It seems that many model yachtsmen have fallen into the current public morality. "Whatever you can get away with is okay." Not so! The real joy in winning or placing well in model yacht racing, as in all other activities, is taking satisfaction that you did it fairly and squarely. Too often we see skippers cause infractions of the rules and go blithely on, immune from protestations of others who may or may not call the situation to their attention. What satisfaction can there be in not doing the required penalty turns and gaining an advantage thereby? Or saying to them selves, "Nobody called me on that!" What you do each day determines who you are.

The saddest part is that it affects the outcome for many others-not just the immediately injured party. It casts a cloud over the entire racing scene to know that boats are not obeying all of the rules. A boat can foul another causing it to not recover and thereby not be a factor in a race, allowing others who are less skilled to place better than they normally would. This skews the entire outcome. And, it causes many to not want to compete in that type of situation, reducing the fun for all.

Further, it seems that many collisions can be avoided if all competitors would conscientiously sail with anticipation and avoid any contact. Taking too many chances at crossing or mark rounding situations is not good sportsmanship. We see many obvious situations where port tack boats should have ducked under the stern of starboard tackers but have risked collision, possible damage, and the need to do penalty turns. More often the better solution is to duck and come back up quickly with very little, if any, loss of position. Often, it is to the benefit of the one ducking the stem to do so because of the variability of the wind direction. You can often find a lift on the other side making it beneficial to stay on your course and not risk crossing ahead. To have sailed a "clean" race with no infractions is much more satisfying and rewarding than otherwise.

In visiting a number of model yacht clubs, it seems that most clubs have those who cooperate and those who don't with some very flagrant violators that spoil races for others. Perhaps the slogan "virtue is its own reward" spoken out loud, but softly, will cause those who otherwise race without conscience to change their style of racing and help them to have more fun too.