Weighing a boat "wet"

Post by **Chairman** » 30 Jan 2004, 16:36

The class rules require the boat to be weighed dry. This makes it awkward to event measure after the start of the first heat. So what about the following?

C.4.2(b) The weight of boat in wet condition excluding wind indicator if used, having been held vertically and drained for 30 seconds ........... minimum 4030 gm.

D.2.2(e) A drain hole or holes, capable of draining all bilge water when the hull is held vertically, shall have a minimum diameter of 5 mm.

rÃ©mi brÃ¨s · Post by **rÃ©mi brÃ¨s** » 30 Jan 2004, 17:47

i'm not sure it helps to keep the IOM rules as simple as possible
an event measurer will need a chronometer to be sure of the time lap, and I know some IOM totally waterproof, with no drain hole, where you just need a little piece of absorbing paper to achieve the perfect drying of the inside
So this boat will be out of rating with its 4000g ?
and how about drying the sails, during rainy races, or with strong wind and waves ?
if an event measurer has some doubts about a "just dryied" boat, he must be allowed to be sure the boat is over 4000 g, maybe after an extra drying
don't you think it's a better way ?
RÃ©mi

Steve Landeau · Post by **Steve Landeau** » 30 Jan 2004, 20:41

I don't think anyone can actually determine how much a wet boat will weigh. I'm sure mine won't be over 4030 though. I think leaving it at 4k is fine. If someone is going to cheat, it would likely still be under 4k even when wet.
I don't usually put a drain hole in my boat, unless it leaks. Some boats don't leak a single drop, and they should not be required to drill an unnecessary hole in their boat.

Post by **Chairman** » 30 Jan 2004, 21:27

I don't usually put a drain hole in my boat, unless it leaks

I know some IOM totally waterproof, with no drain hole

Man, I'd love to have your boats! I mess about with my boat so much and drill holes everywhere...

Steve Landeau · Post by **Steve Landeau** » 30 Jan 2004, 23:51

Chairman wrote: Man, I'd love to have your boats! I mess about with my boat so much and drill holes everywhere...

When I was in Fleetwood I had breakfast with Graham and a few others. We talked about, among other things "dry" boats. He mentioned he never intended for his boats to be "dry". We both had positive comments on how well the Aussies (Byerley and Cameron that I have directly experienced) have achieved this goal. Makes it tough on the rest of us in competition to sell hulls if they are not completely dry.

Roy Thompson · Post by **Roy Thompson** » 31 Jan 2004, 10:50

I agree with Steve's comments in that we can't measure during competition how wet a wet boat is (especially re sails etc.)

Maybe we need to simply say the boat 'needs to be as dry as reasonbly possible'.

Obviously, any bilge water shoud be removed -but timing 30secs, thru a min. diam. hole of 5mm shouldn't be necessary.

Event measurers could/should have towels/cloths/tissue available to help the competitor dry the sails and hull as well as possible.
In the end there still may be a few grams of water, I don't know if it will be 2 or 10 (I'll try to find out this weekend if possible), but that's not going to make any real difference I hope.

Steve Landeau · Post by **Steve Landeau** » 31 Jan 2004, 17:11

VCmeasurement wrote: I don't know if it will be 2 or 10 (I'll try to find out this weekend if possible), but that's not going to make any real difference I hope.

Even between 2 and 10 is not going to help. 2 to 10 sounds about right for a wet boat that has been dried. If it were weighed and came in a 3997, then the boat would be illegal (obviously), but if it weighed in right at 4k, are you going to assume the boat is underweight? I hope not. It very well could be that they did a fine job drying it.

I don't think we should be going down this road of wieghing wet boats. In a large event, you will sit for a couple hours before your next race, giving plenty of time to pick a boat, dry it completely, and weigh it in before it's next heat. Besides, sailing is supposed to be one of the most honest, self policing sports ever. I've never known a skipper to deliberately break a rule for personal gain. I think we need to continue that spirit.

ralph kelley · Post by **ralph kelley** » 31 Jan 2004, 23:11

I thought that this would be an alternative to weighing all the craft before the event and (apparently) being concerned that somebody was cheating and sailing a light boat after formal event measurement.

Adopting this approach could speed up the Event measurement process since this task would not have to be done prior to the first race for all contestants, but only for, say, the final top five finishers at the end of the event.

It is not uncommon to measure the top finishers at the conclusion of a competitive event to see that they comply with the rules.

Using this concept, I would not expect any weight measurement to be taken during an event, but only at the conclusion. There would be no regatta holdup that Steve was concerned about.

Other postings have put forth the need for owners to be sure their craft meets all Rules, that owners have the burden for meeting the Rules (as opposed to a measurement team). This approach would put pressure on everyone who thought they would be a contender to be sure they came in at the minimum, or above. (Conversely, those who thought they would not contenders might not worry about their overall weight, so they might be sailing either underweight or unnecessarally overweight, something that is probably not a good position forthe class to take.)

Just a concept that we can consider.

Ralph

IOMICA Forum

Weighing a boat "wet"

Weighing a boat "wet"

is a waterproof boat out of rating ?