| 2008-09-23 | Andrew Burton | The rules state that if something is not specifically allowed it's banned. You would have to add new gear, that is not in the specs, in order to stow the pole on the boom. Ergo it's illegal. This was addressed by the Tech committee some time ago. |
| 2008-09-25 | Tom Price | The new gear added could be a stiff, vinyl covered wire loop or slice of PVC tube fastened to the boom. Pretty minimal, similar to say, a compass bracket or shroud tube. Fwd end could be clipped to a loop, eye or bail. Benefits are minimizing crew time on deck or manhandling a pole around to leeward of the jib (requires both hands sometimes) and would therefore be safer. It also allows Topping lift and downhaul to remain on pole and always be clear of jib sheets.
Disadvantage is the opportunity for a crew to exact a measure of revenge on skipper while shoving pole aft into boom holder! (crews might consider this an advantage!) |
| 2008-10-23 | andrew Burton | One thing to also consider: How do we stow our mains? Per Chet Proctor's suggestion, I flake mine as it comes down and leave it on the boom. We won't be able to do that or even leave it rolled with rings to stow the pole getting in the way.
As with all rule changes, we have to ask: How will this level the fleet? The answer here is that clearly it won't. The top boats will make the change and the back boats won't, further widening the gap between the front and the back of the pack.
It won't be good for the health of the class. |
| 2008-10-28 | Richard Robbins | There are a number of things that get added to the boat to store the pole. I have seen sleeves, lines and u-bolts on the deck used to gather or fasten the pole. Some boats don't use the shroud to hold the aft end of the pole but use hardware mounted on the deck. (This could be argued to be a safer arrangement.) There also is a small piece of an angle bracket under the deck used to hold the pole when it is stowed away. None of this items are mentioned in the Blue Book so it is hard to differentiate the in-use deck items from boom items. Maybe they are all illegal? We can still make the argument that we don't want to have boats store the pole on the boom but I think we need to do this by adding a prohibition to the rules. |
| 2008-11-13 | Andrew Burton | No prohibition is needed. The rules state that if something is not specifically allowed it's banned.
When you make rules you have to be aware of the law of unintended consequences.
IT'S NOT BROKE, SO QUIT TRYING TO FIX IT! |
| 2008-12-05 | Richard Robbins | On December 4, 2008 the Governing Board affirmed the following interpretation to §IV 8.12: Devices (such as brackets or lines) to store the spinnaker pole on or below deck are optional and may be of any design. Storage of the spinnaker pole on the boom or mast is prohibited. |
