Nordic ACC Championship 2010
January 12-27
vsk-nordic.com
VSK
SAILING INSTRUCTIONS
1 RULES
1.1 The regatta will be governed by the rules as defined in The Racing Rules of Sailing 2009-2012.
1.2 No national authority prescriptions will apply.
1.3 The VSK regatta simulator software (format and umpire decisions), combined with the VSK Adopted RRS (SI Appendix A) will apply.
1.4 If there is a conflict between languages, the English text will take precedence.
2 IDENTIFICATION
2.1 While racing, boats shall display boat names not to be mistaken from what they are registered with at VSK Nordic (ref the entry list).
3 NOTICES TO COMPETITORS
Notices to competitors will be posted on the front page of VSK Nordic, in the NC forum or by e-mail. It's the responsibility of the participants to track these sources for information, in addition to the SI.
4 CHANGES TO SAILING INSTRUCTIONS
The sailing instructions of the NC may be changed anytime without notice. A change log can be found at the VSK Nordic website, but will not have entries for minor updates, or for changes made before the event begins.
5 FORMAT OF RACING
5.1 The regatta will consist of an opening series and a medal race. The opening series will consist of a qualifying series and a final series.
5.2 For the qualifying series boats will be assigned to fleets A, B, C, D, etc., of, as nearly as possible, equal size and ability. The target fleet size is 20. Initial assignments will be made by a seeding, taken from the NC2009 results. The skippers did not participate in 2009, will be seeded randomly by the Sailwave regatta scoring software.
5.3 (a) In the qualifying series boats will be reassigned to fleets after each day of racing. The reassignment will be on the basis of their ranks in the series, typically as follows:
Rank in series Fleet assignment
First A
(b) Assignments will be based on the ranking available at 12:00 the following race day, regardless of protests or requests for redress not yet decided.
(c) Participants that does not show up for racing without notice, or frequently cause extraordinary lag effects, may not be assigned to fleets in the remaining of the series.
5.4 (a) Twenty boats will be assigned to Gold final-series, on the basis of their ranks in the qualifying-series. The non-qualified boats are not going into silver fleets etc. Finalists who are not present within 21:05 for race F1, will be permanently replaced by reserves who are stand-by, in the order of their ranking.
(b) Any recalculation of qualifying-series ranking after boats have been assigned to final-series fleets will not affect the assignments, except that a redress decision may promote a boat to the Gold final-series.
5.5 All the twenty boats in the Gold final-series will be assigned to compete in the medal race.
6 SCHEDULE OF RACES
6.1 Dates of racing:
1. Tuesday January 12th
2. Wednesday January 13th
3. Tuesday January 19th
4. Wednesday January 20th
5. Tuesday January 26th
6. Wednesday January 27th
6.2 Number of races:
6 race days
2 races per day
12 races in total
The first 8 races (Q1-Q8) are qualifying races
The following 3 races are final-races (F1-F3)
The 12th race is the medal race (M)
6.3 The scheduled time of the VSK pre-start initiation for the first race each day is 21:00 CET. Please be present in advance of the start. The host should normally open the race 10 minutes before start. The second race will be started right after the completion of the first race. The estimated race time for each race day is approximately one hour.
7 THE COURSES
7.1 The courses to be used can be downloaded by clicking this link.
7.2 The 8 courses are assigned the following codes:
Course 1: Baiae
Course 2: Undertow
Course 3: Sail away
Course 4: Balmung
Course 5: Hofud
Course 6: Passim
Course 7: Gungnir
Course 8: Euphoric
7.3 The courses should be used in the different races as described below:
Day 1, Race 1 (Q1): Course 1.
Day 1, Race 2 (Q2): Course 2.
Day 2, Race 1 (Q3): Course 3.
Day 2, Race 2 (Q4): Course 4.
Day 3, Race 1 (Q5): Course 5.
Day 3, Race 2 (Q6): Course 6.
Day 4, Race 1 (Q7): Course 7.
Day 4, Race 2 (Q8): Course 8.
Day 5, Race 1 (F1): Course 2.
Day 5, Race 2 (F2): Course 4.
Day 6, Race 1 (F3): Course 6.
Day 6, Race 2 (M): Course 8.
8 PENALTY SYSTEM
8.1 The penalties are as follows:
· For penalties assigned by VSK: One-Turn Penalty
· For breaches of rules where VSK did not assign any penalty: One-Turn Penalty
· For breaches of rules leading to any kind of penalty assigned by VSK to an innocent boat, of which cannot be cancelled: Two-Turns Penalty
8.2 Penalties assigned by VSK which a participant considers incorrect, do not have to be taken. Such penalties should be requested to be cancelled. Penalties that are requested to be cancelled, must be cancelled (approved). Even for pens the receiver of the request believes are correct. If a participant refuses to cancel a penalty after a request, she may be considered breaking rule 2. If a correct penalty is cancelled, actions should be taken as described in SI article A.3. See also SI article A2.1.3.
9 TIME LIMIT
9.1 Boats failing to finish within 5 minutes after the first boat sails the course and finishes, will be scored Did Not Finish. This changes rules 35, A4 and A5.
10 PROTESTS AND REQUESTS FOR REDRESS
10.1 For each fleet, the protest time limit is 60 minutes after the last boat has finished the last race of the day.
10.2 Protests should be communicated to the protest committee as described in SI Appendix A3.
10.3 The protest committee has the option to survey replays for boats that deliberately break a rule, repeatedly break the rules, attempts to cancel a clearly correct penalty, and situations where a boat has got a significant advantage from breaking a rule, after allowing for the penalty. Such behaviour will lead to disqualification from the race or exclusion from the championship under rule 2 and/or rule 69. There will be no hearing. Only a note from the protest committee will be published.
10.4 Decisions of the protest committee will be posted in the forum. The protest committee will have no obligation to inform the parties in other ways than referring to the time in the replay and the relevant rules.
10.5 If the PC finds that the protested boat without doubt has not broken a rule, then the protestor will be penalized with 1 point, which will be added to her race score.
10.6 There is no appeal option.
11 SCORING
11.1 The opening races are counted for the final series.
11.2 For the qualifying series, rule A4.2 is changed so that the scores are based on the number of boats assigned to the largest fleet. A4.2 is generally changed so that points for DNF equals the number of boats starting in a fleet, and the points for DNS equals the number of boats in a fleet coming to the starting area.
11.3 (a) Except for race scores excluded under instruction 11.4, a boat’s series score for the regatta will be the total of her race scores from the opening series and the medal race.
(b) For the medal race, rule A4.1 is changed so that the points are doubled.
11.4 (a) When fewer than 3 qualifying races have been completed, a boat’s series score will be the total of her race scores.
(b) When from 4 to 7 qualifying races have been completed, a boat’s series score will be the total of her race scores excluding her worst score.
(c) When 8 or more qualifying races have been completed, a boat’s series score will be the total of her race scores excluding her two worst scores.
(d) No scores from the final races or the medal race will be excluded.
11.5 For boats assigned to compete in the medal race, ties in the regatta score are broken by the medal-race score. If this does not solve the tie due to a medal race tie, then the score in the finals should be used to break the ties. This changes rule A8.
11.6 The boats assigned to compete in the medal race will be ranked highest in the regatta.
11.7 A boat assigned to compete in the medal race shall make a genuine effort to start, sail the course and finish. A breach of this instruction will not be grounds for a protest by a boat. This changes rule 60.1(a). The penalty for this breach will be ranking the boat twentieth in the regatta. If there are two such boats, they will be ranked nineteenth and twentieth, in order of their opening-series ranks, etc.
APPENDIX A – VSK Adopted RRS
A1. Modifications and additions to the RRS
A1.1. In the definition Zone the distance is changed to two hull lengths.
A1.2. Rule 14 does not apply for a boat with right of way, or a boat entitled to room or mark-room.
A1.3. Rule 20.1 is changed to ‘When approaching an obstruction, a boat sailing close-hauled or above may hail for room to tack (‘RTT’) and avoid another boat on the same tack. After the boat hails,
(a) she shall give the hailed boat time to respond;
(b) unless an exception in rule 20.3 is met, the hailed boat shall respond either by tacking as soon as possible, or if she is able to, wait until the hailing boat begins her tacking manoeuvre and then giving the hailing boat room to tack and avoid her; and
(c) unless an exception in rule 20.3 is met, when the hailed boat responds, or has been given time to respond, the hailing boat shall tack as soon as possible’
A1.4. Add to rule 20.3: A boat shall not hail before starting. A boat should not hail when the obstruction is a boat sailing on starboard tack on a beat to windward, unless she is clearly ahead of the starboard boat (ie. bow in front). A boat should not hail when the obstruction is a starboard boat on a layline.
A1.5. The sails and boom of the boats should not be taken into account with regards to issues about keeping clear, overlap etc.
A1.6. Information on the ISAF panel indicating status changes with regards to overlap or what tack a boat is on, should be regarded as a correct. However if a boat is reported as clear ahead of the other, while there still is physical overlap, then rule 11 applies.
A1.7. If VSK gives a penalty for a rule that requires contact (11, 12, 15, 16.1 and 18), then it will be considered as contact even if one of the replays show that there was no contact, except if there was extra ordinary lag involved.
A1.8. Add to the definition of mark-room: A boat is sailing to the mark when she is heading 1 boat width to the side of the mark.
A1.9. A penalty turn is completed when it is both accepted by VSK and in accordance with the RRS. One of the two alone is not enough.
A1.10. Boat skins should include sufficient transparency for other competitors to easily be able to see through the sails.
A1.11. Disconnections:
· A participant suffering from early disconnection who return to the race server at least 1 minute before start without spawning, is entitled to a restart, though no more than 1 restart for each skipper.
· A participant not able to start or finish the race due to a connection problem, may request redress.
· If the host completely disconnects after the point of time where there is 1 minute left to the starting signal, the race should be restarted with a new host.
A2. Protest procedure on the water
A2.1 Valid hails for protest
A2.1.1 A competitor may hail for protest by writing "P <boatname>" or "Protest <boatname>" in the race chat as soon as possible after an incident.
A2.1.2 The competitor may shorten the hail for protest by writing "P" or "Protest", if she is an offended part of the situation, with reference to the boat she’s directly involved with.
A2.1.3 A request for a penalty cancellation is to be considered as a valid hail for protest
· against the skipper who requested the cancellation
· and if there was contact; against the skipper of the boat that "gave the penalty"
Any participant in the race or a member of the race organization can file a protest against these boats as described in SI A3, if they find that a rule was broken by any of them in the situation, and no turns were performed accordingly. No “personal” protest hail is required.
Please note that if there has been contact between two boats, then at least one of the boats involved in the situation has broken a rule. If there has been contact, and the protest committee is in doubt of which boat was responsible, the boat that initially got the penalty by the VSK umpire will be considered as the one breaking the rules.
A2.2 Except for protests based on a hail described in A2.1.3, take a screen shot as soon as reasonably possible after the incident. This is evidence of the hail for protest, and is an absolute requirement. For protests under rule 20.1, a screenshot from the moment of the hail must taken.
A2.3 After crossing the finish line, inform the boat if you intend to carry on with the protest (this will speed up the process).
A3. Protest procedure off the water
A3.1 After leaving the water, examine the replay and make sure that you still are convinced that a protest is justified.
A3.2 E-mail the protest to the protest committee within 60 minutes after the last race of the day:
To: protest-2010@vsk-nordic.com
Subject: Protest race <#>, Fleet <A-F>, <your boat name> and <opponent boat name> (change the fields between < and >)
Body: Describe exactly at what time in the replay the situation occurs, and if any pens were assigned by the VSK umpire
Attachments: Include the screenshot showing the protest hail (unless the hail is a cancel request), and if the protest is for rule 20.1 include the screenshot of the hail, and include the replay
(The race/protest committee will forward a copy of the protest to the protested boat)
A3.3 The protested boat should
- if she agrees with the protest after watching the replay and/or communicating with other resources:
Send an e-mail to the protest committee (protest-2010@vsk-nordic.com) informing them that she Retire After Finish
- if she disagrees with the protest and the protest is not withdrawn by the other skipper:
Send an email to the protest committee as soon as possible, with the replay of the race as attachment. (If you don’t send your replay, the protest decision will be based on the replay of another skipper.)
Appendix B: Instructions to all
B1. Try to use locator files for skins, to reduce lag to a minimum.
Ref: The loc-file guide made by Sandy/Camster.
B2. All participants should save replays of all races. The RC or PC may request a copy.
B3. E-mail of group assignments will be sent prior to each race day, with indication of race hosts. In case of an overloaded server, it is not necessary for all to login to the website prior to racing.
B4. Verify that the results published by the RC are correct.
B5. All competitors must run the latest full version of VSK (VSKAC32/VSK5), including relevant patches.
Appendix C: Hosting instructions:
C1. Check the fleet assignments for the day
The boat listed on top of a fleet list is the primary host. The boat listed 2nd is the secondary host, and so on. If the race is not up at 21:00, then the secondary host should open the race.
C2. Set up the race approximately at 20:50
Game name: NC2010 Fleet <A-H > (Enter the code of your fleet)
Password: nc2010
Password for spectator: silence
Max Players: 22
Max Spectators: 5 (or as announced by the RC)
Race mode: Fleet Race
Rules mode: Complete (Auto)
Game Type: Tactical
Ladder mode: Forced
Course selection: In accordance with instruction 7. Leave all settings to default.
C3. Start the race
Start as soon as all boats have entered the server. If boats are missing, wait 5 minutes before the race is started. Do not restart for skippers entering after this time limit, unless they were in the race lobby with problems getting in to the particular race.
C4. After each race
· Save the replay of the race
· Take a screenshot of each page of the scoreboard
· Take note of events not showing on the scoreboard
C5. After a complete race day
As soon as possible, send an e-mail to the race committee
The email should include screenshots of the scoreboards and result files. Save/convert screenshots to png or jpg-format. The relevant result files are automatically saved by VSK in the Results folder. Change the filename of this file so that it easily identifies the race/fleet.
Include any other relevant info about the race. You should not send the replay unless requested to do so.
The results will be presented on vsk-nordic.com as soon as the race committee has received the results from the race hosts.