US SAILING Umpire Bryan McDonald showing off his board sailing skills by winning his age group at the US Windsurfing Nationals.

America's Cup Depute Chief Umpire and US SAILING Umpire and Senior Judge Brad Dellenbaugh hard at work preparing for the 2007 America's Cup.

US SAILING Umpire and Judge Dave Pyron takes to the oars and does what it takes to ensure good backup planning at the 2005 Szambecki Team Race Championship at Old Dominion University. 

US SAILING Umpires Bryan McDonald, Tom Roberts, Joe Cochran and Don Becker at the 2004 Pacific Coast Team Race Championship in San Diego.

US SAILING Umpires Don Makiewicki and ISAF International Umpire Henry Menin (ISV) at work during the 2004 UBS Regatta.

Umpires Subcommittee member, Steve Shepstone, sailing his Sonar to victory in the 2004 Sonar World Championships.

a) Boat 1 (Yellow) and Boat 7 (Blue) disagree about whether or not Yellow had rights to room at the leeward mark.  

b) The umpires agree with Blue's opinion and penalize Yellow.  Note that Yellow already has a penalty outstanding from a previous incident.

c) Alas, it appears that Yellow has hit the mark also... since the umpires had already ruled that they were not entitled to room, they won't get exonerated, they accumulate a third penalty and therefore a black flag.

2003 Hinman Trophy.  That couldn't be San Francisco where they are waiting for wind could it?  Yes, it's true... quite often its calm in the mornings, something later in the mornings that you'd wish.

Here umpires Carol Robinson (Judge-US) and Bruce Hebbert (IU-GBR) relax waiting for the breeze to fill in.

(photo credit: Joe Cochran)

Its a sign of how busy team race umpires are when there is wind, that you rarely see a picture of an umpire in action.  That because we're usually the only ones to take pictures of umpires... and we only have time when there's no wind.

Here US SAILING Senior Judges and Umpires Sandy Grosvenor and Cliff Black mug for Joe's camera.

A wee bit of breeze in the background.  Time to check in with Hinman Co-Chief Umpire Stephen Wolff and fellow umpire Gavin O'Hare plan the upcoming action.

(credit: Joe Cochran)

Finally racing starts... and therefore the last umpire taken picture - this picture was probably taken about 1130 am. The next time any umpire had a break in racing was when Hinman Chair Betsy Altman, despite assurances to the contrary, failed to prevent the sun from setting - around 6:30 that evening.  

More photos from the 2003 Hinman, compliments of umpire Bryan McDonald. can be found at: http://homepage.mac.com/sailing/PhotoAlbum22.html

More relaxing between races, now at the 2003 Prince of Wales, umipres David (Fang) Kilponen (IU), Kirk Brown (IU), and Tom Reece ape it up for the camera. 

(from the archives of Tom Rinda)

(2003 Prince of Wales, photo credit Tom Rinda)

(2003 Prince of Wales, photo credit Tom Rinda)

Umpires Subcommittee Chairman and US SAILING and International Umpire Kirk Brown demonstrates his prototype overlap sleeve for signaling a rule 17 overlap from a wing boat.   Immediately earning him the nickname "Pinkie" (remember this moment in the years to come).