Facts and Decision of the Protest Committee
The sailing instructions provided for written changes, and the race committee correctly posted an earlier starting time for the first race on the last day of the regatta, expecting to be able to hold two races. Although the sailing instructions provided that “No race will be started after 10:00 a.m.,” the committee started the final (fifth) race at 10:15 a.m. As a result of the fifth race, the final regatta finishing place of
Shields 28 went from 1st to 2nd. She requested redress under rule
62.1(a). The protest committee dismissed the request, having concluded that the race committee’s error did not prejudice the finish of
Shields 28 in that race. Shields 28 appealed.
Decision of the Appeals Committee
A race committee’s breach or ignoring of a sailing instruction is an improper action or omission, since the sailing instructions are a part of the rules governing a race, regatta or other series. The definition Rule includes the sailing instructions, and rule
84 required the race committee to conform to them in its conduct of the races. By starting the final race of the regatta 15 minutes later than the latest permissible time, and including in the regatta results a race that should not have been held, the score of
Shields 28's place in the series was made significantly worse. The words “place in a series” in rule
62.1 cannot be ignored.
Shields 28’s appeal is upheld. The decision of the protest committee is reversed, and the regatta is to be rescored omitting the fifth race.
April 1986