A friend lost

Francois Jacques has passed away. A sad day. A friend lost.

Francois Jacques

She was such a sweet person. Always willing to listen. Always able to give advice and guidance for a crazy world. Francois in three words: Calm, Caring, Clever. Fare well and fair winds. You will be missed.

Sailing is sailing

Hehe... some people seem to think that virtual sailing is special, and therefore special rules must be applied. In a few very, very (very) special ways that might be true. Just check this post about virtual sailing anomalies. Right. Weird. Very weird in fact. So here's a shot of a real world live "sim border crossing" gone bad:

Crazy spinnaker stunt / forward 360

Wooohooooo... Swimming isn't just for dinghy sailors. Keelers can have their fun with water too. Surfing in a 14 footer is a fantastic feeling. Surfing in a 40 footer is simply amazing. The powers in play, when the boat lifts out of the water and takes off... phew! Surfing in an overpowered keeler is huge fun. Broaching is great fun too, but the look of face of the owner is simply priceless. Words cannot described it. It is somewhat like a fast forward loop through fear, disbelief, despair and awe. Back on topic.. Sailing is sailing!

Cheers...

Congrats to Ben

Congrats to Ben for taking gold in the Olympic Finn. It was a good and spectacular fight, and Jonas even managed to produce a smile at the ceremony. Olympic silver isn't too bad...

Jonas, Ben and Jonathan

However, it is not just about winning. Sometimes it is also about how you win, and what a downer! After being in the lead in ten races, Jonas lost the Gold in the 11th race, the so-called medal race.

Something to think about

Duh! Fact of the matter is, the two top contenders are extremely close in performance. After 11 races Jonas is still ahead on points, so obviously Jonas is the faster sailor of the two. Even with the double points from the medal race, Jonas has 54 and Ben has 58 points. Then the throw away kicks in, and due to the double points from race 11, they end up as equals with 46 points. Now, had they sailed by regular ISAF rules, Jonas would have won by rule A8.1: If there is a series-score tie between two or more boats, each boat’s race scores shall be listed in order of best to worst, and at the first point(s) where there is a difference the tie shall be broken in favour of the boat(s) with the best score(s). No excluded scores shall be used.

Yeah yeah! I hear you... sour grapes and all that. However it is obvious from the scoreboard, that Jonas was the faster, better sailor. Jonas knows, Ben knows, and Jonas knows that Ben knows. That's probably why he smiles after all.

How very strange and sad that the Olympics is no longer about "Faster, stronger, higher"...

Go Jonas, go Jonas

Race nine went well, now onto race ten... gogogo... It is unbearable; Hawk in the lead, still... now on to the medal race after a one day break. Phew.

Allegations

So...
If they protest you for a faulting on course, - say like failing to keep clear, pumping too much or even touching a mark, you can always claim they are being unfair and that they are ganging up on you? Is that a fair allegation to make, or is it really  leaning towards something else: Misconduct.

Is that where sailing is going these days? No matter what they say, produce an angry face and deny everything?

Granted, - I might see this differently provided... certain things, but still... Really?

Still looking good

Absolutely! Still looking good, but Ben's not too bad either. However... this dude...

The Hawk

... is still my favourite, and he is still in the lead.