Medregeln bör fräschas till

The runners 2019                  
 
How should the runners be designed?
 
If you think this is too much to read, just answer these two questions.
 
 
A)    Is there a minimum height of the wood outside the chock?
B)    Is there a maximum width and height of the slot?
 
 
These two questions are important to understand. If it is a no on any of them, the rule is understandable but if there is yes on any of them there will be lots of other questions.
 
Do not forget these questions if you proceed reading.
 
There is a proposal of changing the rule. The idea is that wood in the runners was a bad idea from the beginning and we now have some strong arguments that the sport will gain in a change to allow all materials (except Kevlar?). We all want the runners to be easy to build and cheap to buy. But we also want our own runners to be fast.
 
This started a discussion about it. Some people see risks if we make the change. The different opinions seem to be strong so we have a polarized discussion. I want to sum the arguments.
 
The side of NO!
1)    The new runners are going to be faster with this change. The old runners are going to be changed by some sailors. This is a cost for those who chooses to change.
2)    The new runners are going to be more expensive.
3)    The class is meant to be buildable for homebuilders and they must be more skilled after a change.
 
The side of YES!
1)    The class is meant to be buildable for homebuilders and they have a hard time to understand the complex rule.
2)    Today builders make the part of wood with different interpretations. That gives some sailors faster runners than other.
3)    On big championships, we have runners with illegal parts of wood under the carbon.
 
Me (S807) and David (S1) have been discussing the rule during the autumn. We are both up to build runners and want to know what is stipulated. Some questions came up except the two headquestions above, remember?
 
The second rule under “E. Runners” describe the wood Runner. E.2.d say that the body shall be made of wood.
E.2.a. – Is the measurement about wood or total runner or both? If it is the wood there is no problem. If it is total runner this rule will go against rule E.4.
E.2.b. – Is the measurement about wood or total runner or both? If it is wood we may make the wood body at minimum length and make the rest with stiffener. If it is total runner we have no length of the wood.
E.2.c. – Is the measurement about wood or total runner or both? If it is wood we have lots of runners that are too low. If it is total runner we have no height of wood to consider.
E.2.d. – Is the measurement about wood or total runner or both? If it is wood everything is fine. If it is total runner there are lots of runners that are too wide.
Interpretation 11/14/89: “No wood or metal stiffener may come between the insert plate and the slot on the wood body.” Why not wood or metal, when stiffener is allowed in interpretation 11/30/98 (last sentence)?
Interpretation 12/01/2012: “No metal or carbon stiffening is allowed inside the main wood body.” Is that valid? We know there is runners on big championships with carbon in the slot.
 
These rules show the complexity of the rule today. If we get these questions answered the complexity reduces a lot. I can imagine that no one can answer them with a logic chain to each letter (A-F should be answered the same to be logic). If someone deliver proper answers we expect someone else to disagree. What make the answering person authorized to decide what the correct answer is? I search for an authorized person or a logic explanation to be presented. Maybe we in Technical Committee must answer the questions. If we vote for free material in runners the questions are of no interest anymore.
 
About illegal runners used today. We know some builders are building the wood thinner than 24.7 in the chock. We also know some builders put carbon in the slot.
 
We have to either make the rule understandable or change it.

Do not forget the questions A and B.