CASE 44

Rule 62, Redress
Rule 85, Governing Rules

A boat may not protest a race committee for breaking a rule. However, she may request redress, and is entitled to it when she establishes that, through no fault of her own, an improper act or omission of the race committee made her finishing position significantly worse.

Summary of the Facts
Sailing instruction 18 provided for the starting line and first mark to be laid such that the first leg would be sailed to windward. After the race committee did so and had started one class, the wind backed some 55 degrees. The Finn class was next to start, but the first mark could not be moved, since the prior class was still sailing towards it and was well short of it. When the Finns started, none could fetch the first mark on a single tack, but subsequent further backing of the wind permitted some to do so. Boat A requested redress, holding that, under rule 85 and the definition Rules, sailing instruction 18 was a rule and the race committee had broken it.

The protest committee was satisfied that the first leg of the course was not a ‘windward’ leg within the meaning of the sailing instructions. On the other hand, it found no evidence to suggest that, within the terms of rule 62, the race was unfair or that any boat was entitled to redress. The protest committee ruled that the results of the race were to stand.

A appealed, holding that her protest had not been based on a claim for redress under rule 62. It was based simply on the fact that the race committee had failed to comply with sailing instruction 18, a rule, and with rule 85, which bound race committees to be governed by the rules. The protest committee had based its decision on rule 62, which was, in her opinion, incorrect. To allow a race to stand when it had not been sailed as required by the rules contravened rule 85 and could not come within the scope of rule 62.

Decision
Appeal dismissed for the reasons given by the protest committee. A boat may request redress under the provisions of rule 62, but only on the grounds that, through no fault of her own, an improper act or omission of the race committee made her finishing position significantly worse. The racing rules do not permit a race committee to be protested or penalized.

RYA 1978/8