Page 93 - Misconduct a Reference for Race Officials

REQUESTS FOR REDRESS
To give redress, the protest committee must conclude that a boat’s score or place in a
race or series has been made significantly worse by one of the causes listed in rule
62.1, and she herself must not have been at fault. Facts must be found to justify the
conclusions drawn.
Common Redress Situations

The race committee disqualifies a boat without a hearing (or scores her DNF) when it
believes that she did not sail the correct course. If the boat actually complies with the
definition finish by crossing the finishing line from its course side, she is entitled to a
finishing place, which can only be taken away from her (unless otherwise specified in
the sailing instructions) as a result of a protest (rule A5). She is to be reinstated.
A sailing instruction says that a boat doing or not doing something will be disqualified.
Sometimes, a race committee will believe that this entitles it to disqualify without a
protest and hearing. For that to be the case, it would have to be stated explicitly in the
sailing instructions, as a change to rules 63.1 and A5. She is to be reinstated.
No boat can be penalized in a redress hearing, nor can the protest committee protest a
boat as a result of information arising from a redress hearing (rule 63.1).
If the written description of the incident is clearly a request for redress by a boat and
not a protest, the protest committee must hear it solely as such. The request for
redress cannot be ‘converted’ to a protest against the boat. See RYA cases 1990/7
and 2001/2.

The hearing must be confined to the incident stated in the request.
In the examples above, the incident is the change, by the race committee, of the boat’s
finishing position without a hearing. Because the race committee acted outside its
powers, the boat must be reinstated.
Further, the protest committee has no power to uphold or re-impose the
disqualification. (It may seem unfair for the boat to be awarded her finishing place, but
it is not the role of the protest committee to correct the failure of the race committee to
protest).
If a boat claims she was wrongly identified as OCS (or ZFP, UFD or BFD): give the
benefit of any doubt to the race committee, whose race officer will have been best
placed to identify her. See World Sailing case 136.
A conclusion than an action by the race committee did not break a rule does not
necessarily prevent redress being given. Such an action may still be improper if it is
not as fair as possible to all competitors.
See additional guidance on redress in the RYA Racing Rules Guidance booklet at
www.rya.org.uk/go/RRSguidance.
Review your decision. Ensure there are sufficient facts to justify each conclusion/rule
broken. If not, find more facts, call back the parties for further evidence if required.

M3.5 Inform the parties (rule 65).
 Recall the parties and read them the facts found, conclusions and rules that apply, and
the decision. When time presses it is permissible to read the decision and give the
details later.
 Give any party a copy of the decision on request. File the protest or request for redress
with the committee records.

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