Page 37 - Case Book 2017 - 2020 April 18

RYA 2014/2 CASE 129
When the race committee intends an individual recall When the course is shortened at a rounding mark, the
but, while displaying flag X, makes two sound signals mark becomes a finishing mark. Rule 32.2(a) permits
in addition to the starting sound signal, this is an the race committee to position the vessel displaying flag
improper action. However, a boat that ceases racing S at either end of the finishing line. A boat must cross
before she can see which recall flag, if any, is the line in accordance with the definition Finish, even if
displayed may be at fault and hence not entitled to in so doing she leaves that mark on the side opposite the
redress. side on which she would have been required to leave it
if the course had not been shortened.
Rule 62.1(a), Redress
RYA 1969/12
CASE 37 A race committee action or omission may be improper,
Each race of a regatta is a separate race. In a multi- even if no rule is broken, and even when it occurs
class regatta, abandonment may be suitable for some before the preparatory signal.
classes, but not for all.
RYA 1982/3
CASE 44 A boat is eligible for redress only when she can show
A boat is not permitted to protest a race committee for that, through no fault of her own, her score or place has
breaking a rule. However, she may request redress, and been or may be made significantly worse. She cannot
is entitled to it when she establishes that, through no protest the race committee.
fault of her own, an improper action or omission of the
race committee made her score significantly worse. RYA 1985/3
Redress is not to be granted when, despite a boat’s
CASE 45 score being made significantly worse by an action of the
When a boat fails to finish correctly because of a race race committee, that action was not improper because
committee error, but none of the boats racing gains or there was no other action the race committee could
loses as a result, an appropriate and fair form of have taken.
redress is to score all the boats in the order they
crossed the finishing line.
RYA 1989/10
CASE 68 Redress may be given for a race committee's failure to
The failure of a race committee to discover that a rating provide suitably equipped marks. In cases involving
certificate is invalid does not entitle a boat to redress. A errors by the race committee, it is a good principle that
boat that may have broken a rule and that continues to any doubts be resolved in favour of the competitor.
race retains her rights under the racing rules, including
her rights under the rules of Part 2 and her rights to RYA 1990/5
protest and appeal, even if she is later disqualified. When a race officer warns a boat that she may be
protested by the race committee, and as a result she
CASE 71 takes a two-turns penalty, she is not eligible for redress.
A hail is not the ‘sound signal’ required when flag X is Oral instructions, unless specifically authorised in
displayed. Answers to questions arising from requests for sailing instructions, need not be complied with.
redress after a procedural error by the race committee.
RYA 1993/1
CASE 80 When a course set by the race committee is ambiguous,
A hearing of a protest or a request for redress must be so that all boats break, or appear to break, rule 28, they
limited to the alleged incident, action or omission. are all entitled to redress.
Although a boat may be scored DNF if she does not
finish according to that term’s definition, she may not RYA 1994/3
be scored DNF for failing to sail the course correctly. A boat that is not a party to a request for redress is not
entitled to request a re-opening. She is, however,
CASE 82 entitled to seek redress in her own right when she
When a finishing line is laid so nearly in line with the believes that the redress given in that other hearing
last leg that it cannot be determined which is the correct makes her own finishing position significantly worse.
way to cross it in order to finish according to the
definition, a boat may cross the line in either direction RYA 1996/6
and her finish is to be recorded accordingly. When a competitor is injured or hindered through no
fault of his own by race committee equipment, his boat
CASE 119 is eligible for redress.
When a race is conducted for boats racing under a
rating system, the rating that should be used to RYA 1998/3
calculate a boat’s corrected time is her rating at the When a boat has no reason to know that she crossed the
time the race is sailed. Her score should not be changed starting line early and the race committee fails to signal
if later the rating authority, acting on its own volition, ‘individual recall’ promptly and scores her OCS, this is
changes her rating. an error that significantly worsens the boat’s score
through no fault of her own and therefore entitles her to
redress.

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