The recent fuss about the Merlin Rocket that won the SailJuice Global Warm-Up and then had to retire due to having illegal sails reminded me of the controversy around the 49er medal race in the last Olympics.  

When the Danish team broke their mast just half an hour before the final 49er race on that windy, rainy day Qingdao, they rushed ashore in search of a boat to use. They managed to secure the use of the Croatian team's boat, which had not qualified for the final 10. The Croatian boat had gone through none of the measurement checks for that day, but out the Danes went into stormy conditions, to race around the course and worry about the legalities of their hasty actions later.

When I interviewed various 49er sailors from different nations immediately after they came ashore from that epic race, very few gave the Danes a hope in hell of being able to onto their gold medal. However, the international jury decided to vote in favour of the spirit of the competition rather than the letter of the law. It was an extraordinary, and very brave, decision that left the jurors wide open to criticism.

The Spanish sailing federation, who had seen their sailors demoted from gold to silver, and the Italian federation who had seen the Sibello brothers dropped from bronze to leather, were outraged. Only the Germans, who had fallen from silver to bronze, were happy to leave things be. Jan and Hannes Peckolt said that the Danes had been the superior sailors at these Olympics and that the last-minute swap into the Croatian boat did nothing to advantage them.

The Italians and Spanish were not so easily appeased, and took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland. It seemed highly likely that the original decision would be overturned and the Danes would relinquish their gold medal after all. But even the CAS ruled in favour of the Danish, allowing Jonas Warrer and Martin Kirketerp to keep their controversial gold medals. It was a triumph of the spirit of the sport prevailing over the letter of the legislation.

So what does all this have to do with Matt Biggs and Ben Hollis, who put together a great series in their Merlin Rocket at four winter grand prix handicap events? Well, the comparison isn't perfect, but just as in the case of the Danish 49er, there was an argument for letting Matt and Ben retain their victory in the SailJuice series because their sails gave them no material advantage. The Aeroweb technology that went into their experimental sails did not fulfil the Merlin Rocket rules as they stood during the series, although the irony was that as of 1 March this year they did become legal.

Matt and Ben had used the sails during the autumn at a number of events competing against other top Merlin Rockets, and indeed none of the other 25 Merlins competing at the SailJuice events ever raised a complaint against the sailors. In reality, these were the only sailors that were ever going to be materially prejudiced by Matt and Ben's use of the sails - if indeed they were to prove faster. In fact one of the main drivers behind the Aeroweb technology is not so much to make sails that are faster, but which last longer.

To my knowledge, no competitor has since objected to Matt and Ben having used these sails, and Andy Peake, the Musto Skiff sailor who was elevated to the top of the podium after the Merlin sailors' retirement was very reluctant to be acknowledged as the new winner of the series.

That said, does any of this excuse Matt and Ben from having used a set of sails which, according to the Merlin rules, were not strictly legal for racing? To the letter of the law, probably not. And on balance, perhaps their decision to retire was the right one. I would prefer to have seen them retain their series win, but as some have pointed out, what sort of precedent would that set for future events?

Now that this has happened, perhaps people will become more observant about some of the other indiscretions that occur during handicap racing, eg: 

the sailors racing weight-equalised boats, who take out their corrector weight lead and pull their trapeze racks out to max width; 

the 49er with big rig that races to the smaller rig handicap;

the International 14 with T-foil rudder that won the Bloody Mary on an RYA number for a non-foiled 14;

the Thames A Rater that races with trapezes and a spinnaker, when under standard configuration it is equipped with neither.

Which of the above examples which you consider as wilful cheating or just an innocent oversight? Set against these examples, I hope you will agree that Matt and Ben's indiscretion was relatively minor, and that you will join me in disagreeing with those who suggest the Merlin sailors broke every part of Rule 69.

PY movements

I set the SailJuice series up as a bit of fun to get people out on the water in the winter, and I have been surprised to see just how seriously some people take handicap racing. It's quite nice to see that people do get so exercised about handicap competition, although I still can't quite understand why. For years and years, there have been huge imbalances in the PY system, and unless you're racing in a class with a favourable handicap, you stand little chance of being able to win. How can anyone take handicap racing so seriously when such obvious inequities exist? Surely the bigger crime is that these imbalances have been allowed to persist for so long.

So I was delighted to see the big shake-up that RYA technical manager Bas Edmonds started to apply to the Portsmouth Yardstick Scheme last year. As a Musto Skiff sailor, I was less delighted to note that in this year's numbers the Skiff was the biggest loser, with 15 points knocked off its number. Having seen the data from the SailJuice series, I have to concede that the Musto Skiff number did need to move. But I would say that there were far more pressing cases for other ‘bandit' classes that needed to move a good deal more.

The classes that I think are still inadequately shepherded by the RYA system are the development and restricted classes, such as the International 14, the Cherub, the National 12 and the Merlin Rocket. Having spent time with some people who analyse handicap racing data to incredible degrees, I have seen the historical evidence that shows the National 12 and Merlin Rocket have been getting faster by an average of about 1.7 handicap points per year for the past 30 or 40 years. But with the inherent lag in the RYA club returns system, and the fact that there are so many older, slower versions of these boats still competing in weekend club handicap racing, this gives the state-of-the-art latest versions of these boats an unfair leg-up. They always seem to be operating at least 10 to 15 years ahead of the system.

Then again, as Bas and his predecessors at the RYA technical department have always been at pains to point out to the wider sailing community, their Portsmouth Numbers are not meant to be seen as tablets of stone brought down from the mountain. They are meant to be used as a starting point from which clubs can start to work up their own numbers.
 
This being the case, however, I'm not sure how it helps for the RYA to break down their own numbers into different levels of importance, Primary, Secondary, Recorded Numbers, and Experimental. By doing this the implication is that the Primary Yardsticks are indeed set in stone, too important to be tampered with. At the other end of the scale, classes with very limited handicap data such as the Devoti D-1 don't get a number in the system at all. My view is that every new class should start with a number, albeit a difficult number, which over time may change when the historical data starts to kick in. Bearing the huge proliferation of dinghy classes racing in the UK (there were 83 different types represented in the SailJuice series), there is a greater need than ever for a wholly inclusive Yardstick Scheme.

I say all this whilst having great respect for what Bas Edmonds has done over the past two years, and for which the RYA's recently appointed Andy Wibroe will become responsible next year. Just a few days into the job, Andy found himself at the sharp end of the Volvo RYA Dinghy Show, witnessing the hard time that Bas was getting from so many different class representatives. Being tasked with the Portsmouth Yardstick Scheme really is a poisoned chalice, the job for which you will never be thanked, only criticised.

Despite the Musto Skiff having become the undeserving sacrificial lamb (yes, I know, I would say that, wouldn't I!) of the 2011 changes, while other classes have got away scot-free, I've got more faith in the numbers moving in the right direction than ever before. When the numbers eventually start settling into a place where you have a chance of winning a multi-class handicap event regardless of what kind of boat you're sailing, then I might be convinced to join those who already take handicap racing so, so seriously.