Very true about them being a tool, however in my opinion
they violate the very Spirit of "blind rallying" that we
claim to have here. Or had.
I am familiar with maps, pace and course notes, and I
think they give the competitor with maps an
advantage over the folks with just a route book.
However like anything else it is a skill and requires
practise to be useful.
I am against the use of maps at ANY route-book-only
event. They should be treated as having pace notes.
At an event where course notes are available, or pace
noting and recce done please feel free to use a map.

The playing field there would be much more even.
I also feel the "map issue" has been rather poorly
handled so far with the corrections that continue to
come from the PRB only muddying the issue more.
I think the current wording is hopeless and allows
me to use public satelite imaging to make PERFECT maps
of almost any stage at this point.
Are we or are we not doing blind rallys? Well aparently
"not anymore" is the answer from what I see from the PRB.
Perhaps they should have asked the membership what THEY
thought on this issue? (And NOT the manufacturers)
Instead of just going it alone as they appear to have
last year when this came up.
Ed