Page 132 - Judge Manual 2017

and attendance at interviews should be made mandatory as a rule in the Notice
of Race. The Commission Member will draw up the interview list in consultation
with the event organizers or class and publish it on the official notice board.
Interviews usually take place before registration closes and always before
racing starts.

Interviews are initially conducted by the Commission Member alone. If the
Commission Member has reason to believe that a competitor's classification
might need to be changed, the interview will be suspended and the competitor
called back for a second interview. The second interview is then conducted in
the presence of a witness and it is usual for the Commission Member to ask
one of the Jury members to be this witness. If asked to do so (and if you agree),
the role of the judge is just to take an independent note of the interview. At the
end, the Commission Member will announce his or her decision to the
competitor.

Competitors can appeal against a decision to re-classify them, but this must be
done online and it is rare for this to take less than a month. Until then, the Code
states that the decision of the Commission Member at the event is binding. The
competitor cannot request redress as the Commission is not covered by RRS
62.1(a) and has no other redress procedure.

O.4 Protests

A boat may be protested after the Crew Deadline and before the Classification
Protest Time Limit (or 24 hours after a changed Crew List is posted) if:

• information, which would have led to a higher classification, was not disclosed
when a competitor applied for a classification; or

• a competitor has, since being classified, engaged in activities incompatible
with his classification;

and in either case, the boat would then break the crew limitations in the Notice
of Race, Sailing Instructions or Class Rules.

These types of protest are difficult and will need close liaison with the
Commission. The protest committee will also need to consider the types of
Group 3 activity (see World Sailing Regulation 22.2.2 for the list of activities) in
the Code and how to best assess if a competitor falls into one of these
categories.

The FAQs issued by the Commission can be very helpful in applying these to
different situations. www.sailing.org/classification/

The Commission can give an indication of the types of questions and
evidence that should be presented.

As with measurement protests, where the protest committee is in doubt as to
the classification of a competitor, a protest committee can refer the facts found