[J70] F mark confusion

[Terry Foster]

Hi Everyone,

I want to take a moment and talk about the green F Mark and how is it used and the thoughts behind it.   This is a new system, and we are all trying to learn the best way of making the best possible racecourse.

What is an "F" mark?  An F mark is a green buoy below the regular leeward mark or gate that the J70's use as a leeward mark.  The thinking is to give the J70's a separate leeward mark to round, eliminating congestion with other fleets.  As a general rule, but not always, it will be the old Green starting mark.

When do you round the "F" mark?  When you have a course listed with an "F" such as 5F.  This means 5 legs and use the "F" mark as your leeward mark.

When do you NOT round the "F" mark?  When you have a course such as a 4.  There is no "F" in the course destination, so you don't round the "F" mark.

When would we not have an "F" course?  Typically, it would be a BOGO race with a downwind finish.  J70's would have a "4" for the first race.  This means that you would use the gates as a leeward mark and the Green Start/Finish/"F" mark is for staring and finishing.  SO even the green mark is in the water, you only use it for starting and finishing because your course is a 4 not a 4F.

I hope this helps with learning the new system.  We are always trying to improve racing and make it better.  If this doesn't work, we can always go back to rounding with the other fleets.

Please note that the current Sailing instructions don't spell this out very well.  Kevin and I ware working on an amendment that will clarify this better.  It should be published soon.

Please feel free to Email/Call me if you have any comments or questions.

Thanks

Terry Foster
WYC Race Chair
J70 214





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wyc.org/pipermail/j70/attachments/20210525/7db786d3/attachment.html>