Hi everyone,

As the new season starts it a great time to reflect on how fairly each and every one of us sail.

The answer is that 99% of ILCA sailors play fair 99% of the time, and that fantastic. Thanks to everyone who respects their fellow sailors, plays fair and plays by the rules. It's great that ILCA is blessed with such a great bunch of fair sailors.

There are of course times when we have a momentary lapse, and either forget the rules or forget that if we have forgotten the rules, or that dammed weather mark just jumped up by itself and hit us, we should take the initiative and do our turn/s. Be fair, do the penalty, deal with it then and there and then carry on and set about recovering.

 

Sure it's tempting to think "it's just a club race" or "I did not mean to hit the mark, it was the marks fault", or maybe "I did not really impact their race" or even "there's no judge so that odd extra pump and roll will not get picked up", let alone "well port is pretty close to starboard". 

 

Let's put all the excuses away once and for all. We all know marks are not to be hit. We all know we can't just be pumping, rocking and rolling when we feel like it and really all of us know port should give way, every time. 

 

So let's all play fair 100% of the time. If you do unfortunately infringe you probably know deep down that you have. You normally at least have a pretty dam good idea that you have probably infringed, particularly if someone takes the trouble to hail you about it! It does not matter whether you are a world ranked sailor in a world championship or a casual club racer anywhere. If you think you have had a hiccup, do your turns, feel good about playing the game fairly then carry on. Avoid any ill feeling and know you have done the right thing.

 

Let's all sail by the rules, but at the same time let's not annoy everyone else in the fleet by being a pain and trying to over use (or misuse) every last nuance of the rules to squeeze out the opposition. 

 

So this season let's have 100% of ILCA sailors play fair 100% of the time. Let's all feel good about how we sail, every time we sail, regardless of if we are at the front or back of our fleet; ILCA 4,ILCA 6 or ILCA 7; Youth, Open or Master; Pupuke, Bluff or anywhere in between, or even at a World Champs if we are lucky enough to be there.

 

Sail fair, enjoy sailing fair and let's all be proud of it.

 

Thanks

Nick Page