Sailboat Races

The weekly regatta series continues on Sunday in Hollywood at 2PM.

We have some newer skippers that are looking promising in our LEARN TO SAIL events. You better not get too rusty or they might keelhaul you. Come on out and help us kick off a great winter of 70 degree racing in beautiful Hollywood!

Then stay for the LEARN TO SAIL event at 3pm.

PHOTO CAPTION: A practice race at last week's LEARN TO SAIL class.

pretty please?

I'll remind Mark about this Pixel, he's been pretty busy.

Hollywood (Nov. 13, 2005) -- Pixeleen Mistral prevailed in a season low turn out to be our top skipper last week. Seen regularly in Hollywood practicing her sailing, she showed what practice and consistency can accomplish. New skippers Faykin Odets and Chase Speculaas continue to make strong showings and are on the verge of replacing a lot of SYC members as backbone racers.

Regatta Results

1. Pixeleen Mistral 3.50
2. MarkTwain White 8.00
3. Faykin Odets 8.75
4. Chase Speculaas 10.00
5. Neal Nomad 14.00

Race 1

SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 1: Pixeleen Mistral - +00:06:17
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 2: MarkTwain White - +00:06:48
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 3: Chase Speculaas - +00:07:20
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 4: Neal Nomad - +00:07:57
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 5: Faykin Odets - +00:07:59

Race 2

SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 1: Pixeleen Mistral - +00:06:04
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 2: MarkTwain White - +00:06:19
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 3: Faykin Odets - +00:06:19
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 4: Chase Speculaas - +00:06:20
Neal Nomad DNF

Race 3
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 1: Faykin Odets - +00:06:25
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 2: Pixeleen Mistral - +00:06:29
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 3: Chase Speculaas - +00:06:55
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 4: MarkTwain White - +00:07:00
Neal Nomad DNS

Eloise suggested that this might be something others would be interested
in, so I'm posting it to a larger audience, partly to get SL sailors to think
hard about how they approach bouys in races... and to raise the general
level of ROW awareness. This is a scenario that illustrates why you
might not want to approach the windward mark on port, or be careful
if you do.

The scenario description and the questions are mine. The answers are from
Eloise. We are discussing some fine points of right of way here, and beginners
should not worry too much about this, other than the take away the idea that
you need to be careful on port tack and about tacking close to other boats.

------------------
Boat A and boat B are approaching the windward bouy from
opposite sides of the course. Boat A is on starboard
and can just clear the mark without altering course or tacking.
Boat B is slightly to windward of A and appropaching the bouy on
port tack. Boat B is in the process of tacking onto starboard
in front of boat A. Just before boat B complete's its tack and
is on the same heading as A (i.e. close hauled on starboard),
boat A hits boat B's rear quarter.

Boat A claims B has fouled (tacking too close).
Boat B claims that they needed bouy room and an overlap existed.

Questions:

Q: In SL racing, is there bouy room?

A: In the standard ROW rules in SL there is no requirement to give room for obstructions. Mark uses rule 19 as well, which I have discussed below.

Q: Boat B did not ask for room, but claimed they needed it after A called a protest. Do we require a hail asking for room before it is granted?

A: No, hailing for room is a courtesy. This is different to RL, but pretty well established in the context of racing in SL - it can be hard to sail and type at the same time, espcially when manoeuvering.

Q: Can a port tack boat that tacks close to a mark but has not completed
the tack onto starboard claim room at the windward mark in the absence of
any obstructions?

A: Without the mark being there B had no rights - rule 13 applies to them and specifically says they've got no ROW rights. Several of commentaries say that rule 13 continues to apply (as you would imagine it should since it makes no specific mention of marks or otherwise), B loses rights because of their tacking.

Rule 18 which is the rule that should apply to rounding marks specifically only applies to boats coming to a mark from the same side. Even then the rules favour A, in an explanation of them (I found the same in less good English in several places, I've quoted this one because of it's clarity):

At a windward mark to be passed to port, it is now riskier to approach on or
near the port-tack layline than it used to be. When you tack onto starboard
to round the mark, if any part of your tack is made within the two-length
zone, then you must not cause a starboard-tack boat to sail above
close-hauled to avoid you and, if a starboard tacker obtains an inside
overlap on you after your tack, you must give her room to pass between you
and the mark.

Although not entirely relevant to your question it goes on to say:

You are permitted to approach the weather mark on the port layline, but the
new rule suggests that you should be conservative if you encounter a
closehauled starboard-tack boat on the starboard layline. If you're just
crossing the starboard tacker, it's best to tack to windward of her path. If
you can't cross, it's much safer to duck rather than tack to leeward and
then shoot the mark.

After rule 13, rule 18 is clearly the rule IRL to apply here, and it says B is in the wrong.

Rule 19 means that they have room to change course IF both are on the same tack, but not otherwise (overlapped and both approaching the mark requires that if you think about it). The impact was before they were both on the same tack according to how I've read your description, B is not yet on a starboard tack and was turning onto it when the collision occured, so it doesn't apply. In fact the commentaries to rule 19 explicitly state that a mark does not constitute an obstruction at which another boat is required to give you room to tack. Mark has (rightly in my opinion) amended rule 19 to explicitly state sim borders are obstructions, but doesn't mention marks.

Mark has amended rule 19 to say the outside boat must give way to the inside boat to allow it to clear an obstruction. (The rules I am looking at say the leeward boat choses how to cope and the windward boat must adjust to that, but must be giving room to keep clear.) It isn't clear to me that a mark constitutes an obstruction under Mark's amendement, the boat closer to the mark can sail around it and return with only a penalty to time, no risk of running aground or similar.

On that basis, I'm inclined to rule that B fouled A under rule 13 (which we definitely have), and on examination of the further evidence and using the precedent of appealing to other germaine RL rules for tricky situations, B fouled A under rule 18 and rule 19. Further A is NOT required to give B room to manoeuvre.

Pfffft!

OK. I got that out of my system. Grin.

I agree with the interpretations of the rules in the discussion between Pixeleen and Eloise. Although it introduces more of the rulebook than we have tried to bring into SL ROW sailing. For example, in rules discussions regarding overlap in the past we had agreed to not get into formal quesitons of overlap rules. It just keep getting more and more complex instead of easier. The problems we continually encountered when discussing what rules to use is that whatever cutoff point we choose created a hole at that point. The Racing Rules of Sailing are an integrated codex that, along with Cases attempts to close the loop of possible encounters on the water. When you slice rules out of that system, some bleeding will occur. We chose to accept a certain lever of ambiquity in exchange for what we hope is a fairly simple set of rules to learn and follow.

For the most part 99% of the minor number of protests we encounter in SL racing are simple port-starboard violations. There has not been a need to bring in the detailed level of rules lawyering that is found in Pixeleen and Eloise's discussion. In SL we use only FOUR (ok five with Rule 19) of the eighty nine rules and nine appendices to the rules in RL sailboat racing. Nevertheless, given the "facts" as Pixeleen has described them I concur with Eloise's analysis.

However, Pixleen's scenario most likely is based on the third race of our last regatta in which she (boat A) and I (boat B) were approaching the windward mark. The problem I have with Pixeleen's discussion above is that I disagree on the "facts" on which the discussion is premised. The difference is simple and clear cut. From my view at my computer screen both boats were manuevering at the time of contact, neither boat was hard on the wind. And from my view, in that scenario Rule 11 does not apply. Further Rule 13 indicates that boat A, with no rights, should be penalized as it hit boat B.

Because SL isn't precise (precise timing across computers does not always exist) it is very difficult to argue that what you are seeing is the "truth" when the distances and timings are small. Because of this I tend not to call protest when an incident falls in this questionable window of space and time. Its one thing to call P when you are on starboard and clobbered by a port tacker, it is another to determine if a boat has come up hard on the wind when both are at the mark and maneuvering.

I realize that Pixeleen and I disagree as to the "facts". This is why I did not P her, and in the incident on the water did not accept her P of me. True, I called out ROOM which is not entirely accurate but was the best I could do while sailing instead of typing out the above.

What SHOULD have happened was that at the end of the race Pixeleen should have announced that she had an unresolved P registered. Then all of the above could have been debated.

Note to Pixeleen: Yes, you did mention the incident after we were in AD and I was trying to calculate the results. And I did say we should discuss this later. Would that you had IMed me on it later. Not sure just how this will strike new folks we are trying to tell that sailing is FUN. And just for the record, boat B finished last in that race, so one wonders why this public airing?

All the above having been said, let me say for you gentle readers out there that this above "discussion" is not out of the ordinary in serious RL sailboat racing. It happens all the time and the combatants are more likely to go out together and have a beer afterwards as to look up hit men in the yellow pages. So next time you are in AD, Pixeleen, the beer is on me. GRIN.

P.S. If we need to discuss this further, lets do it in AD, not the forum. OK? Pretty please?

The weekly regatta series continues on Sunday in Hollywood at 2PM.

We have some newer skippers that are looking promising in our LEARN TO SAIL events. You better not get too rusty or they might keelhaul you. Then stay for the LEARN TO SAIL event at 3pm.

While there, pop over to the Hollwood Academy of Movies housed in Grauman's Chinese Theater and vote for the next inductee into the Academy's Hall of Fame. The candidates on this ballot are: African Queen, Ben-Hur, Apocalypse Now, The Sound of Music, 2001, The 3rd Man, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Titanic, The Graduate.

I'm not really sure we are doing SL sailing a favor by self-censoring forum discussions because we might scare the new sailors. Too much SL-sailing specific knowledge is slow to propagate when we don't discuss in a community-wide forum. Then the new people wonder why they are at a disadvantage, get frustrated, and give up.

For instance: it took me ages to discover that the sim boundaries in Hollywood can sometimes be your friend. If you hit them at oblique angles (especially when sailing upwind), you can bounce off and can make a faster turn. Judge it wrong and you can end up going backward... so you want to practice this carefully. After I discovered this effect by chance, I started noticing some the fast skippers doing this. This is a good thing to have in your bag of SL sailing tricks.

However, since we treat the sim boundaries as an obstruction, some people give them a wide berth and expect others to do the same, and this can lead to disagreements about the need for room to avoid this particular obstruction. A couple of us discussed that a little during a practice session last night. MarkTwain likes to use the mini-map to judge when he is going to run off the edge of the sim. That works, but you tend to tack sooner than if you look at how the color of the water changes in your main screen. I think Mark also likes to zoom his camera way, way out and I find this distorts the image too much for me to sail right on the edge. Oliphant and I observed that MarkTwain tends to tack away from the sim boundaries a lot sooner than we do, probably because of this. So we may see slightly different things, and we may have different ideas about what is fast. The only way I know to get the whole community up to speed on this sort of thing is this forum.

What makes SL sailing rich content for me is the interplay and evolution of our understanding of how to sail, and the rules we collectively choose to sail under. I hope it does not scare new sailors when I say that you can spend a lot of time exploring these things, and the exploration is part of what makes it fun.



Because I think we all benefit when everyone has the idea of what maneuvors are dicey. I'm willing to explain and discuss for everyone. That's also why I've been helping out with the new sailor classes and telling absolute beginners the sail angles I take around the Hollywood course.



I know Mark wants SL sailing to be very popular and so do I. We just have a minor disagreement about how to get there, just like we approach the sim boundaries a little differently... but if he would buy me a Martini instead of a beer, I might even give him a hug.

Groan. My point was that arguments over details of rules that we dont really invoke in SL sailing can be reinforcing the angst some skippers have felt. I don't think anyone can accuse me of withholding useful information to skippers. Of course this is a wonderful place to discuss and share techniques.


Judging by the number of times i still give a glancing blow to the sim border I find it amusing that you and Oli have been observing me so closely that you think I tack from the edge too soon. GRIN. I think the more salient point you make is about the zoom levels. I do indeed double zoom out (two CNTRL-8s). And that DOES distort. But it is something i have tried to adjust too because I would rather misjudge the edge occasionally than miss seeing a skipper in my peripheral vision bearing down on me. I have noticed that many otherwise skilled skippers can seemingly blindly plow into boats on starboard because they saw them to late to avoid a collision.


I will alert the media. Pixel and I completely agree on something. Grin.



Share those angles with me?



OK. Pixel you win. Martinis are now available in Starboards Yacht Club. The first round is on me. GRIN.

This is really turning into a proper yacht club. We still need waiters, and a some sort of valet service, but it is getting more civilized by the second. I'm stopping by for a drink later tonight. I'll be at the bar wearing pirate boots and swords.
Another approach here is to use a widescreen display. I use a 15 inch Macintosh Powerbook in 1280 x 854 resolution to have better peripheral vision without the optical distortion of the extreme zoom you use.
By adopting a subset of the sailing rules, we end up with a number of ambiguous and confusing on-the-water situations. We then need to bring in more of the rules to deal with those situations. Personally, I think its easier to just bring in all the RL rules, and then state what minor adjustments are needed for SL sailing. Learning more about the rules and how to apply them is part of the fun for me. Maybe I am strange.

Beginners can take comfort in the fact that in both RL and SL sailing, you can easily get by with a basic understanding of about three rules and a willingness to learn. Our problem might be that some potential sailors are not sure they want to learn, and RL sailors dislike getting fouled repeatedly.
Mark, I would be delighted to have you as my pupil for a Sunday Learn-to-Sail session. You steer and I'll tell you the angles as we sail the course. Bring Nber and it will be a party!

OK. I have plied Pixleen with many martinis in SYC this evening. And it worked. Starting with tomorrow's weekly regatta Pixeleen will provide a $2000L cash prize to the top finishing skipper from those that have never won an SLSF regatta. (The two winners of Hollywood's only two No-Row regattas, Online Doesburg and Helen Dayton, are eligible to win the cash prize).

Pixeleen will provide the same prize for the following three weeks as well. Sorry no cash prize repeat winners. One prize per winning skipper over the four weeks.

So all you skippers out there, time to get your bottoms wet and get over to HOLLYWOOD to practice, practice, practice. Then be ready for the starting gun at 2PM tomorrow!

And stay for the 3pm LEARN TO SAIL event as well.

HOLLYWOOD (Nov. 20, 2005) -- Relative newcomer Faykin Odets outclassed the field giving us all and education in fast sailing. Afterwards he unveiled a new teaching system you will be seeing in furture LEARN TO SAIL classes. MarkTwain ran a consistent 2nd. Anohter relative new comer, Chase Speculaas had a strong 3rd place finish.

Faykin took home a $2000L prize for the highest finisher among those skippers that have not won a regatta before. Our thanks to Pixeleen Mistral for providing the cash prize for this and the next three weeks.

Those NOT eligible to win the cash prize next week are: MarkTwain White, Kanker Greenacre, Oliphant Ming, Eloise Pasteur, Pixeleen Mistral, and Faykin Odets. If your name is not listed here, you are a potential winner of next week's 2000L prize for the top finisher among those that have not won a regatta.

Practice up and get yourself out there!

ROW Regatta Final Results

1. Faykin Odets 5.50
2. MarkTwain White 6.00
3. Chase Speculaas 7.75
4. Pixeleen Mistral 10.00
5. Nber Medici 16.00
6. mush Caldera 17.00

Race 1
SLSF Race Start line - SYC: 1: Chase Speculass - +00:06:49
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 2: MarkTwain White - +00:06:54
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 3: Pixeleen Mistral - +00:06:59
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 4: Faykin Odets - +00:07:00
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 5: mush Caldera - +00:08:10
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 6: Nber Medici - +00:08:11

Race 2
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 1: Faykin Odets - +00:06:23
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 2: MarkTwain White - +00:06:27
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 3: Pixeleen Mistral - +00:06:29
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 4: Chase Speculaas - +00:06:49
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 5: Nber Medici - +00:06:56
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 6: mush Caldera - +00:07:24

Race 3
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 1: Faykin Odets - +00:06:10
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 2: MarkTwain White - +00:06:31
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 3: Chase Speculaas - +00:06:52
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 4: Pixeleen Mistral - +00:07:26
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 5: Nber Medici - +00:07:30
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 6: mush Caldera - +00:07:50

Hey folks,

I was sailing with Pixeleen the other day, and she gave me some wonderful tools to deal with the SL sailing interface. Unfortunately, I mis-understood her, and gave away her ingenious ideas to some other sailors. In order to keep the playing field level, I'd like to use this forum to share these ideas with the rest of the sailing community, as Pix requested.

One of the biggest challenges for SL sailing is precise control of the sheet. How can you let the sheet out precisely? Pixeleen's elegant solution can be summed up in one word.

Gestures

create a new gesture
add a chat line
say "sheet 1" in the chat line
map the new gesture to the F2 key

now when you hit F2, you will let the sheet out 1 degree

Same can be done with sheet -1, sheet 2, and sheet -2

A slightly more complex version can be used to place the sheet at a pre-determined postion. In this example, we will bring the sheet to 20 degrees (for tacking)

new gesture
chat line "sheet 90"
chat line "sheet -70"

Ultimately, Pixeleen and I hope that this tool will allow all of us to concentrate on sailing more, and less on how to use the SL interface to sail.

Hope you all enjoy my mistake!

--Faykin Odets

From observing some other sailors for a couple months, don't think that I am the only one who has been using gestures to script some controls. I haven't seen anyone doing the sheet 90/sheet -70 thing, but when SL 1.7 came out I was having a lot of trouble hitting a 20 degree sheet angle, and necessity is the mother of invention. One thing I like about scripting some sheet commands onto the function keys it that it makes SL's sailing interface a two-handed interface. I can pretend that I have one hand on the sheet and the other on the tiller.

I had planned to put together "Pixeleen's Super-Secret Sailing Tips" course, but now I guess I'll just mention them as they come up in on the water. Yes there are some more, mostly having to do with positioning and right of way. My offer to give MarkTwain or anyone else a sailing lesson at sunday's "Learn to Sail" with the angles I try to take around the course still stands. Just ask. I learned a lot riding the course with Faykin earlier this week; he takes different angles than I do, and I believe there is more than one fast way arouind the course.

P.S.

Clever sailors who want to claim room to get around an obstruction might want to make hailing for room a gesture on its very own function key. This also suggests that hailing for room should be a REQUIREMENT rather than a courtesy. You may be busy sailing, but you can manage to hit an F key, I think. I mentioned this to MarkTwain when he, Oliphant and I were sailing a while ago and discussing the difficulty of determining when the other sailor needs room, but I'm not sure Mark agrees with the idea. But now that we are all going to go gesture happy, I am very very unlikely to give way to someone who does not hail for room a couple times.

P.P.S.

Try to limit using the gesture trick since it spams the chat channel, and it will be hard to hear those cries for room at obstructions if the chat looks like this:

sheet 1
sheet -1
sheet -1
sheet -1
sheet 1
sheet 1
sheet 1
sheet 2
sheet 1
sheet -1
sheet 1
sheet -2
sheet 1
sheet 1


- Pixie

Pixeleen,

You are SOOOO smart to have figured this out, and so nice to share it. There will still be differences in performance, of course, among the different sailors for a wide variety of reasons.

I will never hassle you about your Little Critter jokes ever again - well hardly ever )))) you ROCK!

And if Mark doesn't take you up on your offer of angles, I will

See you on the water!

How about if for Tako 3.0 (coming soon, I swear) I add a second llListen() on channel 1, so you guys can make the gestures described below, only on a silent channel?

For example:

Shortcut Key: F2
Steps:
Chat: /1 sheet 90
Chat: /1 sheet -70

This gesture will be heard by the boat, but will not produce any chat spam. All I'll do is add a filter for channel 1 in the listen event, so that all the regular chat commands can be communicated silently (if you so wish).

In addition, once Tako 3.0 comes out, it would be nice if someone made a folder of useful gestures to be handed out at races or lessons. The user will have to activate them to override their regular gestures, then deactivate them after the race.

Not to worry Faykin. I am SURE you misuderstood Pixeleen if you thought she didn't want her information shared with the wider community. Why just the other day on this forum she was chastising me, erroneously, for the thought that I might have suggested that withholding information is a good thing. She said "Too much SL-sailing specific knowledge is slow to propagate when we don't discuss in a community-wide forum."

So rest assured, I am sure Pixeleen wanted this wondeful information shared with us all.

GRIN

I am looking around the room at it looks unanimous to me.

It is of course quite common in RL sailboat racing to call for ROOM when a Rule 12 or Rules 18/19 call for it. And it has never been my position that you should not call for ROOM when you need it. Pixel's mistatement of my position is based on a on-water rapid fire response in the heat of a race. I would be happy to continue the discussion of this matter in world rather than waste space here explaining the situation that led to Pixel's misunderstanding my position.

The first thing I did when programming gestures as suggested above was not to put sheet 1, sheet 2, etc. It was to program STARBOARD, ROOM and COME UP, the most common hails we see in RL sailboat racing. Pixeleen is right. We should all program those hails we feel we would like to be able to use in the heat of a race.

Thanks to Faykin for "misunderstanding" Pixeleen's intent in sharing this techique. And thanks to Pixeleen for this great idea and for her forthcoming "Super Secrets" which I will await with much anticipation. GRIN.

Then let us please, please, please REQUIRE hailing for room before expecting it to be granted just like in the RL sailing rules. You can call for room with one function key keystroke. I think we can all manage that. From my discussion with Eloise, I understood SL rules had been amended to not require hailing for room. Since better technology in the form of gestures addresses the problem of hailing while maneuvering, let's go back to the RL rules. Pretty please?Another hail I think everyone would want is "LET'S TACK?". Here you are suggesting that it would be in everyone's best interest to tack, although no rules require it. An issue that we are finally coming to grips with is that in RL sailboat racing there is a certain amount of boat-to-boat communication (ok, yelling) and not just about who has right of way. Sometimes it is good to remind the other sailor that you may have a common interest in catching the leader instead of continuing a 2-boat scuffle.

I also think "HOLD YOUR COURSE" could be nice to have. Useful for a port tack boat to tell the starboard tack boat that you can get out of the way if they will just keep on a consistent course. This one came to mind when Mush Caldera nailed me in the first race sunday. I was sailing upwind on starboard, and Mush was coming downwind and tried to read my mind about which line I wanted to take. He assumed I would want to go outside (but I was interested in staying close to shore)... the result: boom! Mush gets protested and takes his 360, and I lose a couple places in the race from momentum loss.

More hailing on the course will result in better understanding of the other sailor's intentions. Most of us are never going to love each other, and races are not peaceful but stilll.. what's so funny about a little peace, love, and understanding?

Now that Pixeleen has come up with an easy and elegant way to communicate on the water it makes sense to use the same behaviors in SL racing as in RL racing. Skippers requiring ROOM should hail for it.

The question of making this a REQUIREMENT is a bit sticker. Does a skipper who does not hail lose his rights when he is plowed into the rocks or the sim border by another skipper who just then tacks away? I think hailing for ROOM is a common sense "rule" that we ALL should follow, but if in a protest hearing a skipper says "I did not have to tack because the other skipper never asked me to" I shall give my support to the poor skipper that was bashed into the rocks by the thoughtless skipper.

My resistance to codifing this common sense rule into SL canon is also based on the fact that in an ideal world we would all know all the rules (there are 89 of them). However in SL we have a small enough community of skippers that it isn't practical to divide them into multiple classes with mutliple levels of rules. Since we all have to sail together we need to keep things SOMEWHAT balanced. Thus in the past we all settled on the four basic rules for SLSF regattas (Rules 10,11,12,13). I also include Rule 19 modified in Hollywood because it is needed. Eloise wasn't so sure so I dont think she and Doc included it in their regattas. Therefore, until the community of skippers is large enough to have a decent contingent of skippers willing to sail by ALL the rules, we compromise and keep a minimal set of rules for the less experienced to fret over.

I have to look at this from every skipper's viewpoint. Pixeleen is very vocal about the rules and what not. I am happy for that, we need more discussion and challenges to improve what we do. However, Pixeleen is but one viewpoint. I have had a NUMBER of less experienced skippers tell me one reason they don't sail in the ROW regattas is that they are intimidated even by the four/five rules we use. Imagine if we try to codify the overlap rules and the ROOM rules and... well I think you see where I am going with this.

Until the community grows to the point that we can once again field healthy ROW and No-ROW fleets we will need to sail together and those of us that know more than the four/five rules currently in use should sail by them. So if Pixeleen or a number of other experienced skippers try to barge at the start (more rules here) I shall protest the skipper. On the other hand, if the barging comes from an inexperienced skipper I will not protest but will discuss the situation with the skipper afterwards so that he or she might learn a bit more about the intricacies of this wonderful sport.

A note to those of you that have shared your fears of the ROW rules. I am trying to represent your interests. However we ended up canceling the No-ROW regattas which were designed for you because of poor turn out. So the next time someone tells me they are afraid of sailing with the ROW rules, I will simply ask "what's your point?" If your point is that you would sail without the rules, then you will have to convince me that you will show up for No-ROW regattas.

HOLLYWOOD (Nov. 27, 2005) -- Faykin Odets is a repeat winner in our weekly regatta this week. The most improved performance however was turned in by Nber Medici who jumped up to a 3rd place time. Looks like she's been practicing. Because she and Chase tied for best finish among skippers who have not won a regatta before, she and Chase split the $2000L prize posted for that feat by Pixeleen Mistral. And since neither one prevailed in that catagory alone they are eligible to win the prize next week as well.

Regatta Results

1. Faykin Odets 6.50
2. Pixeleen Mistral 7.75
3t Nber Medici 11.00
__Chase Speculaas 11.00
5. mush Caldera 12.00
6. MarkTwain White 14.00

Race 1

SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: Race Results:
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 1: Faykin Odets - +00:06:29
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 2: Pixeleen Mistral - +00:06:30
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 3: Chase Speculaas - +00:06:45
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 4: Nber Medici - +00:06:50
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 5: mush Caldera - +00:07:03
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 6: MarkTwain White - +00:07:48

Race 2

SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 1: Faykin Odets - +00:06:24
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC 2: MarkTwain White - +00:06:55
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC 3: mush Caldera - +00:07:05
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC 4: Nber Medici - +00:07:08
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC 5: Pixeleen Mistral - +00:07:39
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC 6: Chase Speculaas - +00:07:48

Race 3

SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 1: Pixeleen Mistral - +00:06:29
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 2: Chase Speculaas - +00:06:51
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 3: Nber Medici - +00:07:09
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 4: mush Caldera - +00:07:14
SLSF Race Start Line - SYC: 5: Faykin Odets - +00:07:21
MarkTwain White DNF

Yes, practice helps. But MarkTwain's teaching and coaching helped as well, a LOT. Thanks Mark!

Our weekly ROW Regatta will be tomorrow as usual at 2PM followed by LEARN TO SAIL at 3PM.

THERE WILL BE A VERY SPECIAL PRESENTATION following the regatta tomorow. You will NOT want to miss a showing of Chase Speculaas' WONDERFUL video creation called SAIL ON! Chase has entered this video (filmed at our races and practices) in the upcoming TAKE 5 Video competiton. It is extremely impressive! Don't miss this very special presentation at 3PM between the regatta and LEARN TO SAIL.

Even if you dont sail tomorrow, come for the video.

Also, there is another $2000L up for grabs for the best finishing skipper among those that have not won a regatta in the past.