Dave Perry and Racing Ethics
Why should competitive sailors be concerned with the subject of sportsmanship? Find out in this discussion with a top sailor and thinker.
Can you start by describing how you define sportsmanship? DAVE: It’s an attitude of respect for the game, the rules, the people you’re racing against and the officials. Respect means you go about your job of competing fairly within the rules and try your hardest to win, without doing anything that is unfair to others. Sometimes you’ll win and sometimes you won’t, but people will always have a good feeling about racing against you. In addition to sailing within the rules, another strong signal that you respect the game is taking your penalties. Part of sportsmanship is knowing that, since there are no referees or umpires, the game needs people to take their penalties. When you do that, people really trust you. And that’s part of having respect. Some people think the term “sportsmanship” means a perfect, goody-goody nice person. But that’s not what I’m saying at all. A good sport is someone who adheres to a code of ethics and doesn’t compromise the quality of the game. If you subscribe to that, you can’t help but have other sailors respect you.
