Lake Winnipesaukee Sailing Association, Inc
J80 Fleet 1  Thursday Night Series
2010
Sailing Instructions

Rules:  The races in these series will be governed by the rules as defined in the current Racing Rules of Sailing, which, by definition, include the US Sailing Prescriptions, the ISAF Recognized J/80 Class Rules (available at www.j80.org/rules.php), the notice of race, and these sailing instructions. Please note: The J Jamboree Sailing Instructions, not these instructions, will be in effect for the J-Jamboree dates shown in the schedule, except for the “scoring” section below which will govern scoring for the Spring  series. J-Jamboree sailing instructions will be available at www.j-jamboree.org.

 Entries:  See the Notice of Race for full details on entrance requirements. Information on how to register is available on our website at www.lwsa.org/j80/register

Notices to Competitors: Notices to competitors will be posted on the official notice board located on the Fleet 1 website at (www.lwsa.org/j80/notices, and will be sent to the j80fleet1 email list (see www.lwsa.org/mailman/listinfo/j80fleet1/ to subscribe).

 Changes in Sailing Instructions:  Any change to these sailing instructions will be posted and/or emailed to the j80fleet1 list before 1200EDT on the day it will take effect. 

Signals Made Ashore:  In the event a regatta must be cancelled in advance, the organizing authority will post a cancellation notice on the notice board and send the notice to the j80fleet1 e-mail list before 1200EDT on the regatta day.

In case of bad weather on a regatta day, the Fleet Captain, or his designee, may decide to cancel or delay the start no later than 3:45pm. If cancelling he will email the j80fleet1 list by 3:50pm, and arrange for calls to skippers who have requested phone calls at 3:55pm. If you want a phone call, please be sure to inform the Fleet Captain (Email address available at www.lwsa.org/contact) in advance. In addition notice of the cancellation or delay will be posted on the website at www.lwsa.org/j80/notices 

Succinct email notices will also be sent to the j80fleet1alerts mailing list. This list is expected to mostly consist of fleet members’ pagers and cell-phones. You may subscribe to the alert email list at www.lwsa.org/mailman/listinfo/j80fleet1alerts/

Should the race committee find it necessary to postpone, abandon or use the alternate racing area on a regatta day, they will broadcast a notice to competitors on the VHF radio (Ch 72) no later than 15 minutes prior to the scheduled first warning signal.

Schedule:  The warning signal for the first race will be at 1800EDT on each regatta date unless as noted below..  Subsequent races in a regatta will be held as soon as possible after the end of the previous race.  No race will be started after sunset.  The regatta dates are as follows:

Spring Series

Summer Series

Fall Series

May 20

                             June 24

July 30

                  WYC Race Week

May 29  Wolfeboro Jamboree

                             July 1

August 5

May 30  Wolfeboro Jamboree

                             July 8

                          August 12

June 3

                July 15

August 19

June 10

                             July 22

                         August 26

June 17

                 July 29 

                 WYC Race Week

                         September 2

 

 

 

 

Note: The May 29th & 30th regatta dates will be part of the Wolfeboro Jamboree weekend, Sat. & Sun. at TBD      times. The July 30th regatta will be on a Friday night.  Regattas will commence at 1730EDT for August 12th to September 2nd.

 

Racing Area:  Racing will be held on Lake Winnipesaukee.  The primary racing area will be on the Broads, southwest of Welch Island.  However, the race committee may choose to use Sander’s Bay as an alternative racing area.

Course:   The courses will be windward/leeward. See the diagrams on Attachment #1.  The windward mark will be rounded to port. 

 

Course A: The leeward mark will be a gate, consisting of the race committee boat and a nearby mark located on the opposite side of the race committee boat from the start line. Boats shall sail between the gate marks from the direction of the previous mark and round either gate mark. 

 

Course B: The leeward mark will be the pin end of the start line and shall be rounded to port.

Prior to the warning signal the race committee boat will display on a Course Board, A or B signifying the course to be sailed. The default number of legs shall be four; however the race committee may designate any number of legs by hail or visual signal no later than the warning signal for the next race.  An odd number of legs will mean a windward finish.

Marks:  Marks will be orange cylinders, however, the race committee reserves the right to use whatever marks may be available.  A race committee boat may be used as the replacement of a missing or out of position mark. An RC boat acting as a replacement mark will display flag M and make repetitive sound signals.

The Start: Races will be started by using rule 26 with the warning signal given five minutes before the starting signal.  A J80 Class flag or yellow flag will be used as the warning flag. The starting line will be between a staff displaying an orange flag on a race committee boat and a nearby mark at the port end. A boat starting later than five minutes after its starting signal will be scored Did Not Start.  This changes rule A4.1.

Change of the Position of the Next Mark:  To change the position of the next mark, the race committee will move the original mark (or the finishing line) to a new position.  The change will be signaled before the leading boat has begun the leg, although the mark may not yet be in the new position.  Any mark to be rounded after rounding the moved mark may be relocated without further signaling to maintain course configuration.

The Finish:  The downwind finishing line for Course A will be between a staff displaying an orange flag on a race committee boat and a nearby mark located on the opposite side of the race committee boat from the start line. The downwind finishing line for Course B will be between a staff displaying an orange flag on a race committee boat and a nearby mark. Note: For a downwind finish, this is the start line.

An upwind finishing line for either Course A or B will be between the windward mark and a staff displaying an orange flag on a nearby race committee boat.

In the absence of the race committee, a boat shall take its own finish by noting the boat that finishes previous and subsequent to it as well as the time and report to the race committee as soon as possible.  If there is no longer an established finishing line, a boat shall finish as close to the remaining mark as practicable on a line extending from the required side at a 90 degree angle to the last leg. 

Penalty System:  Rule 44.2 is changed so that the Two-Turn Penalty is replaced by a One-Turn Penalty, which must include one tack and one jibe in the same direction.

Time Limit: If the first boat does not reach the first leeward mark rounding (or finish for a “once around” designated course) within forty five (45) minutes of the start or the first boat to finish does not finish within ninety (90) minutes of the start, the race shall be abandoned. Boats failing to finish within fifteen (15) minutes after the first boat sails the course and finishes will be scored Time Limit Exceeded (TLX) and will be scored one more point than the last finishing boat. The race committee may hail the boat(s) on the radio.  A boat so hailed will be given five minutes to get to the starting area before the warning signal for its next race.  Use of the motor to return to the starting area is encouraged in the interest of expediency and may be used up until one (1) minute before the start as long as the returning boat remains on the course side of the start line.  This changes RRS A4.2

Navigation Lights:  Class rules require a battery and working navigation lights.  Any boats in or near the racing area after sunset must illuminate their navigation lights.  Boats not so illuminating their navigation lights are subject to protest.  Reference rule 48.

Motors:  All boats must carry the class-required outboard motor mounted to the transom at all times.

Boat and Equipment Substitution: Any registered boat that cannot sail on any given race date because the registered boat has damage rendering it unsafe to sail, is undergoing repair “on the hard”, or is “off lake” attending a Class regatta on the following weekend, can race with a substitute boat under the following conditions.

 

Conditions for boat substitution

 

The registered boat shall notify the Race Committee’s designee no less than 24 hours prior to the first warning signal of their intent to race with a substitute boat. The notification shall include: a) the reason for the substitution and b) a declaration from the registered boat attesting that the substituted boat meets all requirements of the series other than the requirements of having a valid Class Association Sticker affixed to its transom, having an owner who is an LWSA member, and having been registered for the series..

 

A substituted boat may be a boat that has been registered for the Series. The registered boat that is used as a substituted boat shall, for herself, receive a DNC or bye per the Scoring paragraph.

 

A substituted boat must race with sails from the registered boat’s inventory, except as provided below.

 

Conditions for sail(s) substitution

 

Any registered boat can use any Class legal sails that it owns during the Series and can exchange them on a day to day basis if desired. Per Class rules, sails cannot be exchanged on any single day of racing.

 
Any registered boat not having any usable sail(s) in its inventory may use a loaned sail (a full set or just one) on any day or multiple days of a Series after notification to the Race Committee’s designee and certification that such sail(s) are Class legal.

 

Any registered boat may use a demo sail (a full set or just one) on any one day of a Series after notification to the Race Committee’s designee and certification that such sail(s) are Class legal.

 

Protests:  The purpose of the One-Turn penalty provision is to reduce or eliminate off-the-water protests.  Adjudication of protests is difficult and inconvenient for all parties, including those disinterested parties who need to assemble to hear the protest.  The following protest protocol will be used:

All protests must be properly initiated.  This includes immediate hail and display of the protest flag, display of the flag at the finish and prompt notification of the race committee prior to the start of the next race.

            Protests must be written on official protest forms available from US Sailing. (available at http://ussailing.org/rules/ussapf2001.pdf) Protests must be mailed to the Fleet Captain postmarked no later than the day after the incident.  Alternatively, a .pdf file of the completed protest form may be emailed to the Fleet Captain whose email address is available at www.lwsa.org/contact no later than 1800EDT hours the day after the incident.  A copy of the protest must also be sent to the protested party(s) on the day after the incident.

            Protest hearings will be held at fleet meetings scheduled for the following dates:

      Spring Series:  June 1 and June 22

      Summer Series:  July 13 and August 3

      Fall Series:  August 17 and September 7

   

The fleet meetings will be held in the classroom at the Lyon’s Den Restaurant in Glendale, NH and will start at 1830EDT.  The protest committee may arrange an alternate time and place.

The parties may agree to an alternate penalty at any time after the race. The penalty will be a scoring penalty equal to one third of the number of the boats competing in the race rounded up to the next whole number. Both parties must sign a letter to the fleet captain informing him of the agreement.

Scoring:  The Low Point Scoring System in Appendix A of the racing rules will be used.

Six races shall constitute a series.  A maximum of eighteen races per series are scheduled.

The first three races of each day or night will be scored.

Each boat’s series score will be the total of all its scores, discarding the worst score if more than six races are held in the series.  The maximum number of discards allowed in a series will be one. This changes rule A2.

The two days of racing at the J-Jamboree will count as two separate days for scoring      purpose. In the J Jamboree where there may be other boats, not registered for the Spring series, finishing ahead of a registered boat, their scores will be omitted for the sake of computing finish position for the registered boats. As an example: If a non Spring series boat finishes in 1st place at a J Jamboree race, that boat’s position will be omitted from calculating finishes for registered Spring series boats. A registered Spring series boat finishing in 2nd place behind this boat would receive one point for the Spring series standings, etc.

A boat that did not come to the starting area, did not start, did not finish, retired after finishing, or was disqualified shall be scored for the finishing place one more than the total number of boats that started or were OCS. This changes rule A4.2 and A.9.

Abandoned races will not be rescheduled unless they are essential to meet the six race minimum requirement for a series.

For a race to count in a series, a minimum of three registered boats intending to race must be in the vicinity of the starting area during one of the regatta’s starting sequences.

Byes: Each boat will be entitled to receive her average score (after 1 discard as described above) for all races of one regatta (night) in which she was scored DNC. Should a boat receive DNC scores in more than one regatta (night), byes will be assigned to the qualifying races of the regatta (night) that will yield the most favorable result for the boat’s series score.

Boats that have not submitted an Owner’s Declaration or paid the fee as stated in the Notice of Race will be scored the same as a boat that did not come to the starting area.

Support Boats: Friends and relatives in non-competing boats should be instructed to keep clear of the racing area and avoid verbal or physical contact with the competitors.

Communication: The race committee will monitor and use VHF channel 72 to communicate with competitors. Note that class rules require a working VHF radio on all boats. For safety and organizational reasons, cell phones are allowed on board but must be off while racing.