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.

After rounding mark 8, most boats sailed directly to the finishing area, leaving mark 4 to port without sailing close to it. Other boats, including the protestors, sailed close to mark 4 and rounded it to port by sailing a full circle around it, 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 protestors maintained that mark 4 was a rounding mark (see the definition Sail the Course and rule 28.1), and boats were required to round mark 4 in such a way that a string representing their tracks would, when drawn taut, touch the mark in order to comply with rule 28.1 (solid-line course in the diagram). And that for boats that merely passed mark 4 on their port sides (dashed-line course in the diagram), the taut string would not touch mark 4, and therefore they had not complied with rule 28.1.

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 the definition Sail the Course) is not changed solely because the configuration of the course has changed.

Rule 28.1 requires boats to “sail the course” as that term is defined in the Definitions. The definition Sail the Course (b) states, “A boat sails the course when...a string representing her track until she finishes, when drawn taut, (1) passes each mark of the course for the race on the required side and in the correct order (including the starting marks), [and] (2) touches each mark designated in the sailing instructions to be a rounding mark...”.

The sailing instructions did not designate any marks as 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 28.1.”

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

Revised January 2025, to clarify the facts and to quote the definition Sail the Course.