• Protest Schedule Question
  3 Comments
  Zev Fort Today 06:12
• US Sailing Hearing Decision Forms
  3 Comments
  John Porter Yesterday 19:39
• New Scoring Abbreviations and Case Revisions
  12 Comments
  Mark Townsend Yesterday 18:47
• Consequences if club runs a race when SI states it should be cancelled.
  11 Comments
  John Anderson Yesterday 07:03
• Start Line as (Temporary?) Obstruction
  9 Comments
  Eric Saenger Mon 10:19

• New Scoring Abbreviations and Case Revisions
  All Participating Raceboats In Line (APRIL)
  Christian Hartmann Today 08:22
• Protest Schedule Question
  We need to cover the eventuality of a redress case. If you posted that a case is happening with the 2 parties listed, then the „no fault of their own“ part is activated. They need to give proper reasons why they couldn’t be at the hearing, despite them being on the list.
  Nonetheless after posting the time and place for the hearing you should factor in a discovery timeframe unless the parties are directly informed.
  
  So posting a preliminary hearing schedule without times is most of the times enough to prevent a procedural error. And it is a good service to the competitors if it is posted as early as possible. 
  Hans Cimutta Today 07:58
• Consequences if club runs a race when SI states it should be cancelled.
  John Anderson, I'm not sure that all the detail in your post  Created: Today 18:00 is quite correct for Australian waters.

  
  Firstly, as others have noted, your OP in this thread referred to a sailing instruction referring to a Gale Warning and a Gale Warning actually being in effect.  Actual conditions, or further forecasts are thus irrelevant to your original question.
  
  The Australian BOM provides some absolutely brilliant material on their website. A handy starting point is http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/knowledge-centre/index.shtml
  
  

  • Gale Warnings apply for coastal waters well offshore. During a gale warning event winds in inshore coastal areas very rarely reach or exceed Gale force in the wind records for the day where inshore races are run.

  
  See http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/about/six-things-about-wind-warnings.shtml
  
  Wind warnings including  Strong wind warning, Gale warning, Storm force wind warning, and Hurricane force wind warning may be issued for any Coastal Waters Forecast Area or Local Waters Forecast Area.
  
  These areas for NSW are shown on this map http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/map.shtml
  
  Coastal Waters Areas usually cover 60 to 100nm of coastline and extend for 60nm to seaward.  Local Waters Areas are areas such as bays, harbours and inland waters on which frequent boating activity occurs. In NSW this means Sydney Enclosed Waters, which includes Sydney Harbour, Botany Bay and Pittwater.
  
  Coastal Waters Areas off the NSW coast are roughly speaking a 60nm square.
  
  A Gale Warning or any other wind warning will be in effect when winds in any part of the forecast area are forecast to reach the relevant threshold (34 kts for Gale Force).  So it is correct to say that a Gale Warning may be in force for a particular area when the Gale Force winds are only forecast to be occurring in one corner of the area, while in the opposite corner, significantly different conditions may prevail.
  
  Except where a racing area close to shore or in enclosed waters is actually sheltered by the lee of a landform, there is no reason why winds will be any stronger far offshore than nearer inshore.
  
  If, for example there is a Gale Warning for Sydney Enclosed Waters then Gale force winds may be expected throughout that area.
  
  If there was a Gale Warning for Sydney Coastal Waters, unless there was a very clear detailed forecast, say on MetEye, it would be extremely unwise to rely on the proposition that ' winds in inshore coastal areas [will] very rarely reach or exceed Gale force'.  A Gale Warning is a Gale Warning.
  
  

  • The strong winds that triggered the warning may occur well before the race event window, or well after the race window. Some clubs in Australia specify a clause similar to 'A gale warning applies during the race event period or in the 2 hours prior to or after the Gale Warning period. However, Gale warnings are usually issued at around 4 AM and applied for the rest of that day. It may also be issued the previous day - up to 42 hours in advance. This may change in the future? Gale Warning may be updated every 6 hours.

  
  BOM positively undertakes to update a warning, once issued, every 6 hours after it becomes current:  http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/about/six-things-about-wind-warnings.shtml
  
  The warning indicates the period covered. Marine Wind Warnings are issued as much as 42 hours in advance and are then updated every 6 hours. However, if conditions develop rapidly, warnings can be issued and updated at any time.
  
  

  • The Gale Warning is a Risk Statement not a Forecast and those who take that Risk are forewarned!

  
  I have great difficulty understanding this statement.
  
  A Gale Warning is a warning that, in a certain Forecast Area, winds are forecast to  average from 34 knots and up to 47 knots, during the currency of the warning, that is, from the time the warning becomes current until it is cancelled.
  
  

  • So in my opinion the race should not be run if A Gale Warning is issued for any part of the 24 hours on the day of the race.

  
  You're certainly entitled to your opinion.  In my opinion that statement is unduly prescriptive.  It might be a useful policy to adopt (and publish), if a club wanted to give competitors a degree of certainty about whether or not racing would take place, as would the other SI wordings you mentioned above.
  
  

  •  Forecasts are always unreliable and risky to rely on.

  
  This is a pretty brave statement and quite disrespectful of the highly professional services provided by the BOM.
  
  BOM publishes reliability data:  http://www.bom.gov.au/inside/forecast-accuracy.shtml
  
  87% of next day wind speed forecasts for Coastal Waters are within 5 knots.
  John Allan Today 07:26
• US Sailing Hearing Decision Forms
  A great deal of effort put into these John.  Well polished products.
  
  Personally, I'm not totally in favour of the approach US Sailing has taken (in the decision form and standard wordings), but I'm not bound by US Sailing (MNA) so my opinion is not really relevant.
  
  Well done.
  
  
  
  Benjamin Harding Today 05:56
• Start Line as (Temporary?) Obstruction
  What we do with a lot of success.  Is we run a L/W Course with the Leeward mark as a gate.  That way the Start line is also the leeward gate.  The Start is into the wind around the windward mark and down through the leeward gate, and either a port rounding on the committee boat end or a starboard rounding on the pin end.  Finished by either 2 or 3 laps with a downwind finish through the same Leeward gate.  It has given us many options for ease of setting up, and sailors have some options sailing the race on wich end they want to race the leeward gate.  It also simplifies the SI.
  Anthony Howes Yesterday 15:40

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