It is with sadness I report the passing of Bruce McPherson. He was very bright,clever and intellectually curious; always exploring the deeper corners of thought.<\/p>\n
EIGHT BELLS<\/p>\n
John Bruce McPherson of Hyannisport (MA) passed away peacefully on March<\/p>\n
15, 2011. A graduate of The Lawrenceville School and the University of<\/p>\n
Virginia, Bruce spent most of his life as a designer. In 1966, Bruce moved<\/p>\n
to New York City to work for yacht designer Sparkman and Stephens, becoming<\/p>\n
Olin’s right-hand man in many ways during the ’60s and ’70s.<\/p>\n
In 1975, he designed and built the Maltese Cat, his own 30′ racing yacht.<\/p>\n
He later designed and built his dream sailboat, a 36′ 20-knot cruising boat<\/p>\n
known as CAYUSE. Bruce spent his recent years on Cape Cod exploring his<\/p>\n
interest in responsible wind energy.<\/p>\n
A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 19, at Union<\/p>\n
Chapel, 15 Wachusett Ave., Hyannisport. Donations, in lieu of flowers, may<\/p>\n
be sent to Cape Cod Maritime Museum, 135 South St., Hyannis, MA 02601,<\/p>\n
designated for the “McPherson Sailing Skiff Project.” —<\/p>\n
http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/8Bells-031711<\/a><\/p>\n The following is written by Peter Wilson, with whom I have sailed and respect enormously. For me it touches a cord that transcends sailing, and questions our essential values as a society.<\/p>\n IS THE ‘FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE’ STILL RELEVANT?<\/p>\n By Peter Wilson, US SAILING Umpire\/Senior Judge<\/p>\n As a racing sailor who is also a coach, judge and umpire, I worry that the<\/p>\n ‘fundamental principle’ which is the foundation of our (mostly) ‘self<\/p>\n regulating’ sport has become significantly less relevant. As a consequence,<\/p>\n our racing rules appear to have less value to competitors, and the behavior<\/p>\n we expect these rules to encourage is not as prevalent as it used to be.<\/p>\n Quoting from the RRS, “Competitors in the sport of sailing are governed by<\/p>\n a body of rules that they are expected to follow and enforce. A fundamental<\/p>\n principle of sportsmanship is that when competitors break a rule they will<\/p>\n promptly take a penalty, which may be to retire.” Most of us would agree<\/p>\n that this means; 1) If I hit a mark and whether someone sees me do it or<\/p>\n not, I should take a one-turn penalty; 2) If I tack to port because I can’t<\/p>\n fetch the starting pin and force a boat on starboard to tack when she can<\/p>\n fetch, I should take a two-turns penalty whether or not the other boat<\/p>\n hails protest; and 3) If a boat fouls me in a way that significantly<\/p>\n worsens my position in the race, I should enforce the rules and protest.<\/p>\n However, what I have observed on the race course over the past fifteen<\/p>\n years, in the U.S. and abroad, is a growing percentage of sailors who do<\/p>\n not enforce and follow the rules. I see sailors break rules with contact<\/p>\n between boats and ignore their infraction, even when the other boat<\/p>\n protests or the infringing boat gains an advantage in a flagrant foul. I am<\/p>\n not talking about incidents where who is at fault is unclear and no penalty<\/p>\n turns are taken or no one is protested. We all do that from time to time.<\/p>\n I’m talking about the apparent trend towards an obvious level of clear<\/p>\n infractions with no action by either party. What seems puzzling is, if it<\/p>\n is so easy to exonerate, why does it happen so seldom? Why do sailors break<\/p>\n rules and keep on sailing if no one protests? Why do sailors use kinetics<\/p>\n when there are no judges around? And a related question is, why aren’t<\/p>\n there more protests taken to the room? Are the rules not as relevant in<\/p>\n today’s world as they used to be?<\/p>\n Perhaps the best analogy is speeding on the highway. Lots of us drive above<\/p>\n the speed limit. But when the radar detector says we are approaching a<\/p>\n trap, or we see a cop parked up ahead or coming up behind us, we slow down.<\/p>\n But most of the time, the ‘speeders’ speed. Similarly, when there are<\/p>\n judges or umpires enforcing Rule 42 (kinetics) on the water, body pumping,<\/p>\n rocking, and sculling seem to disappear when the judge boats are close by,<\/p>\n but they often reappear when the judge moves on to observe other boats.<\/p>\n And, when judges whistle their observation of a foul with the option to<\/p>\n protest, competitors usually take their penalty.and when the judges are not<\/p>\n around (or don’t whistle\/protest), not much happens. Just like speeding, it<\/p>\n seems as if one doesn’t break a rule unless an official says we do.<\/p>\n (My only remark of a minor sort would be that I have never agreed with the rule against pumping. It is a skill that must be developed to do well. That said, until the rule is changed it is still a violation. ) \u00a0But this is a remark that is not at the core of Peter’s thesis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is with sadness I report the passing of Bruce McPherson. He was very bright,clever and intellectually curious; always exploring the deeper corners of thought. EIGHT BELLS John Bruce McPherson of Hyannisport (MA) passed away peacefully on March 15, 2011. A graduate of The Lawrenceville School and the University of Virginia, Bruce spent most of … Continue reading RESPECT<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[653],"tags":[654,655,2517],"class_list":["post-1402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sailing-rules","tag-bruce-mcpherson","tag-peter-wilson","tag-sailing-rules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1403,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions\/1403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}