IOMICA Forum

I researched this point through my archived rules copies and the 1995 rules, 6.2.6 reads ' There shall be three battens on the leech........... ' In the 2002 rules this rule has been brought into line with the ISAf format and now reads G.3.1.(d) 'The sail shall have three batten pockets , or battens...

Sorry Marko, I dont read it like that. There is no point in having batten pockets if there is nothing in them and the qualification that where there is no pocket, then the batten must be attached directly to the sail clearly states to me that there must be a batten, however it is fitted to the sail,...

Barry, that raises the whole question of whether a rule that cannot be checked by the methods open to measurers is worth the paper it is written on. With no materials certificates or statements by the supplier or markings on the relevant materials how can the owner be reasonably expected to sign up ...

This is a typical example of a rule that was intended to cover all possibilities, and does so. Firstly it specifies that you must have 3 battens in the main. That's the really important part. but it also covers the possibility that you might wish to have them in pockets, so it allows you to have thr...

In principle I agree with Barry C. In writing rules you have to tread a careful line between catering for the top sector of the class, who usually drive both the rules and the development and the grass roots who just want to go sailing. In my experience, trying to tie things down too specifically ju...

As promised, I contacted RYA Technical to ask about this matter. I had a reply from Bas Edmonds who's rely was as follows:- 'My personal understanding is that when the term "body of the sail shall consist of the same ply throughout" is that it would mean the same cloth product code, but may be diffe...

Now all this has calmed down a bit here's just a few points. The term ply was introduced to define a layer of whatever sail material was used. We are bound by adopting the Standard class rule format and the ERS to observe the use of the term. I personally dont find it ideal but I have never come up ...

Lester, if you can't or won't see or accept it I cant help you. It's no good reading the class rule in isolation. Closed it may be but it MUST be read in conjunction with ERS, RRS and ISAF Regulations. If you were trained as a measurer you would know that. You would also know about ply , though I su...

Here we have a classic Lester situation. It matters not the least to him that the language, format and method of Measurement is the result of at least 20 years of careful work by (among others) RYA and ISAF to arrive at an internationally accepted system. It works well for everyone else but not, app...

Lester, there is no easy way to say this. I have not spent more than 40 years of my life being trained by the Royal Yachting Association and several Class Associations, both National and International in the measurement, drafting and reading of the assorted rules without knowing what these things me...

Trouble is that as soon as you come up with an idea of distinctive sails, everyone else follows your lead. Now you've got a fleet of multicoloured dream boats! I've got a couple of ideas that I am working on at present on this, so watch this space or rather, watch my sails.. As to the sail stripes (...

Barry, the use of the word 'ply' was to get round a more misleading term such as 'cloth', 'film' or whatever. It defines the body of the sail as being made up of one layer only, because at that time the cloth making companies were making a woven 'double skinned' fabric. That was swiftly replaced by ...

Barry of course you can have coloured sails, whyever not. This is another example of how trying to pin absolutely everything down just causes more and more problems. As I keep saying, keep it simple. We buy these boats to go sailing, not to spend all our time quibbling about perceived errors in the ...

I keep speaking to my contact when I can catch him between events but so far all he has done is laugh and say 'You cannot be serious'. Nevertheless I do keep trying

I now know how Alice felt when she fell down the rabbit hole and found herself in Wonderland. Somewhere along this sequence of posts I took issue with the wording of and the necessity for any mention of colour in sails or any part thereof. Having asked my husband, a model sailor for more than 35 yea...

I have followed this topic with mounting disbelief. Firstly that anyone felt there to be a need to raise it at all in the light of the use of coloured luff tapes and corner patches in the full sized world since the advent of Terylene cloth at the end of the 50's. In 1962 I bought blue terylene sails...

Having hastily looked up the relevant rules I see that 3.1(b)(2) and its sister rule 4.1... relate to cringles etc in the head. Did you mean 3.1(a)(2) etc? and what does 'self coloured ply' mean?

Like Roy, I have been meaning to post a candidate statement for a while and his post has spurred me on to do so. Some of you know me, either personally or through my posts on this forum but many do not, so a little background for a start. I have been an official measurer of the Royal Yachting Associ...

Henry, the difference is that tabling is not controlled and 'stiffening' is. Now, tabling is self regulating in that there is no percievable benefit in enlarging it but stiffening has historically been seen as benefitting if bigger and stiffer. This is in big boats of course. I always said it was a ...

Yes, Antonio, absolutely right but people do get stressed during the measurement process and I found that it defused a lot of argument when a sail was possibly out of measurement to simply put the tape over it. People generally calm down at that point. Same with weighing. Get the checkweights out an...

Henry, I think from memory that the rewrite in question was to vary the rules to accommodate ERS. That being so, tabling was then covered by the ERS definition but because primary and secondary reinforcement are controlled not only in thickness but by size, they stayed in the main body of the class ...

Using a template is fine and in 99% of the cases the sails will pass without comment. Where the sail appears to be on or over the limit than it MUST be hand measured using steel rules of the correct standard. Then, not only do you have a definitive answer but the means of arriving at it are clearly ...

Bruce, interesting that you too applied the Sail Measurement method to an IOM sail, as I did some long time ago. I wanted to know just how much difference there might be between on-spar and off-spar measurement. Like you I found very minor variations. I also applied the vertical 'flaking' of the sai...

No John, you aren't.

Some years ago I was asked to translate the 1/10th scale America's Cup class rules. By coincidence I happened to have a copy of the then current rules for the full sized class and I quickly realised that the former was a word for word translation of the latter, with minor changes like draught and th...

I find this a difficult question to decide upon. On the one hand you have the owner who has bought or built his boat in good faith and unless everything is checked at the outset, how is he/she to know that that faith was justified. People make mistakes, scales have errors, etc. The boat will never b...

ERS defines what each item referred to either is, or what it is made up of. When you say Sail you take on board the definition that ERS contains so you should then know whether the thing you are querying is included in the definition or not. That was the whole point of creating ERS in the first plac...

By the way, the same applies to the jib where class rule G.4.1(a).(1). is the relevant rule

The class rule does not need to refer to 'tabling' as in the Class rule G.3.1(a).(1),the construction of the sail is defined as 'soft sail, single ply sail' and, as this is shown in bold type, it is defined in ERS rule G.1.1, where the tabling is specifically referred to as being part of the sail. T...

Thanks Alfonso, I have two copies, my own and that from my second husband Ted May. I still consult them occasionally.