The Racing Rules of Sailing

Scheduled number of races

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Michael Lipari
Certifications:
  • Club Judge
  • Club Race Officer
A regatta has a fleet of 7 boats racing.  

1.)   The regatta uses the following language in the Sis and NORs “five races scheduled for the regatta”.  
2.)   The regatta includes one throw out if 5 races are run.
3.)   The protest time limit was 30 minutes after the committee boat signaled they were ashore.
4.)   The winds are high during the regatta with all other fleets deciding not to race after the 4th race.

At the end of race 4, Boat C decided to go in for the day with the knowledge that 5th race would be their throw out and their position in the regatta could not change.  At the end of 5 races the scores for the top 4 boats are as follows (I did not include boats 5-7 because places did not change):

Scores after Race 5


Race committee decided to run a 6th race.  Boat C was no longer on the water, the other 6 boats raced the 6th race.  After 6 races the score were:

Scores after race 6


Boat A moved into first place winning the tie breaker under rule A8.2 and Boat C moved from 3rd to 4th.

The scores were posted about 45 minutes after the committee boat was ashore or 15 minutes after the protest time limit.  The skipper of boat C did not even know a 6th race was run until the scores were posted.  

The skippers of boat A and C talked and the Skipper of boat A decided to ask for redress about 5 minutes after scores were posted.  The organizing authority told him not to bother filling out a form because the time limit had expired.

Questions:

1.)   Should race 6 have been scored?
2.)   For redress, when you do not know if it is needed until after scores are posted, is the protest time limit the correct limit to use for filing.
3.)   Is the time limit different if boat A or Boat C requests redress.  Boat A knew a 6th race was run before the scores were posted, boat C did not.
4.)   How would a redress hearing find for the competitors.

Created: Today 19:07

Comments

Format:
Mark Townsend
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
  • International Umpire
  • International Race Officer
  • International Judge
1.)   Should race 6 have been scored?

No

2.)   For redress, when you do not know if it is needed until after scores are posted, is the protest time limit the correct limit to use for filing.

No. as soon as reasonably possible after the relevant information is available.

3.)   Is the time limit different if boat A or Boat C requests redress.  Boat A knew a 6th race was run before the scores were posted, boat C did not.

Yes

4.)   How would a redress hearing find for the competitors.

Instruct race committee to not score race 6. 

Created: Today 19:53
Michael Lipari
Certifications:
  • Club Judge
  • Club Race Officer
Thanks - that is what I thought, but was not sure on number 3 because A could argue they did not know race 6 would be scored until scores posted.  But they did know the race was run and should have filed immediately.
Created: Today 20:08
Tim OConnell
Nationality: Canada
Certifications:
  • Umpire In Training
  • Club Judge
Did the SI's say a maximum of 5 races or a minimum of 5 races? 
Created: Today 20:02
Michael Lipari
Certifications:
  • Club Judge
  • Club Race Officer
It used the words "five races scheduled for the regatta"
Created: Today 20:07
Vince Harris
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
  • Club Judge
I think that can reasonably be interpreted to say that they won't be running 6.

To your other point above though, I don't think it's incumbent on boat A to file a request for redress until he sees the scoring.  His filing 5 minutes later meets 61.2 (b) (3).  With this committee you don't know what they're up to.  Maybe they offered to run an extra race that wasn't expected to count?  But when we see the scores ... !
Created: Today 20:20
Jim Champ
Nationality: United Kingdom
> I think that can reasonably be interpreted to say that they won't be running 6.
I'm not sure about that. 
The ordinary dictionary meaning of scheduled is "planned to happen at a particular time"

Five races were scheduled. Five scheduled races were run. One unscheduled race was run. I don't think that what we have seen of the NOR specifically precludes running an unscheduled race.  
I have known an event in champagne sailing conditions where the RC twiced asked the competitors if they wanted an extra race, and they ended up with two more than the original schedule.

On redress, I can see redress of average points for a boat that doesn't sail an unscheduled race, but throwing the race out completely doesn't feel fair to the other competitors. My inclination would be to give C average points for R6 on the grounds that, having sailed in, there was no way she could know there was going to be an unscheduled race, but OTOH if running an unscheduled race was not an improper action, what are the grounds for redress?
Created: Today 21:40
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