At the start of a race the visual individual recall signal required by rule 29.1 was correctly made, but the required sound signal was not. One of the recalled boats, A, did not return, was scored OCS and later requested redress on the grounds that she started simultaneously with the starting signal and heard no recall sound signal.

The protest committee found that A was not entirely on the pre-start side of the starting line at the starting signal. It adjusted A’s score by giving her a finishing place as redress because of the absence of the sound signal. This changed the finishing place of boat B. B then asked for redress, claiming that her finishing place was affected by what she believed to have been an improper decision to give a finishing place to A. B was not given redress, and she appealed on the grounds that rule 26 states, ‘the absence of a sound signal shall be disregarded.’

Rule 62.1(a) has three requirements for giving redress. The first is that "an improper action or omission" has occurred. Here, the race committee did not make the sound signal required by rule 29.1, an omission that was clearly improper. The second requirement is that a boat's finishing place has been "made significantly worse". Here, this requirement is met since A was scored OCS. The third requirement is that a boat suffered the consequences of the improper action or omission "through no fault of her own". Here, A had no part in causing the race committee to omit the sound signal and she thought she had started correctly.

The requirement in rule 29.1 and in Race Signals regarding the making of a sound signal when flag X is displayed is essential to call the attention of boats to the fact that one or more of them are being recalled. When the sound signal is omitted from an individual recall, and a recalled boat in a position to hear a sound signal does not see the visual signal and does not return, she is entitled to redress. However, a boat that realizes that she was on the course side of the line is not entitled to redress, and she must comply with rules 28.1 and, if it applies, rule 30.1. If she fails to do so, she breaks those rules. In addition, she fails to comply with the Basic Principle, Sportsmanship and the Rules, and breaks rule 2.

When it is decided that a boat is entitled to redress, rule 64.3 requires the protest committee to "make as fair an arrangement as possible for all boats affected." When the situation involves a boat scored OCS, if the redress given is to adjust the boat's race score, it should reflect the fact that, generally, when a recalled boat returns to the pre-course side of the line after her starting signal, she usually starts some time after boats that were not recalled. An allowance for that time should be made.

Concerning Boat B's request, the provision of rule 26 that "the absence of a sound signal shall be disregarded" applies only to the warning, preparatory, one-minute and starting signals. When the individual recall signal is made, both the visual and sound signals are required unless the sailing instructions state otherwise.

B's appeal is dismissed. The protest committee's decision to give redress to A is upheld.

GBR 1974/7