A
three day Rule 42 clinic was run by the Finn Class just before the
Silver Cup in Valencia. Around 20 sailors competed at some point
including the Juniors preparing for the week ahead as well as some
seniors who were in Valencia for training. Four
on-the-water sessions were carried out along with de-briefings with
videos from each day with detailed explanations from the judges. The
clinic ended with two umpired medal races to give the sailors some
experience of direct judging and the processes involved.
Corinne
McKenzie (FRA), Executive Director of the Finn Class explained why the
clinic was run and its importance to the sailors. “It was really
interesting and the objective was to teach the Finn sailors how they can
find the limit and sail fairly within the rules. For the judges it was
very promising to see the three of them were judging Rule 42 the same
way. Now we have a lot of work to edit lots of mini-clips on different
Rule 42 actions and post them on the Finn Class website and perhaps for
ISAF race officials for training videos for sailors and judges. These
three days were very beneficial and the sailors came out of it with the
feeling they learned so much. We are trying to do this at least once a
year before a major event.”
The
clinic was managed and run by John Doerr (GBR), who will also be Jury
Chair for the upcoming Silver Cup, starting on Tuesday. He explained his
objectives and what he hoped the sailors and the jury would get out of
the three days. “The most important thing is to get the judges and
the sailors on the same page. Judges don't like giving penalties for
Rule 42, we don't like giving penalties at all, but obviously we have to
look after the guys who sail within the rules and penalise the guys who
break the rules. Rule 42 is quite difficult to know where the line is
between what is OK and what is not OK. So the purpose of the clinic is
to get a common understanding."
On
working with the class. “The Finn class guys are great, especially in a
clinic situation when there are no real penalties, so we can talk to
them and get a much better relationship with them, and I think they
understand when we have done a clinic we are all on the same side, we
just want good sailing, good racing events and fair sailing for
everybody. A clinic really helps that.”
“As
always I learn and going back in my memory to when I was a Finn sailor,
but refreshing is always good, and seeing the new techniques and
exactly how they are sailing the boat is really good. There were a
couple of surprises for the sailors, particularly sailing downwind in
waves. Probably the biggest area of learning was that the amount you can
rock and the amount you can pump has to be consistent with the size of
the waves, and then understanding where the line is for the different
sizes of waves, and that just takes practice.”
Two
of the sailors who took part were Arkadiy Kistanov (RUS) and Nenad
Bugarin (CRO), both favourites for the week ahead. Kistanov said, “Probably
for me the most interesting was some match racing between the boats and
I tried to do a bit more gybing when I was in front.”
Bugarin said, “It
was a great idea to run a clinic and I really improved in that area. We
had great conditions on the water, and the jury was very good so it was
very helpful. I learned about sculling at the start and rocking during
the downwind, and I think these are the most important things.”
The
major focus of the clinic was common start line infringements
(sculling, rocking, crabbing), downwind (unconnected rocking and
pumping) and upwind body movements (torquing, tacking and bouncing). All
those who took part, both sailors and jury, agreed that they learned a
lot through the constant repetition and practice of common infringement
situations. Around four hours of video was taken and over the coming
months this will be edited and post-produced to add to the existing Finn Class Rule 42 Library.
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