DSC TNR Week 7

Trip dates: 
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Trip length: 
1 day
Type of watercraft: 
Sail

This evening I was back to handling the spinnaker during Thursday Night Racing at the DSC (7th night of 1st series). Unfortunately, we were rammed by another boat in the 2nd race of the evening. Though the other boat did have right of way initially, the skipper of that boat did absolutely nothing to avoid the collision and caused some damage to our boat. We did our penalty turns, while the other boat kept sailing. Under the DSC's SIs, any damage is "serious damage" so even right-of-way boats can be penalized for breaking Rule 14. Unfortunately, at the protest hearing, the committee showed its animosity and bias towards my team by disqualifying us for that race, while taking no disciplinary action whatsoever against the other team. It is for these reasons that (a) no one wants to deal with the hassle of protest hearings and (b) boats suffer so much damage at the DSC. In all my years at the DSC, I have never witnessed such blatant bias (at worst) and complete ignorance of the RRS and SIs (at best). Overall, I give the night a big thumbs down.