PROTEST
KK “That’s a thing of the past in the PWA. You used to be able to protest other sailors before no rules but now you can’t. You can try to protest the course or decisions by the race crew but they rarely are upheld. I’d say it is nearly impossible to win a protest these days. Usually you come up to the protest officer at the notice board and he denies it right there!”
FM “They don’t exist anymore. You can try to protest some things but not very many things. There are no rules. You are not allowed to protest the wind and you can’t protest other sailors on the course so it is very limited. Sailors try, but mostly to no avail!”
BVDS “A what! A what! We don’t have that in the PWA! People try, but it doesn’t really work!”
FR “That is something from the past! It should not exist anymore! It is a waste of time and energy for the racers!”
WIND MINIMUM
KK “That is something the racers discuss all year round. It feels like we are always sailing at the wind minimum, which at the moment is 7 knots. 7 Knots to 10 knots is virtually zero wind for slalom racing. So for wind minimum I’d say it should be higher.”
FM “That is a nice spicy topic. It is a difficult one because we seem to be racing around the wind minimum all the time aside from Fuerteventura. It’s 7 knots but it is a contestable issue because 7 knots in one location might be different to another. It is hard for the race director to make those calls right.”
BVDS “7 Knots! For me, too light! It’s pretty hard to race in that with 8 people at the mark!”
FR “That is something we must have. Otherwise we run races in un-fair conditions! If we raise it to 10-12 knots we will have the same issues anyway. The riders will choose smaller gear and they will complain it is not windy enough – blah, blah blah!”