| U.S.
Ponders No Throwouts For Remaining Trials
By Rich Roberts
US Sailing is considering adopting
the International Sailing Federation's new Olympic
Games system of no throwout races for the remainder
of its Olympic Trials in February and March.
As Americans in five of the 11 classes---men's
and women's 470, men's and women's sailboard and
Laser---were winding up their Trials earlier this
month, ISAF blindsided the world with its surprise
ruling that competitors in all classes must count
all of their races at Athens next August.
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With
ISAF's new Olympic no-throwout rule, aggressive
starts like these 114 Stars in the 2002 Nautica
Star Worlds at Marina del Rey may be a thrill
of the past. Photo by Rich Roberts
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Fred
Hagedorn, chairman of the Olympic Sailing Committee
for US Sailing, said Tuesday, "I am sending
out e-mails to the classes that have had no Trials
yet. I want to take a position that is in concert
with the athletes. I think it's important for us
to listen to the people who are actually playing
the game."
US Sailing's Olympic director, Jonathan
Harley, said, "This is going to throw a whole
new wrinkle into the system. People are going to
sail differently. They’re not going to be
taking chances."
San Diego's Mark Reynolds, who has
been his country's Star class representative in
the last four Olympics, winning two gold medals
and a silver, was glad it's being considered but
confessed to having mixed feelings about it.
"The thing that bothered me
is that they did it so suddenly," Reynolds
said. "I don't think they talked to any sailors."
Hagedorn said, "From a process
perspective, this was horrid. It came out of left
field."
The seeds of the change, Hagedorn
suggested, were planted by ISAF President Paul Henderson
of Canada in what was described as an "emergency
submission" that would have required everyone
to sail the final race.
"A lot of us didn't like it
but we understood what he was up to," Hagedorn
said.
Henderson had said in an editorial
on the ISAF Web site Nov. 18: "The best sailors
always complain about the lack of media coverage.
The media, especially those who do not follow sailing,
have complained that they show up to cover the last
race only to find their national winners sitting
on the shore because they have enough points to
not have to sail."
But beyond that, Henderson also
said: "ISAF feels that the exclusion of the
drop race is a positive direction and will encourage
Fair Sailing [his capitalization, a reference to
Fundamental Rule 2]. The drop race, 720 [penalty
turn], hitting marks has all changed the game and
made the sailors very aggressive and disrespectful
of the rules of the game. No drops makes them sail
more conservatively."
There is little argument with that.
Hagedorn felt that the ISAF Council
was faced with two options, which did not include
the status quo---compel everyone to sail the last
race or institute a no-drop system---and that the
ensuing discussion was that forcing people to sail
"doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
"So then they jumped to a conclusion
that maybe we should just do it this other way.
. . . [and] the U.S. people on the council said
no throwouts are better than the other option. So
they voted in favor of it."
Thus, it makes sense for the remaining
U.S. Trials to conform to the new Olympic system
so the U.S. reps can get used to a different style
of sailing.
Several sailors have said that the
worst part of a no-throwout system is the threat
of disqualification for crossing the starting line
before the signal---a violation called On Course
Side, or OCS for short.
In smaller fleets it's not a serious
problem. Competitors know someone was OCS if there
is a second starting signal and the committee boat
hoists the X flag (white with a blue cross), and
they'll have a fair idea whether it was them. For
fleets with larger boats the race committee also
will call sail numbers of OCS boats by radio.
But in large fleets of small boats
normally without radios, boats that are OCS may
not realize they're OCS, and if they don't return
to restart properly they are disqualified---or,
if they keep sailing they also risk a DSQ.
"That's the biggest problem,"
Reynolds said. "You don't know when you're
on the line."
And playing it safe with a conservative
start can also cost someone the race.
Henderson suggested using on-board
radios to notify violators, but there may not be
time to work out the technology before Athens. Meantime,
as far as media exposure is concerned, he may not
be able to have it both ways.
Hagedorn said, "If ISAF ultimately
makes a decision to keep it the way it is, they
really need to have a pro-active solution to OCSs.
You don't want people not starting on the line.
If part of the issue is press, you want those boats
right on the line when the gun goes off---[and]
you want a way to communicate to someone who is
a foot early."
The U.S. Trials completed so far
were run under the customary system of discarding
a competitor's worst one or two races. A review
of those results indicates that the new system wouldn't
have changed the top of the standings if all races
had been counted.
Veterans Paul Foerster and Kevin
Burnham wouldn't have been able to sit out the last
three of their 16 races in winning the men's 470
slot, and Mark Mendelblatt would have had to sail
the last two of 16 races to hold onto a commanding
lead in the 32-boat Laser fleet.
But, according to Hagedorn, Foerster,
Burnham and Mendelblatt and women's 470 winners
Katie McDowell and Isabelle Kinsolving endorsed
the new no-drop policy.
Would they have sailed more conservatively
if all races had counted? Hard to say---but they
probably wouldn't have sailed more aggressively.
U.S. Trials remaining are for the
Yngling, Europe, Finn, 49er and Tornado classes
in February, concluding with the Stars in March.
All will be in Florida.
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