RRS 18 change proposals/test rule.

[Steam Flyer]

There's nothing wrong with Rule 18 in theory, except that it rewards the liars. No way way to prove you are inside or outside the zone.

You can often "out" the liars if you have several people with good faith also recounting the incident. THe rare occasions I've chaired a protest hearing, I keep them seperate so they can't hear each other's tales. For the zone, I'll get a racing mark and set it on the lawn, and ask them to walk to a spot where their boat was, relative to the mark. Then measure it. Don't measure it first, that produces bias.

3 boat lengths is a lot further away than most people think it is, from what I have seen.

But getting back to liars... I've had hearings where the less-honest skipper was changing his story as he heard the salient points of the other skipper's recounting of the incident. That's a dead give away.

 

[Reference]

I just lost a protest where we sailed for 2 minutes with inside overlap before reaching the zone.... WITH VIDEO EVIDENCE. But the other skipper made sure his crew all told the EXACT same story (no overlap established until after 3 boat lengths...) He even asked for the Zoom protest to be halted when one of his "remote" witnesses deviated, and the PC allowed it. Unbelievable...

Whereas I asked my witnesses to tell the truth, so their accounts varied slightly based on their perspectives on different parts of the boat, which presumably introduced enough ambiguity.

 

[221J]

I took the test. Now I have two Rule 18's rattling around in my head. I don't need that.

 

[Steam Flyer]

I just lost a protest where we sailed for 2 minutes with inside overlap before reaching the zone.... WITH VIDEO EVIDENCE. But the other skipper made sure his crew all told the EXACT same story (no overlap established until after 3 boat lengths...) He even asked for the Zoom protest to be halted when one of his "remote" witnesses deviated, and the PC allowed it. Unbelievable...

Whereas I asked my witnesses to tell the truth, so their accounts varied slightly based on their perspectives on different parts of the boat, which presumably introduced enough ambiguity.

Ouch. I hate to hear about stuff like that happening. Hopefully Karma has something waiting for this guy.