Accident safety board???

[Jim McDonagh [us5214]]

Great Discussion,  I think this was exactly what the proposal was meant to do.  Our European friends are trying to figure out how to make the racing safer after having some serious accidents.  They wanted something in place for this year.

I'm wondering if it would be worth while to put together an accident safety board that could look at the factors involved in collisions, similar to the NTSB.  That way we could find out what the root cause of the collisions are.  We know so many things can happen out on the ice that can cause an accident; it would be nice to separate the fact from fiction so we can address the real problems

A proposal at the annual meeting, something along the lines like..
'I propose that at the request of any member after a collision the IDNIYRA Governing Committee will assemble a  committee to investigate the collision and produce a report for the membership.'

This would not be to assess blame, because it would happen after any protests,  but to be an independent party to interview the witnesses and look at the physical evidence and try to figure out how to prevent a similar collision.

On a side not, I've gotten about 60 ballots back to date, so everybody who's voted please contact your friends and make sure they voted!

thanks,
jim

[DN 805]

I think Jim's suggestion is an excellent and I support the concept of an accident safety board. 

...Jane Pegel

[4695]

Be careful what you wish for...

In my career of sailing and organizing ice sailing events for well over a decade, the vast majority of incidents I've witnessed or seen evidence of are systemic in cause...

-  The large area of ice is sailed upon, (1,000 acres or so) is too large an area to be completely checked for flaws.  Collisions with previously unknown flaws in the ice, holes, cracks, etc. account for the vast majority of property damage and personal injuries I've seen, and, the most perilous condition we all encounter while iceboating.  It seems every major regatta I've competed in has several of these incidents.

-  90 and 180 degree crossings: port starboard crossings always seen on the first beat, and upwind downwind crossings below the first weather mark, (the 1995 DN Worlds in Montreal, where the left side of the course was clearly favored, causing burdened, Starboard, off the wind boats to cross upwind privileged, port tack boats head-on was classic life threatening threat conditions caused by the system). 

Perpetuating these systems, as we see them on the NIA/IDNIYRA official course, at Iceboat speeds is: absolutely absurd; profoundly dangerous; and proves nothing.  I understand that's the way it's always been done, but looking thru my goggles, it's also difficult to find any other rationalization.

Capturing incident facts will quantify at some macro level the nature of the threats we do encounter on thin ice.  As such, I wholeheartedly support Jim's suggestion.

The larger challenge is then to do something that makes this wonderful sport a little bit safer.  There are better and safer ways to test our skills. 

Shorter Courses, and uniform boat direction on the course make for better and safer racing, some of us are in the process proving this. 

Carpe DN

4695

[ROBERT RAST]

We already have a commitee its called the race commitee  and protest commitee.

First of all they need to hear all protest brought before them not only as a rule infraction or did some one fill out the form properly but a opportunity to notify a Sailor that he possibly is sailing in in unsafe manner and could cause serious injury to himself or others.  We know what happens in collisions .I suggest the protest committee report  sometime after a regatta what they believed to be the cause of any collisions or injurys in an objective manner maybe not mentioning the Sailors Names or Numbers for  fear of being drawn and quartered between  2 DN s but rather a dissertation on the sailing rules violated if any or other factors such as visibiity , ice conditions , loss of control,that may bethe cause .etc.
I think we have enough experience on the protest commitee to come up with a satisfactory explanation of events.

My 2 cents
Bob Rast DN1313

[Geoff Sobering]

... a dissertation on the sailing rules violated if any or other factors such as visibiity , ice conditions , loss of control,that may be the cause .etc.

I think we already have one excellent example from the Runner Tracks a couple of years back, Ken Smith's article The Leeward Mark:
Where rules collide and you shouldn't.