Page 59 - Misconduct a Reference for Race Officials

RACING RULES GUIDANCE

COMPETITORS RETIRING OR WITHDRAWING A RETIREMENT

Q1. Are there any time limits, under the Racing Rules of Sailing (‘RRS’), when a
race committee may refuse to accept the retirement of a boat from a race or the
withdrawal of such a retirement (‘unretiring’)?

A1. The RRS refers to retiring in the contexts of penalties and of scoring, but in neither
case is there any reference to time limits or constraints. The RRS do not refer to
unretiring; however, there is no rule that precludes a boat that has retired after
finishing from withdrawing that retirement.

Q2. Is there a time after which a race committee should not accept a retirement or
unretirement in the absence of good reason to do so?

A2. For the practical requirement of scoring a race, the end of the protest time limit
(under rule 61.3, two hours after the last boat in the race finishes, unless the sailing
instructions state some other time limit) can be used as the last time for accepting a
retirement or unretirement from a competitor who is not a party to a protest.
However, bear in mind that the protest committee shall extend the protest time limit if
there is good reason to do so.

A party in a hearing can retire at any time before being asked to withdraw for the
protest committee to consider its decision.

Q3. What should a race committee do if a retirement or unretirement is requested
after the end of the protest time limit?

A3. The race committee should ask the competitor to state in writing why the ‘late’
request should be accepted. If the race committee considers that the statement gives
a good reason for accepting the request, it should do so; otherwise, it should reject
the request. Either decision, to accept or to reject, will be open to challenge by
competitors through a request for redress. Alternatively, the race committee itself
may wish to refer its decision to the protest committee (also through a request for
redress), which can then decide:

i. whether there are grounds to extend the time limit in order to hear the
request; and
ii. whether there are good reasons such that the boat’s retirement or
unretirement must be accepted by the race committee.

Q4. What circumstances might provide good reasons for accepting a late
retirement or unretirement?

A4. The most likely situation is that the competitor learns that an action that he
considered broke a rule did not, in fact, do so or vice versa. This information might
come from the published outcome of a protest or redress hearing, or from
conversation with another competitor or a race official.

December 2016 57