A significant area where a judge will interface with junior sailors is in the protest room. All sailors, but especially junior sailors, should expect a consistent and fair process, using language they can understand.

The protest hearing should be formal, and the judges should be firm, respectful, and helpful to all participants.

Junior sailors may not have had previous experience in a protest hearing. Ask at the start of the hearing, if this is their first hearing. If it is, the chairman should inform the parties and their coaches and witnesses of the process that will be followed, both initially and as the hearing proceeds.

Judges should use the vocabulary of the rules throughout the hearing and when communicating the facts found, conclusion and decisions. This will avoid misunderstanding.

A younger sailor may not have a full understanding of the terminology, rules and procedures. For example, it may be appropriate to ask questions that using defined terms and giving their meaning as well. “Was your spinnaker ahead of the other boat’s rudder?” may be a better question than, “Were you overlapped?”

Anticipate and arrange for interpreters prior to hearings between sailors with no common language. Where possible, have a judge who speaks the same language as the competitor(s) act as an interpreter. Otherwise, qualified coaches and other team supporters may be used as interpreters.

When judging any sport, being in the right position at the right time is crucial to doing a good job. For on-the-water rule 42 judging, the objective is to place boats in positions where they are close to potential problems. This requires: 

While it is clearly not possible to monitor all the boats all of the time, it is an achievable goal for the Judge boats to cover the course such that every racing boat is aware of their presence at some time during each race. The best way to be effective is to position your boat near the front of the fleet and motor along at a similar speed to the competitors. The Judges should pay closer attention to the leaders, but look with a wide vision, to scan as many competitors as possible. 
 
In many regattas with multi-fleets the Judges have insufficient resources to cover all of them. If choices have to be made Judges should prioritize starts, downwind legs, and finishing legs. 
 
When penalizing a boat, the driver must balance the need to be close enough to the competitor to signal the penalty clearly, while remaining sufficiently far away to stay clear of the penalty turns that the competitor may perform. 
 
Judges operating boats are responsible for ensuring that they minimize their engine wash, and that they position their boat in a manner that will minimize the effects of their wind shadow. 
 
Judge boats should try to cross boats at right angles maintaining a predictable course when close to competitors. Jury boats should be a minimum of five boat lengths away when crossing in front and one boat-length away when crossing behind. On downwind legs, be aware that in surfing conditions, competitors will often make dramatic course changes to take best advantage of the waves. If you find yourself too close to the boats, your best option may well be to stop and let the competitor sail around you. When doing this, the Jury boat driver can raise both hands up high as a signal to the competitors that the Jury boat has stopped. 
 
Except at the start and during the first beat, Jury boats should position themselves so they are visible to the maximum number of competing boats.