National 12

Due to the cancellation of the Inlands Championships at Grafham, it has been decided to combine the Northampton Gill series and Inlands to be held on 6 and 7 November 2010.
The event will also incorporate the Midland Area Junior Championships open to helms under the age of 21 on 1 January 2010.
The notice of race will be available from the Northampton SC website as soon as possible.
Just a reminder....the next Gill series event is on Saturday at Ripon. 

Who is coming out to play? Derek is making the trip from France to compete, so there really is no reason for anyone based on the UK mainland not to be there.
 
Really looking forward to the weekend; 3 months out of a 12 is just too long!!
 
Kevin

The Ginger Pudding will be crossing the Solent so the overseas boats will be there in force. Hope the sun is out to make up for Grapham.
Cheers Dare. N3521

I will be there with Shotgun if I can find a crew, anybody interested?

provided we can get the boat finished off in time, Billy the Hoover will be making its first appearance on the circuit in a while

I will be there with Rosie W.

I won't be there as I am going to play with some powerboats in the eternal hope that I might qualify as a Powerboat Instructor, but will be thinking of you all and praying for good sailing and sunshine!
RM

Nick will be sailing 3436 and I will be back in the Baggy for the first time this year (with Anthony as crew)
Gerald

I will be there racing my own 12 for the first time. Cant wait! :)
See you there
Steve

Hi,
Carbon Paw Print won't be there. If anyone needs a crew for something nice and quick, then let me know as I am available to crew!! (My collection of coloured sailing wear has improved so I can now match even more boats :P)
Naomi

Hi Naomi, I am neither nice nor quick but if you fancy giving a vintage boat a try I am looking for a crew. You can email me on angus3 at tesco dot net or my numbers in the book under beyts

P.S. you need colours that match varnish8)

Sunny times to day at the inlands at Northampton..

Tom Stewart currently holding the overnight lead, but still three races to go tomorrow

2nd taster pic

A few pictures from today -
(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/chris415700/IMG_0287.jpg)
(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/chris415700/IMG_0128.jpg)
(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/chris415700/IMG_0270.jpg)
(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/chris415700/IMG_0201.jpg)

Chris. How many turns were done by how many boats at mark X or are barging encounters going unpunished? Excellent pictures by the way, Chris and Jeremy.
 

a couple more pics

startline

startline 2

tacking action

<div style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; margin: 8px;">That mark rounding photo at post 14 is excellent!  Clearly, Jonno's call for 'room' was not taken all that seriously ...

Mike D
N3533

Quote from: 726Chris. How many turns were done by how many boats at mark X or are barging encounters going unpunished? Excellent pictures by the way, Chris and Jeremy.
 

A grand total of zero.

Congratulations!

Well done Tom Stewart and Rachel Williamson who took the 2010 inland trophy today.


Full results (http://www.northamptonsailingclub.org/results/2010/National12Inlands2010.htm)

Thanks Chris for the information I was hoping not to receive! Having raced for many years under the old rule where you had to retire if you infringed a rule and having witnessed many examples of superb sportsmanship from some of the country's best skippers, I had hoped that the penalty turn system might have persuaded competitors that an infringement could be offset without the ultimate penalty of retirement. Presumably in this instance everyone involved took the view that they were not at fault so a multiboat pileup was perfectly acceptable. Congratulations again for the excellent pictures.

A big THANK YOU to Charlotte, her assistant (Tom), and everyone else at Northampton SC for a great weekend. If you weren't there, you definitely missed out!
 
Also, congratualtions to Tom and Rachael for their convincing win, although with a different winner in each race it can't be said they had it all their own way.
 
Kevin

Quote from: 726Thanks Chris for the information I was hoping not to receive! Having raced for many years under the old rule where you had to retire if you infringed a rule and having witnessed many examples of superb sportsmanship from some of the country's best skippers, I had hoped that the penalty turn system might have persuaded competitors that an infringement could be offset without the ultimate penalty of retirement. Presumably in this instance everyone involved took the view that they were not at fault so a multiboat pileup was perfectly acceptable. Congratulations again for the excellent pictures.

Nigel, I'm not sure whether there was actualy any contact between the boats / mark. The picture was taken with a 400mm lens on a crop frame Canon camera (equivalent to a 640mm lens on old fashioned 35mm ). This causes everthing to become compressed and boats to appear closer than they actually were. The following is a picture taken 1.75 seconds later and clearly shows gaps between the boats / marks -

Nigel,
I was just a head of this non incident. I thought I had Jonno (3528) stuffed and gybeing out, but a mighty 30 degree shift saved them and they made it round the mark cleanly.
Tom Stewart

A few more from the weekend -

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/chris415700/acfpics/IMG_0405.jpg)

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/chris415700/acfpics/IMG_0326.jpg)

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/chris415700/acfpics/IMG_0281.jpg)

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/chris415700/acfpics/IMG_0189.jpg)

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p23/chris415700/acfpics/IMG_0114.jpg)

Thanks both Chris and Tom. It is very easy to postulate from the armchair although my years as a Race Officer and being pressed into giving talks on the (pre-1980) rules to sailing colleagues makes me take, sometimes, a slightly jaundiced view of what I see or think I see on the water. Tom's mention of a major wind shift might well explain the apparent pile-up - I have been in that situation many times myself. They used to say that the camera never lies but as you say, Chris, long-focus and telephonto lenses can give a misleading impression. I was, I must confess, more concerned at the apparent touching of booms, boats and backsides among the boats behind the leading boats but the most essential element in all such instances is that the skippers concerned can put their hands on their hearts and say "I was not at fault"; as I read the rules it is not for those skippers to say who might have been at fault and if all concerned can deny any fault, there can be situations where there is multiple contact and no one accepting responsibility, all perfectly properly.I had a spell of radio sailing (Marbleheads, 6 Metres and l Metres) where the same penalty turn arrangements apply. The system works extremely well in radio racing because these boats (particularly the l Metres)can turn on a sixpence (old money!) and do even two turns extremely quickly. Two turns in a N12 in a stiff breeze with mandatory gybes included can quickly knock you so far out of contention  that it might be tempting to continue if no one has called "protest", particularly if you have any doubt as to whether you were in the wrong anyway. We are extremely fortunate that our sport is largely self-regulating and I am sure that all those who teach incomers to sail and race emphasise this priceless feature. Prior to the penalty turn system being introduced, there was, in the more competitive fleets, something approaching anarchy and I think I am right in saying that the penalty turn was introduced to encourage the self-regulating element of the sport and remove the somewhat drastic requirement of retiral for the slighest rule infringement. As a final shot, might I say that I hope to be at some of next year's N12 open meetings with my new Paradigm 2 and I know that I had better be on my best behaviour when racing among any who read these comments!

I was just thinking how man people had done turns at the weekend.  Near to where I was in the fleet i saw these helms...
Myself (tacked in Jo Richards' water)
Jo Richards - 10 minutes later, big pile up at a mark, but not the one in the picture!
Andy McKee - hit a mark - plain stupid, frankly!
Graham Camm - mark rounding incident
I did not hear much shouting at anyone, it was all very good humoured.
Anyone else got some turns to report?
Finally, thanks again to all involved in organising.  Well done to Tom and Rachel for the Inlands, Jonno & Char for the Gill Series, Arthur and Mary Henderson and Chris Day / Sophie Richards for winning their first races at the Inlands, and to Rosie for putting up with me...

Oh, and great pictures too.  Thanks!

We did turns - port and starboard with Gerry and Liz before one of the starts.
Kevin

We did turns at the start of race three on Saturday - we hit Gerry and Lis just before the start.  Our fault - hence some spins and the last boat to cross the start line!

Yep I can admit the plane stupid bit, not the only time round that mark too.
What did concern me was the mark roundings, and not just the ones in the pictures.
The rules are quite clear in the point of onus over water. If you are trying to gain a late overlap, you have to be able to prove it and therefore should go around the outside if someone calls no water, just as when you are trying to break an established overlap, you have to be able to prove that you did. Except when we have had on the water umpiring, I have never seen anyone win these protests when it has been touch and go, and I have sat on a lot of committees. (you need two perfectly placed witnesses)
We are generally a very well behaved class, which is why I sail a 12.
My advice is to anyone is to think about the onus, and yield, as even if you did get or break the overlap just as you entered the zone, you will not win in the room, dont push it.
Andy

Just being pedantic... but under the new rules... there is no phrase  with the rules about 'water or no water' so technically calling these phrases is worthless!
 
You should however be using the phrase 'room or no room' instead.
 
A technicality I know but under the rules water does not exist!

Jeremy. You have opened something of a hornet's nest. A skipper might require either "room" or "mark room", which are quite different requirements and either might elicit a negative response. Since we may be wearing smart new 75th anniversary ties, we should expect suitably dulcet tones to accompany any request. Now that really would be pedantic! By the way in Bryan Willis' book " The Rules in Practice" there is at least one passing reference to a call for "water" so perhaps the recent rule revisions have not changed well-entrenched practice, even at the highest echelons of the sport.

As this thread appears to have been taken over by a discussion on the rules I thought I would throw in my comments, but first of all before my comments get taken the wrong way I would just like to say that given the wind conditions Richard and his race management team generally did an excellent job and the turn around times on the back to back starts were as short as I can recall. However, as a recipient of one of the Black Flag disqualifications in race 3, I was somewhat dismayed to see on the start of race 4 that the pin end of the line was being moved with just 1 minute 30 seconds to go before the start. Some might say so what there's still plenty of time to get behind the line before the 1 minute and remain there til the start and that might well be true for those who have such good line judgement that they just eye up the line as they approach and know whether they are on the line or not, but for those of us who rely on taking transits before the warning signal and check them at the preparatory signal we are completely buggered. The rule 27.2 states "No later than the preparatory signal, the race committee may move a starting mark."  Now I don't know whether in race 3 this was factor. At the time my transits suggested it was a fair cop and I had just got myself in the wrong place just above some over keen luffers, but now I'm not so sure. Was the line shifted late?
I know the pressure is on the OOD to get the races of quickly, but if the line as set is not good enough just put up the postponement square up the line and go for a new start sequence. I'm sure we can all wait the few minutes extra.
Regards,
Steve Sallis
N3531

Sorry to further the pedantic comments but this has to be said.

Nigelf,
As far as i can see there is no mention of water in the new Rules in practice book, but as im sure you are very aware being an experienced race officer, that you would never follow this book to the letter, as it is only an interpretation of the rules.
From your many talks you have done, I am sure you will of used the "official" rule book, as opposed to an interpretation of them. 
In the "official" rules book, the water rule is gone and it is room now.

theres my rant over anyhow

Sam293. You are quite right, basically, but for better or for worse, we all, competitors, race officers and members of protest committees are obliged to make interpretations of the Rules from time to time. My understanding (and interpretation) for what it is worth, is that the Rules provide an entitlement to the facility but do not say how that facility is to be obtained. In other words, if there were a few magic words which are required to claim your entitlement, the Rules might have provided them.I am not aware of any appeal decisions on this point to date but if anyone can enlighten me I shall be delighted to put their information in my bottom drawer for future use. Interpretations made at the highest level effectively become part of the Rules and the four-yearly review of the Rules have regard to appeal decisions made in the interim. I think we can all agree that racing is much better fun than poring over rules but unfortunately our Rules are complicated, otherwise we would not have so many books on the subject and for most I suspect that the books of explanation on the Rules are as useful as the Rules themselves.
Nigelf

By the way, the passing reference to "water" in Bryan Willis' book is on page 64, but the whole question is much wider than what he was commenting on at that point.
Nigelf