Western Hemisphere & Orient Sailors Forum

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By Gweneth Crook, Secretary WH&O

The Western Hemisphere & Orient Championship was recently held at Yacht Club Olivos in Argentina. After the races one day all the sailors gathered for a beer and a chance to talk about the Snipe Class. There were many topics that were raised, from opening up the Westerns to having a charter boat program, I am sharing the discussion through Snipe Today so that you have the opportunity to comment. Your input is welcome.

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Western Hemisphere & Orient Championship Sailors Forum

Wednesday, November 21/12

Yacht Club Olivos

Argentina

There was much discussion about many items. Some agreed, some didn’t. I will list the ideas that were brought up below.

1.Maximum 2 races per day, only allow 3 to save the Championship. Add more days if necessary, want the same number of races. Most people have travelled a long way for a Championship and make it a vacation.

2.Change to allow downwind finishes or round leeward mark and finish to windward. (Showed the diagram for Approved Modified Courses from the rulebook)

3.Still have qualification for the Westerns, do not want to make the Championship open. Feel very strongly it will lose prestige. That was agreed to by all.

4.Increase the number of boats from each country for the Westerns to 10. A suggestion was made to sail in flights of 50 boats each if there is a large turnout. Not everyone liked the idea of flights. There is an issue with charter boats that was brought up.

5.Comment made to define what you want for the Worlds. Do not like that the number of boats that qualify for the Worlds is based on number of members. Countries like Argentina qualify only 2 boats but they feel they have many more good sailors that would go if they could. Suggestion was made to increase the minimum number of boats per country to 4.

6.Suggest that the Worlds do a re-allocation like we did at the Westerns. Felt it was fair, and did not favour the countries with more members. When there were extra spots available we put out a call to all countries in the Hemisphere asking if anyone wanted them. In the end Brazil and Argentina were the only countries to take those spots and it worked out well. Suggestion made that there be more allocation for Juniors and Women at major Championships.

7.Felt that Board was making too many changes too quickly without enough input. Not against change but make it a more reasonable pace. (We then reviewed the SCIRA decision making proposal, and it was favourably received. See next item)

8.Suggestion made that there be one top flight sailor on the Board, a World Champion for example. Another suggestion was a Sailors Advisory Committee for the Board, Rules and Technical Committees. Could be made up of World, Western, European, Junior and Women’s Champions for example.

9.Forget banning old sails for the World Masters, modify the Deed of Gift. Felt for some participants that may be the only international regatta they attend. We want to encourage their participation. (As an ISAF Int. class, we are bound by ISAF regulations which means we have to follow World ChampionshipIf we make an exception for one Worlds it is not being consistent. )

10.Try to ensure that all measurers are equal in ability

11.Suggestion made to have a charter boats program, a container with boats that can attend the major Championships, the Worlds, Westerns, and Europeans.

Carol N Cronin

12/07/2012 - 13:13:00

Gwyneth,
Thanks for posting this. Too often great discussions at international events don't get passed along to the rest of the class. And I should know this, but what's the masters' "old sail" ban?

Antonio Bari

12/08/2012 - 16:12:26

To hear from the sailors is always the best background to improve the class rules and regatta management. All the items discussed at the recent WE&O championship were of high relevance. I'll try to answer at my best to all the proposal and suggestion made.

1. 2 races per day. I agree. I'm getting older and older, 2 races are enough. That's why I like master regattas.

2. Allow downwind finishes. No change is need. Courses may be shortened after the second windward leg. Allow short beats to finish after a downwind leg. Just change the DoG of the championships, but I know that this solution is not appreciated worldwide.

3. Actually there is not any proposal (as I know) to change the WE&O DoG. If it works fine as it is, let it as it is.

4. Increase the number of boats for WE&O. Again, I can't see any problem. If the countries involved do agree, just submit a proposal for a change. For sure, any increase in the participants may raise problems for charter boats. Before such a proposal, a study shall be done to avoid charter problems.

5. Worlds entries. A proposal is underway to change the entries in the World Championship. A membership based quota shall remain, but will allow small countries (the large majority of the class) to have more entrants. There will also be the possibility to re allocate the free slots, just as for the WE&O. This is fair and will allow any country to have larger representatives despite a small numbers of members. Let's see what will happen.

6. Re allocation: see above. Larger Junior and Women entries: why not? This could be studied and proposed.

7. The proposed decision making process seems to me a good starting point for the future. It may be better defined, but I believe it will work. Anyway, the present constitution contains a well defined process to follow to approve new rules. Just follow it to avoid any problem.

8. The next world masters will be in 2014. There will still be old jibs in 2 years at a world level competition? Sure?

9. The SCIRA organises world clinics for measurers to ensure the same level of knowledge and ability (the last one at the recent world masters). Also, provides a Measurers' handbook (which is under revision due to the changes in the next rulebook) to any measurer. There is a Rule interpretation page online to help measurer and furnish answer to the most common issues. I am planning to make a video about this, but it takes long time. Maybe next year. Other suggestions to improve the level of measurers are welcome. To name one, organising clinics at national level, which are cheaper and easier to attend.

10. Charter boat program. Great idea. It should be a 40 foot container with at least 9 boats, something like 120k dollars or so. I believe that none of the major builders could afford this right now, we should find a sort of partnership between builders, yacht clubs, event sponsors… needs some investigation.