PART 5
Suppose however that the protest form makes no mention of redress, the protest (probably under a rule of Part 2) is heard after the end of the time limit and is upheld, and the facts now found would support a claim for redress, based on injury, physical damage, unfair sailing or gross misconduct – yet the protest committee does not decide on its own initiative to award redress. Can the protestor now ask for redress for the first time, based on the ‘incident’ being the protest committee’s announcement of the facts? This is not clear, but if the announcement is not an incident, there would nevertheless seem to be a good reason for the protest time limit to be extended, and a conscientious protest committee should in any case consider a possible unrequested redress entitlement during the protest hearing, or act separately under rule 60.3(b) in the affected boat’s favour. Rule 62.2 speaks of a time limit only in connection with a ‘request’, and rule 62.1 distinguishes between a competitor’s request for redress’ and a protest committee’s ‘decision to consider redress’. Therefore, there does not appear to be any time limit on a protest committee deciding to consider redress based on the facts arising from a protest hearing.
Section B – Hearings and Decisions Rule 63 63.1
HEARINGS Requirement for a Hearing
A boat or competitor shall not be penalized without a protest hearing, except as provided in rules 30.2, 30.3, 30.4, 64.3(d), 64.4(b), 69, 78.2, A5 and P2. A decision on redress shall not be made without a hearing. The protest committee shall hear all protests and requests for redress that have been delivered to the race office unless it allows a protest or request to be withdrawn.
The explicit exceptions to the general principle of ‘no penalty without a protest hearing’ are: • Rules 30.2, 30.3 and 30.4 – UFD, BFD and DNE under the U flag and black flag rules • Rules 64.4(b) and 69 – there must be a hearing, but it is not a protest hearing • Rule 64.3(d) – no fresh hearing required in order to activate a penalty under a class rule when it has been postponed by a stated intention to appeal, but the boat then either does not appeal or loses the appeal
• Rule 78.2 – non-production of a required certificate • Rule P2 – various penalties imposed by the protest committee under rule 42, but only when the sailing instructions allow
• The other stated exceptions in rule A5 – DNS, DNF, RET, and SCP under rule 30.2 or 44.3(a)
When none of the exceptions apply, a protest hearing is needed if a boat is to be penalised. This rule can be changed by sailing instructions, and, as discussed under rule 28.1, it is quite legitimate for this to be done to allow a race committee to disqualify a boat without a hearing when she is seen not to sail the course. If the boat is unhappy, she can request redress. Such a sailing instruction should say that rules 63.1 and A5 are changed.
Otherwise, penalisation without a hearing can be contested by requesting redress. If it is a protest committee that has disqualified a boat without a hearing, requesting redress is possible under rule 62.1(a) despite its second clause, since the boat was not previously a party to any hearing. Whether it is the protest committee or the race committee that has purported to penalise, the proper outcome of a redress hearing should be reinstatement, since it is the disqualification that is the incident, not the circumstances that gave rise to the disqualification. The scope of the hearing is not to be expanded beyond consideration of the incident1
. So if the complaint is justified,
reinstatement is the appropriate redress, and, if the time limit for protests has expired, there is no good reason for the protest committee to extend the time limit to allow a late written protest to be lodged over the same alleged facts, if a protest in writing could have been lodged within the time limit.
A protest must be heard even if a protestor has already been penalised for an earlier incident in, or has retired from, the race in question. ‘When a boat continues to race after an alleged breach of a rule, her rights and obligations under the rules do not change2
race under rules 30.3, U flag rule and 30.4, black flag rule, and a boat already scored OCS.
1 WS 80, RYA 1989/7, RYA 1989/8, RYA 1999/3, RYA 2001/12 2 WS 1, US 1
194 RYA The Racing Rules Explained .’ That would seem to include a boat that is already disqualified in that
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