Dear Iceboaters
The first boats have been out on the Ice in Russia and Finland. Time to get ready. Beside the equipment the sailors have to get ready too. Physically and theoretically. To avoid surprises please study the following lines with care. Only those who pass the test will be allowed to participate in the major European Events from now on.
You all are aware, that the “Right of Way Rules” in Iceboating are deferring a lot from those used in Soft Water sailing!? Are you absolutely sure you know every difference? The last years showed us it is known to evrybody. This led and could lead further to critical situations. Just printing and distributing the rules did not solve the Problem at all. We needed to come up with something that works.
Currently a lot of new Iceboaters are joining, who have been racing on soft water only before. Sometimes they are just applying the known softwater rules to Iceboat Racing. This has to be stopped. We further found out that others, who’ve been sailing ice for quite a while were also not aware of our rules. THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED!
The Riga National secretary meeting decided in September 2014 the following:
Regarding Safety the following immediately applies for the Entry Procedures of all World- and European Championships, when sailed in Europe and the Euro Cup. Details will be announced in the Notice of Race and on this web-site.
Every sailor who wants to register cannot do so without having passed a rule test ahead. The rule test consists of questions regarding the right way rules. If someone fails the test it can be repeated after 60 minutes. If failed again the sailor has to undergo an aural hearing with the protest committee. The Protest Committee will decide whether the sailor understood the rules or not. If the sailor does not succeed he or she cannot participate in the regatta applying.
An online version of the test will be available soon. All National Secretaries should inform their sailors registering for the regatta to study our rules. The test will be presented in English language. Therefore some of the Iceboaters will need help to understand the questions. We recommend that each National Secretary puts a translation onto their own National Web-Site.
Thank you for co-operating!
Sale fast and safe and see you in a couple of weeks!
JoerG-737
It’s great that so many sailors are using the test.
But as we can see, almost 1/3 (31%) have failed the test.
That shows how important it is to deal with the rules.
Thanks to Godie for the great job !
Thanks to Jörg for his courage to pick up that issue and to initialize that test !
Think Ice
Niklas
OE 221