PART 3 29.2 General Recall
When at the starting signal the race committee is unable to identify boats that are on the course side of the starting line or to which rule 30 applies, or there has been an error in the starting procedure, the race committee may signal a general recall (display the First Substitute with two sounds). The warning signal for a new start for the recalled class shall be made one minute after the First Substitute is removed (one sound), and the starts for any succeeding classes shall follow the new start.
A general recall can be signalled after the starting signal in the following circumstances: • There are unidentified boats on the course side at the starting signal • Rule 30.1, 30.2, 30.3 or 30.4 were in force, and there were unidentified boats on the course side in the minute before the starting signal
• There was an error in the starting procedure.
The first is the norm, the second and third are, in my experience, rare. If the second applies, but the boats have returned at their starting signal, what is to be gained by recalling the start? No virtuous competitor will have been disadvantaged. For starting procedure errors, flag AP before the starting signal and flag N after the starting signal are more commonly used. If there is a gross mistiming with no signals at the starting time, and if rule 30.4, Black Flag Rule applies, then to make a belated starting signal followed by a general recall requires the disqualification of boats who crossed the starting line on what should have been their starting signal, as they are on the course side in the minute before their starting signal. The rule then requires them not to take part in the restart, a situation that no redress can adequately cope with other than possibly for the restarted race to be abandoned. The same would apply to the recall of a rule 30.2 Z flag start. On the other hand, flag AP has no such complications, and in particular, no penalisation.
While the display of flag X is compulsory if one or more OCS boats can be identified (‘shall’) a general recall is permissive (‘may’). Some race officers will use a general recall even if only a few boats cannot be identified, while others will let a start go if no one appeared to gain an unfair advantage from being too early. Like the tide, opinion as to best practice seems to ebb and flow.
Very occasionally, a race officer is able to be sure of who is over by being to identify all the few that are not. The appropriate signal in this case would be an individual recall.
As with all signals other than under rule 26, the signal is both the flag and the sound. So when there were two sounds, but a hail of ‘General recall!’ rather than a flag, and a boat heard all the sounds and decided to continue racing (with three others), believing that she at least was not OCS, redress of a finishing place was deemed appropriate1
. Rule 30 30.1 STARTING PENALTIES I Flag Rule
If flag I has been displayed, and any part of a boat’s hull, crew or equipment is on the course side of the starting line or one of its extensions during the last minute before her starting signal, she shall sail across an extension to the pre-start side before starting.
1 RYA 1982/7 RYA The Racing Rules Explained 137
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