Page 111 - Case Book 2017 - 2020 April 18

action is needed. A right-of-way boat is not required to Serendip and White Knuckles 1 sailed to a yellow buoy,
anticipate that the other boat will not keep clear, but the lying on a bearing 90 degrees to starboard of the bearing
moment when the other boat has failed to keep clear is to the black buoy, and rounded it. The race committee
the moment when contact is predictable if neither boat had not intended this buoy to be a mark of the course.
takes evasive action, a risk that must be immediately The rest of the fleet rounded the black buoy. Serendip
obvious to a right-of-way boat keeping a good look-out. protested those boats. Her protest was dismissed. She
and White Knuckles 1 were disqualified under rule 28.1.
If the right-of-way boat does not then act to avoid (White Knuckles 1 had neither protested nor been
contact, she risks penalization if there is then contact protested, nor had she lodged any request for redress.)
that results in damage.
Serendip appealed, on the grounds that a sailing
The same principles would apply as between boats instruction required the laying of a new mark, rather
converging on opposite tacks.
than the relocation of a existing mark when the position
Bailington v Skeena, Thornbury SC of the next mark was to be changed, and so she was
duty-bound to look for a different mark, particularly as
RYA 2004/1 she believed that the race officer had said at the briefing
Definitions, Party that any replacement mark would be a yellow buoy,
Rule 62.1(a), Redress although this was not required by the sailing instruction.
Rule 64.1, Decisions: Penalties and Exoneration
Rule 71.2, National Authority Decisions The race officer said that his normal practice (despite
Rule 90.2(c), Race Committee; Sailing Instructions; the sailing instruction) was to move rather than replace
Scoring: Sailing Instructions a mark when changing the leg length without changing
Race Signals its bearing. Only if the bearing changed would he
replace the mark, using the yellow buoy. He believed
No statement made at a briefing by a race officer can that this was what he had said at the briefing.
change or add to a rule, which includes the sailing
instructions and the meaning of a race signal in the DECISION
Racing Rules of Sailing. A boat that relies on such a Serendip’s appeal is dismissed and her disqualification
statement is at fault for the purposes of redress if she is confirmed. White Knuckles 1 is reinstated into her
chooses as a result to attribute a different meaning to a finishing position.
race signal. The protest committee was correct to dismiss the protest
against the other boats. The signal at the leeward mark
A protest committee may dismiss the protest against the
protestee, but disqualify the protestor. could have no meaning other than that the windward
mark was now to be found further away on the same
Only the protestor and protestee are parties to a protest bearing as before. The leg length was increased on its
hearing. No other boat, even if present at a protest original bearing, and this was correctly signalled. The
hearing, can be penalized at that hearing, and the sailing instruction made no reference to any change of
national authority has no power to confirm or re-impose colour or shape. The other boats sailed the course.
the penalty: indeed, it will reverse any such penalization Serendip did not, and the protest committee was therefore
on appeal, even if it is not that boat which appealed. also correct to disqualify Serendip under rule 28.1.
If Serendip's recollection of the race officer’s briefing is
Course correct, then he was merely foreshadowing what he
sailed by
rest of fleet actually did. Moving the buoy rather than replacing it
New position of Course sailed by with another did not comply with the sailing instruction,
windward mark Serendip and but that did not result in the black buoy ceasing to be
White Knuckles 1 the windward mark, and nothing in the method of
relocation (a process Serendip had not observed) could
give rise to redress.
Original position
of windward
mark Yellow buoy If the race officer did in fact also say that he would
switch to a yellow mark whenever flag C had to be
employed, then this, in isolation, might give rise to
redress under rule 62.1(a) for a boat that relied on such
Leeward Mark
a statement, and was without fault, having no reason to
believe that the black buoy remained the windward
mark. That might result in the race being abandoned, or
SUMMARY OF THE FACTS in Serendip being reinstated
On a windward - leeward course, the race committee In practice, Serendip was at fault in ignoring the signal,
moved the windward mark, a black inflatable buoy, so as actually made, since, in the absence of a green flag,
as to increase the length of the leg on its original the signal could never have been taken to mean that the
bearing, and signalled 'C+', with repeated sound signals position of the next mark had been moved
at the leeward mark. It did not include either a red or approximately 90 degrees to starboard. Only a mark
green shape in the signal. further away on the original bearing could now be taken
to be the windward mark.

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