PART 5
In order to become a party in a valid hearing, Carina should have hailed and displayed a protest flag at the time of the incident in accordance with rule 61.1(a), and then lodged a protest within the time limit.
Rule 61.2 permits the protestor to remedy any defects in the particulars required by that rule, provided that the protest identifies the incident. However, this facility does not extend to a protest committee itself initiating the changing of request for redress into a boat v boat protest, and does not permit the protest committee to protest on the basis of a report from a competitor.
‘…or an invalid protest…’
The same principle will apply when a protest by a boat or by the race committee is defective, which will usually be for failure to notify or for not lodging within the time limit.
‘…or from a report from a person with a conflict of interest other than the representative of the boat herself…’
Normally, an interested party would be a boat that would stand to gain from the penalisation of another boat, as in the Carina case referred to above. However, when a boat’s representative makes what is in effect a confession that the boat had broken a rule, the fact of being the boat’s representative permits the protest committee to rely on the information to support a protest, despite the representative having a conflict of interest, namely a close personal interest in any resulting decision. The Barada case, RYA1969/11, discussed above under rule 60.2(a), is equally applicable to rule 60.3(a) – indeed it concerns a protest committee protest.
When neither of the exceptions to rule 60.3 to be discussed below is applicable, the rule embodies the principle in WS 80, that a hearing and decision must be limited to a particular incident that has been described in the process. The cases show that the commonest error of protest committees is to believe that they should compensate for the procedural failures of others to ensure that a boat does not evade justice, as in WS 80 and in RYA 2006/8, as also already discussed under rule 28.2.
‘However, it may protest a boat…if it learns of an incident involving her that may have resulted in injury or serious damage…’
All the foregoing becomes academic if the protest committee learns of a serious incident. Any source, including a request for redress, an invalid protest or a report from an interested party, is permissible. If it gets this information from an invalid protest, and it wishes to protest one of the parties to that protest, it must lodge a fresh protest against her, and she is entitled to new notification of the new hearing, even if she was the protestee in the invalid protest and had been properly notified of the original hearing but had not been present1
.
If a boat is protested under this rule, the protest will not be valid until the protest committee first ascertains that there was indeed injury or serious damage2
.
In RYA 2003/3, there was a series of collisions between a group of small keelboats running in heavy weather, some of which incurred serious damage, and none of which lodged a valid protest3
. The protest committee decided to
protest some of the boats under rule 60.3(a)(1), based on an initial assessment that there had been more than one incident, but no serious damage in the first collision in which it later found that Iris (which it had not protested) had not kept clear of Daffodil. Boats in the subsequent collisions resulting in serious damage to some were disqualified. In a resulting appeal, the RYA added to its decision some general advice about applying rule 60.3(a)(1).
When there was an incident that may have resulted in injury or serious damage, rule 60.3(a)(1) states that a protest committee may protest any boat involved. At the time when it is deciding what action to take, it will not have firm facts as to the details of the incident or the precise involvement of each boat. The protest committee is allowed to protest any boat that may have been involved and, when it decides to protest, the RYA recommends that it should protest all boats that may have been involved. Stating a belief that rule 14 has been broken would be appropriate for this purpose.
Once the hearing begins, the protest committee must then identify the incident more precisely, and establish that injury or serious damage resulted from it.
1 RYA 2001/15 2 Rule 63.5 3 The incident predated rule 61.1(a)(4).
174 RYA The Racing Rules Explained
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255 |
Page 256
