When to cancel a race due to weather?

I am on our race committee as one of the race advisors. I am wondering if any clubs have rules on when to cancel a race. I think some clubs back east have some rules that combine temperature and wind and rain and give points and over so many points, no race. I doubt that we can do that here in SF Bay as it is really never a question of too cold to race but rather too windy. They ran a race last year that should not have been run. The key there was that the evening forecast had 40 knots in it. Everyone missed that because the day forecast looked fine. The wind was actually light at the start so they ran the race but the gusts were over 50 knots and someone lost the end of her finger in a winch and only 3 boats finished, and boats were damaged. The point of the above story is that it is difficult to just use RC judgement based on the conditions at the start as we are kind of behind a hill and the start so depending on the wind direction we can have vastly different weather than the race course and things can change quickly as well. For this reason, I am looking for something objective based on the marine forecast. I am thinking that if the forecast either day or that night has a 40 or above in it, no race. If it has Gail in it, no race. It it has Thunder in it, no race. Maybe the limit should be 35. For those who don't know, typical forecast is 15 to 25 with gusts to... (I don't remember). Today is a good candidate for an automatic cancellation .gale warning in effect through this evening... *Today*..NW winds 15 to 30 kt with gusts up to 40 kt. *Tonight*..NW winds 15 to 25 kt. Gusts up to 30 kt in the evening. Anyone on this list have any insight or opinion on this? Allen

We always leave it up to those racing whether or not to race or not. As soon as you leave it up to the RC then they become liable. If they aren't willing to set a course and sit out there for the length of the race then they can call the race but in the end, it should always be left up to the individual captains. We also say in our race instructions that there has to be at least 3 boats to have a race. That said, if anyone sees lightning we generally call the race. Paul From: Allen Edwards <al… [at] gmail.com> To: Cal_Boats <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> Sent: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 11:20 am Subject: [Cal_Boats] When to cancel a race due to weather? I am on our race committee as one of the race advisors. I am wondering if any clubs have rules on when to cancel a race. I think some clubs back east have some rules that combine temperature and wind and rain and give points and over so many points, no race. I doubt that we can do that here in SF Bay as it is really never a question of too cold to race but rather too windy. They ran a race last year that should not have been run. The key there was that the evening forecast had 40 knots in it. Everyone missed that because the day forecast looked fine. The wind was actually light at the start so they ran the race but the gusts were over 50 knots and someone lost the end of her finger in a winch and only 3 boats finished, and boats were damaged. The point of the above story is that it is difficult to just use RC judgement based on the conditions at the start as we are kind of behind a hill and the start so depending on the wind direction we can have vastly different weather than the race course and things can change quickly as well. For this reason, I am looking for something objective based on the marine forecast. I am thinking that if the forecast either day or that night has a 40 or above in it, no race. If it has Gail in it, no race. It it has Thunder in it, no race. Maybe the limit should be 35. For those who don't know, typical forecast is 15 to 25 with gusts to... (I don't remember). Today is a good candidate for an automatic cancellation .gale warning in effect through this evening... Today..NW winds 15 to 30 kt with gusts up to 40 kt. Tonight..NW winds 15 to 25 kt. Gusts up to 30 kt in the evening. Anyone on this list have any insight or opinion on this? Allen

Yeah, don't want the RC saying it is safe. I just wanted a subjective rule. Everyone read the 3PM NWS forecast and if it has these words in it, race is canceled. Something like that. Allen On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 10:51 AM, <pw… [at] aol.com> wrote: > ** > > > We always leave it up to those racing whether or not to race or not. As > soon as you leave it up to the RC then they become liable. If they aren't > willing to set a course and sit out there for the length of the race then > they can call the race but in the end, it should always be left up to the > individual captains. We also say in our race instructions that there has > to be at least 3 boats to have a race. > > That said, if anyone sees lightning we generally call the race. > > Paul > -----Original Message----- > From: Allen Edwards <al… [at] gmail.com> > To: Cal_Boats <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> > Sent: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 11:20 am > Subject: [Cal_Boats] When to cancel a race due to weather? > > > I am on our race committee as one of the race advisors. I am wondering > if any clubs have rules on when to cancel a race. I think some clubs back > east have some rules that combine temperature and wind and rain and give > points and over so many points, no race. I doubt that we can do that here > in SF Bay as it is really never a question of too cold to race but rather > too windy. They ran a race last year that should not have been run. The > key there was that the evening forecast had 40 knots in it. Everyone > missed that because the day forecast looked fine. The wind was actually > light at the start so they ran the race but the gusts were over 50 knots > and someone lost the end of her finger in a winch and only 3 boats > finished, and boats were damaged. > > The point of the above story is that it is difficult to just use RC > judgement based on the conditions at the start as we are kind of behind a > hill and the start so depending on the wind direction we can have vastly > different weather than the race course and things can change quickly as > well. For this reason, I am looking for something objective based on the > marine forecast. > > I am thinking that if the forecast either day or that night has a 40 or > above in it, no race. If it has Gail in it, no race. It it has Thunder in > it, no race. Maybe the limit should be 35. For those who don't know, > typical forecast is 15 to 25 with gusts to... (I don't remember). > > Today is a good candidate for an automatic cancellation > .gale warning in effect through this evening... > *Today*..NW winds 15 to 30 kt with gusts up to 40 kt. > *Tonight*..NW winds 15 to 25 kt. Gusts up to 30 kt in the evening. > > Anyone on this list have any insight or opinion on this? > > Allen > > >