Shortening course

When I ran races at my old club, where the number of laps was never fixed in advance for club races, we always used to aim to do the shorten course signal as soon as the boat we were shortening for rounded the last mark - minimised the room for misunderstanding. Difficulties arose since the fleet was mixed - you might have a Spitfire following a Pico and you wanted the Spitfire  to do another lap, but not the Pico. Sometimes we used class flags with the S, but that wasn't always understood, so generally when that happened we had to wait for the Spitfire to cross the line (hopefully well ahead of the Pico) and then signal - not ideal but it generally worked OK for club racing.

Originally posted by piglet Thanks Jim & Rupert,  For my own peace of mind I would like clarification on the RRS/RO manual interpretations.  Has anyone done any recent RO training?

 

Quite neatly and presumably sufficiently authoritatively put in the RYA RM Guide you cited, p51

 SHORTEN COURSE – FLAG ’S’

When this signal is displayed, with two sound signals, the course is shortened. This means that the course which was displayed at the warning signal has one or more legs cut off.   

See also

 

RYA Appeal 2001/6

Rule 28.1, Sailing the Course

Rule 32.2, Shortening or Abandoning After the Start

When a course is shortened, the finishing line is at the line or to the mark that is nearest to the finishing vessel. If the shorten-course signal is made when boats still have to round other marks before they would reach the new finishing line, they shall sail so as to leave those marks on the required side and in the correct order, unless the sailing instructions make some other provision.

 

 

Originally posted by JimC Originally posted by piglet My understanding of shortening has always been:  RO makes the shorten signal BEFORE the 1st boat to be finished rounds the last mark of the course, thus allowing finishing boats to make tactical decisions on their last leg before they start sailing it.   Not true any more. Used to be the case, but now they can put the flag up any time before the lead boat crosses the line.

 

I don't think the rules ever said that.

 

Old (pre 1995) rule 5 covered all of signalling the course (present rule 27.1), abandoning (present rule 32.1) shortening the course (present rule 32.2) and changing a leg (present rule 33).

 

Old rule 5.4( c ) dealt with shortening the course and just referred to the signal being given 'at a rounding mark', while 5.4( b ) for changing a leg, required notice to be given to each yacht before she begins the changed leg.

I've finished races with the lead boat very near the line, but only when the line is either part of the course, or boats are going to be sailing through it on their way to the next mark anyway. Otherwise, I'll always shorten before the last mark. Last night, it was possible to sail up the far bank, missing the ODM by a good 50 yards. Giving the shortening early was the only fair method of truncating the race.

It also gave a chance for those just about to be lapped by the leader to cross just behind, not in front, and so get an average lap time and more time in the pub.

Its what the club have done for the past 40 years or so for pretty much every race that has been run, so even if it isn't in the SIs (I'd have to check) it is certainly expected by the competitors.

Note that rule 32.2 is carefully designed so that if course is shortened in accordance with it (and not some home grown SI), that any boat sailing the full course will automatically pass through the finishing line (as long as the RC doesn't put the finishing boat the wrong side of a rounding mark.