For PHRF Fleets S1 and S2, the course for Race 2 was course 21, described in the sailing instructions as “RC Boat–18–8–4–Knox Finish” with “All Marks Left to Port.” The course diagram was not incorporated into the sailing instructions. A change to the sailing instructions moving the starting and finishing areas to the “Race Deck” was posted during a postponement ashore.

The incidents described in the protests all involved how boats passed or rounded mark 4. If mark 4 was a rounding mark (see rule 28.2(b)), then boats would have been required to round mark 4 in such a way that a taut string representing their tracks would touch the mark in order to comply with rule 28.2 (solid-line course in the diagram). If mark 4 was not a rounding mark, then boats could have complied with rule 28.2 by merely passing mark 4 on their port sides (dashed-line course in the diagram).

After rounding mark 8, most boats sailed directly to the finishing area, leaving mark 4 to port without rounding it. Other boats, including the protestors, rounded mark 4, leaving it to port, and then sailed to the finish. Alpha Puppy and Jeannette protested all of the boats in their respective fleets that left mark 4 to port without rounding it.

The protest committee concluded that “the course was amended [by relocating the finishing line] in such a way that allowed, as a practical matter, a boat to travel from mark 8 to the finishing line while leaving mark 4 to port.” The protest committee reasoned that because the new finishing line location meant that the “taut string” would not touch mark 4, “RRS 28.1 was satisfied merely by passing it and leaving it to port.” It dismissed the protests, and both protestors appealed.

The protest committee’s conclusion that the relocation of the finishing line resulted in changing mark 4 from a rounding mark to a passing mark was incorrect. Whether a mark is a rounding mark or a passing mark (see rule 28.2) is not changed solely because the configuration of the course has changed.

Rule J2.1(5) requires that the sailing instructions “identify all rounding marks.” The sailing instructions failed to do so and therefore were ambiguous about whether any of the marks were rounding marks. When sailing instructions fail to identify any rounding marks, boats are not required to treat any marks as rounding marks. Therefore the boats that rounded mark 4 to port and the boats that only passed it on their port sides all complied with rule 28.2.

The appeal is denied, and the decision of the protest committee is confirmed to the extent that none of the protested boats that left mark 4 to port are to be disqualified.

December 2010