Thank you for the information, you know more than me on rules.

The spaniards would have not done exactly the same, right or wrong everybody knew before the basic rule "you can not change boats". From know on should be clear you can indeed change your boat.

My writting has not been a lot of @#$% or to influence opinions.

The spanish press has been respectful, on the contrary everybody knows the danish press people have always questioned the spanish sailors really agreesively as if they where cheaters. A different thing is the blogs...you are right the insults are discusting.

Reviewing the digital news in Berlingske.dk I think the danes forget to invite for a few beers also the boats that stopped :)

Mast break: Bad luck or no skills?

The danes have never broken a mast before, and have sailed in tougher conditions than this.
The manufacturer (Ovington Boats) says, that mast breakage isn't uncommon, and have made a full carbon mast that should make it almost impossible. However, for equipment to be eligible to use in the olympics, should it have been publicly available for 4 years.

Hi Rhyam@.......
I'm just guessing on the reason for the americans for making a DNF :)
It's most likely the conditions they were protesting about.

The absence of the camera was deemed to be insignificant (but by the jury you think is anything but objective and impartial). I seem to recall, that onsite photos from the boats, reveal a fairly low position, giving a fairly lower center of gravity, which MIGHT be beneficial, in tough winds. In light winds, I might think that the extra weight might a slight disadvantage..... In the conditions of the medal race: The marker rounding times doesn't exactly points towards it being an advantage....

Actually, it's "Genuine effort to start"..... SI 19.7

"Must be given all the advantages"???? What a load of of .... If indeed the RC was partial towards the danes, do you honestly think that the best option was to start the race with the danes almost 4 minutes behind, in a boat not trimmed to the conditions, or postpone the race until the next day, due to the conditions???
Do you honestly think that the spanish sailors hadn't done exactly the same (excersized every option within their possibilities), were they in the same position as the danes???

I'm not disappointed in the spanish protest (both of them). We'd probably do the same, were we in their shoes (at least the first protest). However, the appeal to CAS (which I believe wasn't the wish of the sailors, but more likely the NOC's) is a bit more troubling.
Being labled as "bad sportsmanship" and "pirates of Qingdao" and similar things, is disgusting (mainly the spanish media hysteria).

The danish crew made a petition to the OMC and the RC to use the boat the way it was (with incorrect identity marks). When this petition was granted, could you hardly penalize the danes for whatever rule infractions that were made, that could be attributed directly to the use of this boat (the identification marks, the camera and the boat not being quarantined).

To be happy with the silver medal means to accept the referee´s decision. Controversies exist in any sport and many times, like this time, different options or point of view seems to be rational and difficult to decide which is right and which is wrong… I suppose that if the organisation thought that the Danes where breaking the rules they could stop their boat before the end of the race… I don’t know…

But which is quit common among all sports when controversial cases arise, is the tendency to keep the referees decision and not to alter the result of the already finished game, even when it might be some doubts of the quality of those decisions…

Sometimes wrong decisions play against you and some other times in your favour… that´s life… The Spaniards, the best thing they can do is to accept it, congratulate the winners… train to win them next time. I am sure they will… they are the best…

Thanks for the good information you provide on sailing and rules. It is really interesting.

More stupidity to influence opinions, imagine the comitee reads it :) : the croatian boat had no 3 kg camera? is this weight irrelevant in a 49er ? to break a boat is in sailing just bad luck no skills involved in it?

An attempt to improve other competitor result when you have nothing to loose (maybe the american boat) is in sailing fairplay or olympic spirit? I wonder what would happen if it was football, tenis or basketball and somebody did that.

Genuine effort to finish...

What a strange sport ¡¡¡¡ the ones that deserve to win must be given all the advantages, including change of boat, delay the race start, colleagues stopping the boat etc.., the ones that do not deserve to win but break no rules (and in fact do win) are happy with the silver medal.

The ones that take the rules to the limit euforic with the gold ¡¡

The Danes were better on the water it would be realy tough on them if they did not keep the gold

I believe the medal race is on youtube (if not being removed because of copyright issues). Search for 49er olympic medal race.

According to the race report, are some boats not listed with marker rounding times.
The american boat deliberately decided to make a DNF (sailed past the finish line). The grounds for this could be a protest against the raceconditions, or an attempt to improve the danish result (not letting the bad luck of the danes ruin their olympics, which had been excellent until then).

By no means, could the danes be considered stealth or under cover. The support boat of the participants are allowed to share information, that is freely available. So, the fact, that the danes made it within time, had not been removed from the race, and racing a boat with incorrect identification marks (which is not grounds for a disqualification), COULD be yelled from a support boat.
The only reason for a croatian boat sailing in the competition area (and not being removed by officials), would be that it did so with a crew eligible to race. Saying otherwise, is stupidity or deliberately playing dumb in order to influence opinions.

Denmark finished at 61 points. Spain at 64. IOW, Denmark could have finished 8th, gotten 2 more points and end up with 63 points and a win.

Hi stefmeister2, Denmark needed to finish 7th, is it true that other boats decided not to finish the race because of weather conditions or whatever? maybe they would have changed their mind if they knew their desition would determine who was winning the gold, the question is did they knew behind them was the danes and not the croatians? was then the camouflage creating an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE? I read in an other blog that 3 boats, thinking they were not altering the result, stopped just before the finish allowing Denmark to move from 10th to 7th.
Anybody know where can I the find race video in internet?

To Turkojj :)

Nice to see someone talk some sense. The spanish did a great job in the medal race, coming from 4th. They are rated #1 in the world rankings, so they are surely excellent athletes. I'm convinced they are under pressure from above from COI (as the italians are from CONI). Medals means funding and increased money from sponsors, and gold certainly more than silver (goes for Denmark as well).

Bureaucrats have ruined way to much. Don't let them ruin the Olympics....
When you allow bureaucrats to make a solution, I guarantee, that a bad decision is made. The athletes should just learn to accept the referee's decision. After all, I trust them more than a lawyer of CAS (their history of letting dopers compete again, is horrendous).

The newspaper MARCA is the same as THE SUN in U.K. So I believe that what it says is irrelevant. The important thing is that sailors Iker and Xabi did congratulate the Danish for their win. I am sure that for them the race is over and happy with the silver.

In the other hand is on the duty of the COI to go all the way to make sure that the actions of the Danes has been legal. They are bureaucrats, not sailors.

It is amazing how “quick thinking” has work on the Danish… they have found the best way to compete and win the gold. Competitions should be always a bit open to imagination and improvisation…

On my heart Iker and Xabi are two of the best in the world and this time sincere congratulations to jonas Warrer and Martin Kirketerp. You have been the best this time.

From a Spanish…

Excerpt from the Sailing Instructions that are valid for the Olympic sailing event:

18.7 Breaches of instructions 2, 3, 10.3, 13.3, 20, 21.1, 21.2, 21.3, 23, 24, 25, 27 and 28 will not be grounds for a protest by a boat. This changes rule 60.1(a).
Penalties for these breaches may be less than disqualification if the jury so
decides.

21.1, 21.2 and 21.3 is about replacement of equipment, and 21.2 and 21.3 are the paragraphs that the spaniards used in their initial protest.

Just to make a point to anyone not aware. All boats and the equipment on the boat, are supplied to the Games by a single manufacturer (Ovington Boats). The danes didn't somehow get a superior boat by the switch.
The croatian boat never left the area, and complied to all measurements and certifications.

The spaniards weren't robbed of any ability to protest. They didn't protest at the finish line, even though the danes were announced as winners.

IOW, the spaniards disagree with the penalty given by the jury for violating appendix G in the Racing Rules of Sailing, but that is certainly not up to them to dictate the penalty.

The race should have been abandoned, since I have a strong doubt, that no windmeasurements in the race were above the 15 knots (for any given duration)where the race should have been abandoned. In fact, all measurements are said to be 14 knots in the race report. I bet the spanish would have protested towards that as well.....

The spaniards (just check the spanish onlinepaper MARCA) are complaining about the danish boat sailing with croatian identity marks, and claims that it gave Denmark an advantage. It rings rather hollow, since the spaniards finished first in the medal race. I wonder what tactics they would have employed, had they known the danes were racing the croatian boat (but I'm pretty certain they did :) )
Surely, had it been the croatians training on the olympic course, would they have been removed from the course by the official, and every sailor would know that. There's no doubt in my mind, that if they saw the croatian boat, would they have an idea of who was sailing it, since it wasn't removed from the course. If they didn't see the boat at all, until the finish, does it not make ANY difference at all. They could not have done anything that would have had any impact. They couldn't have sailed any different, that would somehow have given them the win overall.
Surely, the spaniards praised their luck, when they saw the danish boat in wrecks. However, we saw no celebrational scenes from the spaniards, clearly indicating to me, that they knew the danes somehow raced.

The danes raced excellently before the medal race, and was clearly superior to the spaniards, and did everything within their powers to start the medal race, as they are obliged to, according to the Sailing Instrutions SI 19.7:
A boat assigned to compete in the medal race shall make a genuine effort to
start, sail the course and finish. A breach of this instruction will not be grounds
for a protest by a boat. This changes rule 60.1(a). The penalty for this breach will
be ranking the boat tenth in the regatta. If there are two such boats, they will be
ranked ninth and tenth, in order of their opening-series ranks, etc.

Once again, thanks to Croatia and their outstanding sailors. Good luck in the handball game. Hope that Balic is ready

Hi everyone! I'm Matija from Croatia and all I wanna say is I'm proud of what our sailing team did. That's the olympic spirit. Also I wanna say hi to our danish friends and good luck in handball match he he he

The danish boat is in violation of appendix G (in regards to identification marks) in the Racing Rules of Sailing. The penality options are:
When a protest committee finds that a boat has broken a rule of
this appendix it shall either warn her and give her time to comply or
penalize her.

It does not say the immediate penalty is disqualification.

The change of boat was allowable within the rules. The croatian boat did not represent ANY advantage over the field, and complied with the class rules.

Check:
Racing Rules of Sailing
Notice of Race
Sailing Instructions

They are all available on the web, but I can't link them here.

IOW, a breach of rules has been made, but it's not up to the spanish sailors nor their Olympic Commitee to decide the penalty.

Its just typical of the Spanish. Never happy. Is silver not good enough for them. The boats are exactly the same. The only difference is what is on the sail itself. And to the disadvantage of the Danes, they were unfamiliar with the boat and lacked in time after returning to shore, also considering the conditions, it showed the iniciative of the Danish sailors. And why would the other competitors need to be informed of the changes??? What matters only to them is competing in the race, surely. But im happy to say this saga does still prove that sportsmanship exists (on behalf of the Croatians of course), isnt that what the Olympics is all about. I suppose if the Spanish where in the same situation as us Danes, borrowing another countries boat wouldnt of been a problem for them. I just hope the Spanish will be pinalised for waisitng the IOC and CAS time if this saga continues.
And yes, I am also Danish, and proud of our "cheating" sailors.

Michael R. You believe that each sportsman must race under his own flag and not under another nations colors. What nationalist crab. The sportsmen know who the others are, and met in other competitions (and other sports) without flying colors. Sailing only started to fly national flags to make sailing more attractive to tv viewers.

Michael R. The rules are made to avoid unfair advantages, so it is indeed relevant.
The change of boat had no impact on the race itself, from the perspective of Spain, Italy etc., as the Danes were far behind. Spain did in fact win the race, and Italy was competing against Spain as well, losing positions based on this battle anyway. They never saw the Danish boat, so they could have sailed under any flag for that matter. Sailing should be settled on the water, not in the court rooms.

"We have upheld our original decision," chairman of the jury David Tillett said. "We do not believe we made any errors."
Sorry Mr. tillett but you have made probably one of the worst decisions ever!. Let us hope that the appeal will be heard by wiser men with cool sound reason and correct the dangerous precedent that you are setting.
This protest really needs to be reviewed.
I belive that each sportsman must race under his own flag and not under another nations colors.
"The jury said that despite infringement of technical rules, it had decided not to impose penalties as the Danes had not gained an unfair advantage by swapping boats.

"The jury said that despite infringement of technical rules, it had decided not to impose penalties as the Danes had not gained an unfair advantage by swapping boats."
this is not a weekend club race; when rules are infringed penalties must be imposed. Has nothing to do with unfair advantage when breaking a rule. Were all other racers advised of the change of race boat and her crew? Did all other racers have the option to have an "extra spare boat" at the ready?

The boats all come from the same factory, so the only advantage comes from having a functioning boat compared to a defective boat. They are EXACTLY alike, so any comparison to other sports, are irrelevant. It seems that the italians and the spanish are playing deliberately ignorant when claiming they didn't knew the danes were competing in the croatian boat. The TV coverage certainly knew that the danes were sailing in the croatian boat, and I'm pretty sure the US team deliberately decided not to finish the race and advance whatever position the danes were to get, as a way to acknowledge the superior danish sailing prior to the medal race, and the fighting spirit on the water (getting on the water in spite of their hard luck).

Sport's results should never be taken beyond the ruling body of the individual sport. It's like contesting the result of a football match based on a falsely awarded penalty kick. The victory was awarded on the water to the danes. They sailed the course under the exact same condition as the other contestants, in a boat exactly similar to the spanish boat. They replaced the boat, since their own boat was damaged beyond repair within the time they were to start. The commitee was notified (otherwise, the referees on the water should have removed them from the course all together). The ruling made, fullfills the spirit of the rules: To find the best crew.

The danes won the gold on the water, and retained it through two protests.

How would you spanish feel, had Contador been ripped of the TdF victory, had Floyd Landis won his appeal with CAS on a sheer technicality?