Page 42 - Case Book 2017 - 2020 April 18

RYA 1969/11 Rule 64.1(a), Decisions: Penalties and
In the absence of any other applicable penalty in the Exoneration
sailing instructions, there is no alternative to
disqualification for breaking a rule. CASE 3
A leeward port-tack boat, hailing for room to tack when
RYA 1994/4 faced with an oncoming starboard-tack boat, an
A boat that breaks a rule while she is out of control obstruction, is not required to anticipate that the
cannot be exonerated for that reason alone.
windward boat will fail to comply with her obligation to
RYA 1999/7 tack promptly or otherwise provide room.
The decision of a protest committee may be altered only CASE 28
when a case is reopened or on appeal. It is not open to When one boat breaks a rule and, as a result, causes
a club sailing committee to change a protest another to touch a mark, the other boat is to be
committee’s decision. exonerated. The fact that a starting mark has moved, for
RYA 2001/12 whatever reason, does not relieve a boat of her
A class association has no power to protest a boat, let obligation to start. A race committee may abandon
alone disqualify her without a hearing. under rule 32.1(c) only when the change in the mark’s
When a boat seeks redress for having been disqualified position has directly affected the safety or fairness of
without a hearing, the only permitted outcome is the the competition.
granting or refusal of redress. Only a party to a protest CASE 30
hearing can be penalized, and a redress hearing is not a A boat clear astern that is required to keep clear but
protest hearing. collides with the boat clear ahead breaks the right-of-
way rule that was applicable before the collision
RYA 2003/3
When a protest committee uses rule 60.3(a)(1) to occurred. A boat that loses right of way by
protest a boat, and the boat then is found to have been unintentionally changing tack is nevertheless required
involved in an incident that resulted in serious damage to keep clear.
or serious injury, and to have broken a rule, she is to be CASE 49
penalized under the appropriate rule, even if it were not When two protests arise from the same incident, or from
she that caused the serious damage or serious injury. very closely connected incidents, they should be heard
RYA 2004/1 together in the presence of representatives of all the
A protest committee may dismiss the protest against the boats involved.
protestee, but disqualify the protestor. CASE 51
Only the protestor and protestee are parties to a protest A protest committee must exonerate boats when, as a
hearing. No other boat, even if present at a protest result of another boat’s breach of a rule, they are all
hearing, can be penalized at that hearing, and the compelled to break a rule.
national authority has no power to confirm or re- CASE 93
impose the penalty: indeed, it will reverse any such If a boat luffs immediately after she becomes
penalization on appeal, even if it is not that boat which overlapped to leeward of another boat and there is no
appealed.
seamanlike action that would enable the other boat to
RYA 2005/5 keep clear, the boat that luffed breaks rules 15 and
A boat that has retired may be protested, and a valid 16.1. The other boat breaks rule 11, but is exonerated.
protest against her must be heard, but the boat is not to CASE 95
be penalized unless the penalty for the rule she broke is If two overlapped boats on the same tack are on a beat
a non-excludable disqualification.
to windward and are subject to rule 18.2(b), rule 18
RYA 2006/4 ceases to apply when either of them turns past head to
A boat may be disqualified even if it were only she that wind. When a boat is required to give another boat
lodged a valid protest. mark-room, the space she must give includes space for
the other boat to comply with rule 31. When the boat
RYA 2006/5 entitled to mark-room is compelled to touch the mark
When the sailing instructions are ambiguous, so that it while sailing within the mark-room to which she is
is not clear whether a mark has a required side, any entitled, she is exonerated for her breach of rule 31.
doubt is to be resolved in favour of a boat liable to
penalization. RYA 1989/12
A boat compelled by another boat to break a rule is to
RYA 2008/4 be exonerated. A keep-clear boat is not an obstruction.
When there is contact between boats, a right-of-way
rule will normally have already been broken. A protest RYA 1994/4
committee must find facts to enable it to decide whether A boat that breaks a rule while she is out of control
any boat broke a rule. If a boat is found to have broken cannot be exonerated for that reason alone.
a rule the protest committee shall disqualify her unless RYA 2001/3
some other penalty applies.
When a boat may have caused injury or serious damage
in breaking a rule of Part 2 or rule 31 but does not

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