PART 5
Improper Action by a Technical Committee This being a new possibility, there are no cases as yet.
The need for a causal link
The race officer who makes no mistakes has yet to be born, but the fact that there is an improper action or omission of the race committee must not lead to redress unless it is clear that it was that alone that caused a loss of score – and if there was a causal link, the appropriate redress may not restore the boat to her finishing position. The question in RYA 2006/2 was whether an OCS boat that did not return is entitled to redress when the individual recall signal is lowered prematurely – in this case only a minute after the starting signal, and with no valid reason for such an early lowering being applicable.
A boat is entitled to redress only when she can show that a mistake affected her finishing position. This might be because a boat was not able to see the committee boat during the period flag X was displayed, perhaps because of intervening boats, but would have been able to see it if it had been displayed for longer. Alternatively, she might be able to convince a protest committee that she had seen flag X, believed it might apply to her, and was on the point of returning when it was lowered. In either situation, the earliest time this could have affected the boat is the moment flag X was lowered... If the protest committee is not satisfied that the boat would have turned back if flag X had been displayed for longer, redress should be refused1.
WS 96, discussed under rule 30.4, makes the same point, as concerns a boat whose sail number was not displayed after a recalled Black Flag start, resulting in her taking part in the restart, and being scored DNE.
While not displaying her sail number is an improper omission by the race committee, it is not the omission that deprived her of her finishing place, but the fact that she had been on the course side of the starting line in the minute before her starting signal.
So her only entitlement was the correction of her score from DNE to BFD, as if her number had been displayed and she had abstained from the restart.
…by injury or physical damage because of the action of a boat that was breaking a rule of Part 2 or of a vessel not racing that was required to keep clear.
Redress for injury or physical damage resulting from another boat’s breach of a rule of Part 2 will often arise from a protest in which the other boat is penalised for her breach. The word ‘physical’ is designed to exclude ‘damage’ to a boat’s finishing position that could arise from time lost while avoiding a boat required to keep clear2
from a capsize that did nor result in physical damage. It is therefore the same sort of damage referred to in rule 14(b) and discussed under that rule. Although the rule does not say so, any injury must also be ‘physical’. So time lost in recovering the boat’s own uninjured crew member from the water following an incident is no ground for redress.
It is not enough that there was injury or physical damage – there must be a causal link with the boat’s finishing position. It is quite possible for a boat to be damaged in a collision for which the other boat was responsible, yet be able to continue to race with undiminished speed and unimpaired handling: in which case no redress is possible3
. It would
follow that, despite an injury caused by another boat that has been suffered by a crew member of a well-crewed boat, redress is due only when the boat can show a significantly worsened score resulting from the injury, because the crew member is unable to perform his or her normal duties. If that injured crew member was also overboard, and has to be recovered before the boat continues to race at normal speed, it would seem that redress would be due only to the extent that the time taken to recover the injured person was longer than if there had been no injury.
, or while recovering
1 But what redress to give when it is due? See further information from this case under rule 64.2. Also, WS 31 makes clear that if a boat knows
that she is OCS, but does not return, no error in signalling an individual recall will ever lead to redress for her 2 WS 110 3 WS 110
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 191
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