 rules.

Rule 18.1 previously stated that Rule 18 applied when the boats began to round or pass the obstruction. This meant that in heavy winds and/or with spinnakers, the distance could be 3 or 4 boat lengths. At times it was a judgement call on the behalf of the competitor, judge or umpire.

No more! In the new rules the zone is fixed by the definition, so the zone in Team Racing is now always 2 boat lengths, not when the boats are “about to round or pass”. This should seek to clear up the confusion around when mark room begins to apply and make it easier on competitors and umpires alike.

Jos at Look to Windward also discussed the changes over on his blog

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Scuttlebutt - The Daily Sailing Newsletter (Issue 2656 - August 8, 2008)

Scuttlebutt News - August 7, 2008 - 22:20
SCUTTLEBUTT 2656 - August 8 2008: The latest news in the sport of sailing, letters from the 'buttheads, and the Curmudgeon's Observation.

Scuttlebutt Archives

Scuttlebutt News - August 7, 2008 - 22:20
All back issues of the Scuttlebutt Newsletter are stored on the Scuttlebutt website.