The Racing Rules of Sailing
General Recall and Identified Boats
This weekend in a regatta, RC called a General Recall for a start in our 6 boat class. The RC then hailed “General Recall, the only boat not OCS was [our boat name].” It seems that the RC identified all boats who were OCS. My question is what would redress look like if we protested RC? We did not, but could we have?
Created: Yesterday 17:03
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As I note below, it's possible the RC is not able to manage that recall, but giving it a try is the most fair thing to do.
On a lighter real politik note, I have heard of a case where 90% of a fleet of racers who were powerful locally were called OCS in a race. The jury backed the RO, but the OA never asked him back to participate in subsequent years.
I don't think I buy the argument that a boat’s place or score in the restarted or resailed race coul be made worse by the general recall. They had as much chance to start advantageously as ever other boat in the race.
We're getting int what if territory here, but maybe, if the restarted race didn't run (was abandoned, or passed the 'no warning signal after' time) and boats lost a discard, so losing the discard was caused by the delay caused by the improper general recall, you could say a boat's series score was made worse and give redress, which might be average points to all boats, and the race to count in the series.
However, in interest of fairness, the proper action is for the RC to allow the race to proceed by individually calling all others OCS. It is as patently unfair to deny a proper start to one boat as it would be to ignore one OCS. No matter how many boats are in the class, a fair start is the sole obligation the RC has to the competitors, if the minority or majority of boats get it wrong they are not owed another chance.
In a six boat class, a really good race committee should be able to identify the five OCS boats and recall them AND clear them.
Trouble determining who has cleared is what an RC that's unable to accurately make the recall could stand on. I once did the "all boats except" x-flag but was completely unable to determine which boats had cleared, especially since we didn't have a round-the-ends rule in effect. Making this call would require excellent work from the RC team and a lot of confidence, as well as some willingness to try, and then to abandon if needed. Since this was not done, it might be worth a heart-to-heart with the PRO that day. What would it take for that PRO to be able to make the call of five boats over? Do they know they can wait to hail numbers for many seconds while gathering data? Do they have a recorder onboard who is writing down everything they say? Are they running an audio recorder at the starts? Most club RC's are just not equipped to call more than say 3-4 boats OCS.
While racing at Tufts, it was not strange to hear a hail after a start, "Everyone is over except 7 and 11," in a 20 boat fleet.
Years later at Key West Race Week I heard people in the Melges 24 fleet grumbling that the PRO had called around 60 boats in a 100 boat fleet OCS during the first race. They were actually rounding the windward mark as the VHF was still having bow numbers read off. My first question, "who's the PRO? Legler?" And in fact it was. Surprise surprise, that didn't happen again. Everyone was sure to start properly.
If you ask me, Ken was right about this. It's one of those things that Race Sense gets very right.
And Dustin, all, I freely admit that my opinion is also strongly influenced by Kenny Legs. Indeed I was channeling him all those years ago in my failed attempt to call ~14/18 boats over in a college race. For sure there are excuses for amateur/club RC's. We cannot all be Legler, but we can darn well try!
If you want to talk generalities, race officers dance a fine line between being "fair" and having a group of people waiting for you with torches and pitchforks at the end of the day. We all want to make sure everybody has a good time and we get invited back. We're not talking about the Olympics here. This particular instance occurred at a marketing event where a sailboat race breaks out.
Was it fair to the one boat that started properly? Probably not. Was it politically wise to give it another try? Probably. Was it smart to make the "everybody was over except . . . " announcement after a general recall? Almost certainly not.
If I were RO It does seem unfair so if that many boats were going to be over, I would AP the start and reset.
When at the starting signal the race committee is unable to
identify boats that are on the course side of the starting line or
to which rule 30 applies, or there has been an error in the
starting procedure, the race committee may signal a general
recall
If the race committee was unable to identify all boats at the starting signal, but later did so after signalling general recall, there is no improper action.
IF
The race committee may signal general recall
ELSE
ELSE
The race committee shall signal individual recall.
1. At the starting signal the race committee was able to identify boats that were on the course side of the starting line.
2. There was not an error in the starting procedure.
Neither of the reasons to signal a general recall apply, so it is an improper action of the race committee to signal a general recall. Rule 61.4(b)(1) entitles her to redress if her position score or place in a race or series has been made, or may be made, significantly worse through no fault of her own.
It was not her fault.
The difficult part is determining if "her position score or place in a race or series has been made, or may be made, significantly worse" If none of the boats returned the scores would have been 1, OCS, OCS, OCS, OCS, OCS. so likely her position in the series was made worse.
The next problem is what redress do you give... maybe you grant redress, but let the scores stand.