Mike Mitchell wrote: ↑Sat Nov 23, 2019 9:22 pm
Jim, I can remember Racing at Tully Div1 Pan Celtic and you had a Scottish Master in the Team event in a Plastic Pig. Nobody complains as it was all good fun. But if they had come first it could be a different story.
My Vote would be let anyone paddle anything, except at selection races.
Quite off the original topic, but a fair point.
Jerry is Veteran so never affects divisional points. As I understand it he has a medical reason which means he sometimes has to paddle his plastic boat instead of his slalom boat, and often has to decide on the day which he can paddle. The plastic boat is clearly a disadvantage to racing compared to a slalom boat, on top of which if he has to paddle it he is probably not at his best that day anyway.
So in Pan Celtic terms where the Vets/Jnr race is held at a div 1 if he was the top Scottish Vet in his plastic boat and took the PC points for Scotland ahead of a Vet from another country who was in a slalom boat that would be an interesting case for the PC team managers to argue over! There would be a spin off argument that some countries host the Jnr/Vets race with a div 2 (which is what Jerry normally paddles as a Vet) so why should different rules be applicable to different legs of the PCC? That doesn't just affect Jerry, it potentially affects J12 and J14 paddlers from lower divisions entering as Open competitor a for PCC - they should also be in a fully compliant boat to race PCC at a div 1, but don't have to to race a leg at a div 2. And it highlights another issue with the proposed J12 cutoff - the Jnr/Vet PCC is J12 and J14 where J12s can be selected to make up J14 numbers (I doubt this ever actually happens, J14 is usually bigger) but could be in different boats. In fact, I think this point that we hold the J12 and J14 competitions (not just PCC but Scottish champs too) separately from J16 and up is a good case at least for revising the proposal to include J14, and just assume that once any paddler gets too heavy for un undersized boat they will migrate to a fully compliant one irerespective of their age?
Mikes suggestion to extend it to every one and every division except selection has some merit, but I still think we should have a level playing field in at least the top division. It we took all the boat rules away we would no doubt see seniors in 5 or 6kg boats again for domestic races.