How Not To Do It?

I believe rule 69 was mentioned in the context of competitors trying to "persuade" others to withdraw requests for redress. It would be the competitor who is trying to put pressure on the requestor not to go through with the request who may face the wrath of the Jury. It would depend on the degree of persuasion being applied!

In the case of a Worlds - do we really want the Championship to be won by someone who was repeatedly OCS but not penalised. In many ways it would have been better for the RO to request redress, or take it upon himself to abandon the other questionable races.

Certainly, if a protest committee finds that a boat is clearly over the line (clearly meaning that even the competitors on board could not ignore the fact) and continues to race, even without a black flag, then there is a distinct possibility that this will be found to be a deliberate breach of a rule, which is a rule 2 infringement.

Personally I believe that the attitude that lets a fleet sail on even if many boats were OCS is not one to be encouraged. There are remedies - I understand that the RO at the recent Squib Nationals blackflagged 25% of the fleet in one race (108 boats competing). Sending a Jury boat down the line a minute before the start can work. I have seen one RO take the radical step of setting a line with ahuge committee boat bias and blackflagging a large number of boats (not exactly fair, but it certainly calmed the fleet down). In some cases making the line longer is effective.



Gordon

The role of on the water Jurys is often a matter for discussion between the judges and the organising authority. Judges are neither umpires nor referees. They only intervene when requested to do so.

If the Jury has been requested (and the SIs are written accordingly) to apply Appendix P (rule 42 on the water) then they will do so. However, each Jury will then decide on a policy for Jury protests. Very often the decision is taken not to intervene, or any protest would be limited to rule 2 infringements, not sailing the course in the absence of other boats, or hitting the mark and not taking a penalty.

So if a prt tack boat infringes the Jury boat may well follow policy and leave it to the competitors to protest. Apparently, in this case no competitor felt sufficient ly aggreived to protest.

Gordon