PART 5 60.2
A race committee may (a) protest a boat, but not as a result of information arising from a request for redress or an invalid protest, or from a report from a person with a conflict of interest other than the representative of the boat herself;
(b) request redress for a boat; or (c) report to the protest committee requesting action under rule 69.2(b).
Since the operative word is ‘may’, a race committee is under no obligation to protest a boat, even when it knows (or should know) the facts that would justify a protest – a request for redress for failure by the race committee to enforce its sailing instructions will fail, as there is no improper act or omission1
. So in WS 39, a joint protest by
several boats against one other over class rules (a simple issue of the number of crew on board) was found invalid for lack of a red flag. The protestors appealed, on the grounds that the race committee should have brought its own protest.
To uphold this appeal would amount to a conclusion that a race committee ought to know the class rules of each class, and that it then has an obligation to enforce them when members of the class themselves fail to do so. No such obligation is placed on a race committee and, furthermore, rule 60.2(a) is clearly discretionary.
Rule 60.2(a) lists three sources of information that are not permitted to result in a race committee protest. If the enforcement of a sailing instruction by a race committee requires a protest, then a request seeking redress for enforcement by the race committee of its sailing instruction will fail, not only because the word ‘may’ makes action optional, but also because this rule makes it impossible. It would seem that it does not matter whether the request for redress is valid or invalid (although it is explicitly stated to matter in the case of information from a protest), and the words ‘information arising from a request for redress’ suggests something wider than just what is written in the request. This may mean that if information that might lead a race committee to wish to protest is supplied in a request for redress, the race committee is precluding from seeking corroboration from some other witness to bypass the ban on using the information in the request.
The rule also precludes the race committee from protesting ‘as a result of information arising from…an invalid protest.’ So if Daffodil protests Iris for touching a mark, and the protest is found to be invalid, the race committee cannot use that information alone, if the protest time limit allows, to lodge its own protest. However, as in the last paragraph, it is unclear whether the race committee can bypass this by making its own enquiries.
A person with a conflict of interest, as newly defined, is here someone who has a close personal interest in the decision. It is not for the race committee to do a competitor’s dirty work, and the crew of the boat in the race or series will clearly stand to gain from the penalisation of a fellow competitor if the race committee protests her based on their report. So the boat must lodge her own valid protest2
. Likewise, a report from a parent or coach
cannot be acted on because of the close personal interest, if the outcome of a protest might benefit the boat they are associated with.
1 RYA 1999/2 2 RYA 1990/7
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 171
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