Michael Moradzadeh, Protest Chair for the Corinthian Yacht Club Midwinter Series, responds to our previous posts:

“Thanks for helping keep discourse alive on local racing. Now that the protest is over and the formal decision has been written up, I feel that I can weigh in a bit.

“As I stated in my earlier mail, I remain very impressed that our sailors continued to display exemplary courtesy and sportsmanship even after a result that may not have been to their liking.

“What happened here, after all was said and done, is that the Race Committee made some decisions in the interest of safety (radar showed what appeared to be a powerful squall line approaching, to intersect the starting area right during the starting period). One may argue with the correctness of the decision, particularly given that the line was weaker than anticipated. Apparently weather remains an inexact science.

“Once a decision was made to respond to the weather by moving things around, of course, a sort of cascade of improvised actions, starting with the moved start line, ensued. The committee's ultimate goal was to salvage a fun and safe race out of the (post-squall) day, and by most reports they were able to do this by, in effect ‘calling an audible.’

“The move of the finish line converted course 21 from an entirely uncontroversial quadrilateral into the opportunity for a different reading of the rules. Of course, that was not foreseen by the committee when they made the move.

“The club is looking at the instructions and procedures relating highlighted by this event to fix them so that racers can focus on things that are important, like sailing and the party between race days.

“What about the 2007 protest that people talked about?

“I was not part of the 2010 Race Committee, but I WAS the PRO and person responsible for drafting the courses for the 2007 MidWinters. In that race, a course from Richardson Bay to Fort Mason included a mid-bay mark (Harding Rock buoy) which lay almost in line with the other two marks. Yes, bad idea. This was demonstrated when Kame Richards, an unusually cerebral sailor, concluded that the string rule required a loop around the middle mark for the string to touch it.

“Kame filed a protest, as I recall. However, a closer reading of the rules, supported by unofficial input from Dave Perry and Dick Rose, made clear that unless a mark is identified as a ‘rounding mark’ the string need not touch it and may pass it. Kame graciously withdrew the protest, of course. This was written up in our e-newsletter sent to around 400 newsletter subscribers. Memories are short and imperfect, however. Not only did many racers misremember the result, but also the race committee, while moving the finish, did not realize that they were remaking history. In their defense, the courses as published, unlike my own, would have been just fine, unconfusing, and a good race.

“Here is the formal result:

http://cyc.org/files/CYCMWString_Rule_Protests.pdf” - Michael Moradzadeh, Protest Chair, CYC MidWinter Regatta

Personally, we had a great time sailing in Sunday’s race, and would have been disappointed to not race at all. To read all of our coverage of January’s installment of the 2010 Corinthian Midwinters, start here.