WORLD CLASS ???

[DN5355]

They are every difficult to study in animated mode.

[Geoff Sobering]

They are every difficult to study in animated mode.

I used IrfanView to pull apart the animated GIF into individual frames.

Even with that it's hard to understand what happened since it appears the initial impact was just off the right edge of the photo in the first few frames...

[glovejoy]

On the third race of the WC, I started on starboard tack a few boats to windward from US 45.  I tacked before he did and was close to the port layline.   Coming into the windward mark on the first leg of the race, I probably had to duck at least half dozen starboard tackers before finding a spot to tack.  That was tight but not risky or dangerous.  I was to windward one to two boat lengths and aft of US 2000 when the collision occurred.  We were very close to rounding the windward mark at the time.  In the pictures you can see me dragging the remains of US 2000’s bow on my leeward side stay.  To get to the point, I feel that coming in on port tack so tight to the windward mark is extremely dangerous and reckless.  It’s more than a port starboard situation.  Overstanding the layline because of a wind shifted or any other reason is not an excuse.  I did not read anything regarding this except Randy Rogoski’s excellent comment regarding “the key to safe racing” under the Racing and Rules Discussion section regarding darling marks.  Rules need to be enforced with serious penalties and not more complicated formulas or procedures or whether one boat is more dangerous then another.  The damage was done by the time US 3535 became involved.  Any other boat would have caused the same additional damage and injury.

For my part I knew it was a serious collision and I continued racing while I should have stopped and gone back.

Guy Lovejoy
US 4638

[Ken Smith]

So would the use of a darling mark have moved the situation far enough that it would have been avoided?

The group near the lay line coming in on port would have been a hundred yards from the rounding mark, and merging into traffic further away.

What additional problems might the darling mark have caused?

Honestly, besides discussing the addition of darling marks, there is little to change here, other than we all depend on everyone's vigilance.