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2005-06-26 00:48:50
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The sun shines, I have an 8 knots breeze and whales playing around the boat. I am on my way to my beloved Sao Jorge where Rini waits for me. I was lucky to take some work with me as editor of Elseviers Handbook of Philosophy of Information so I am sitting in the shade editing essays by of some of the best minds on our planet. What more can you get out of life!
I have been thinking about what happened the last week and I have come to some conclusions. First of all the race committee should never have bent the rules in order to let Mollymawk make a restart. Consequently they should not have allowed me to make a restart. I am certain the other competitors would have taken the opportunity to make a restart, had they known about this new interpretation of the concept of outside assistance (I actually phoned Michel Kleinjans and left a voice mail stating as much, because I thought it would be unfair to deny him this opportunity.) Maybe I should not have been so eager to make a restart under this debatable interpretation of the rules. Furthermore, after allowing a restart, the committee should not have reversed this decision half way the race. I bet they have been hoping that I would retire out of my own account and really got worried when this did not happen even after I damaged my mainsail. Finally, they should not have acted like I was not restarted at all, when they decided to kick me out of the race. That last one was really malicious. Amongst other things it implied that I had been sailing uninsured without knowing it. The legal consequences of this action could have been enormous.
All this characterizes the race committee for what they are: a bunch of amateurs. But then again, we are all amateurs and we should be glad that there are still amateurs around that are willing to organize races like this. The sailing sport is too dear to me to let it be spoilt by an incident like this, so I decided to forgive them. As far as I am concerned the case is closed. Let's turn to the future. In August I will be back in Plymouth. I invite the committee to drink a pint we me and to discuss the matter. Let's see to it that thing like this happen never again!
Cheers,
Pieter
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