Case 55
Definitions, Party
Rule 62.1, Redress
Rule 70.1, Appeals and Requests to a National Authority
A boat cannot protest the race committee. However, she may request redress or, if she is a party to a hearing, request that it be reopened. A boat that was not a party to a hearing does not have the right to appeal. When she believes that her score has been made significantly worse by an improper action or omission of the race committee, her only remedy is to request redress. She may then appeal the decision of the redress hearing.
Facts
Boat A "protested" the race committee because of inadequate rescue facilities in contravention of the club's constitution. After receiving A's "protest", the race committee abandoned the completed race. No hearing took place as a result of A's "protest". Boat B appealed.

Decision
B's appeal is refused because it cannot be heard under rule 70.1. B does not have the right to appeal because she was not a party to a hearing. Therefore her "appeal" is in fact not an appeal but a request for redress that could have been addressed to and heard by the protest committee.

The following points may assist in the understanding of this case:
  1. Only a boat can be protested; there is no provision in the racing rules under which a boat can protest the race committee. The only actions a boat can take against the race committee or any other body listed in rule 62.1(a) is to request redress when she claims that her score or place in a race or a series of races has been made significantly worse through no fault of her own by an improper action or omission of the body concerned, or to ask for a hearing to be reopened under rule 66 when she is a party to it. In this case, A made no such request; her "protest" was merely a criticism of the race committee, which has no significance under the racing rules.
  2. Quite apart from her right under the racing rules to request redress, a competitor is at liberty to point out to the race committee that it has made an error. When aware of its error, the race committee may consider abandoning the race under rule 32.1 or try to have the error taken into account by asking the protest committee to consider giving redress as permitted by rule 60.2(b).
  3. If B had been a competitor in the race, or the series if the race was part of a series, and had lodged a valid request for redress under rule 62.1(a) claiming that her score or place in the race or series had been made significantly worse through no fault of her own by the abandonment of the race, she would have been entitled to a redress hearing at which she would have been a party. She then could have appealed the decision of that hearing.
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