CASE 31
Sportsmanship and the Rules
Rule 2, Fair Sailing
Rule 26, Starting Races
Rule 29.1, Recalls: Individual Recall
Rule 62.1, Redress
Rule 64.3, Decisions: Decisions on Redress
Race Signals: Recall Signals X
When the correct visual recall signal for individual recall is
made but the required sound signal is not, and when a
recalled boat in a position to hear a sound signal does not
see the visual signal and does not return, she is entitled to
redress. However, if she realizes she is on the course side of
the line she must return and start correctly.
Facts
At the start of a race the visual individual recall signal required by rule 29.1
was correctly made, but the required sound signal was not. One of the
recalled boats, A, did not return, was scored OCS and later requested redress
on the grounds that she started simultaneously with the starting signal and
heard no recall sound signal.
The protest committee found that A was not entirely on the pre-start side of
the starting line at the starting signal. It adjusted A’s score by giving her a
finishing place as redress because of the absence of the sound signal. This
changed the finishing place of boat B. B then asked for redress, claiming
that her finishing place was affected by what she believed to have been an
improper decision to give a finishing place to A. B was not given redress,
and she appealed on the grounds that rule 26 states, ‘the absence of a sound
signal shall be disregarded.’
Decision
Rule 62.1(a) has three requirements for giving redress. The first is that ‘an
improper action or omission’ has occurred. Here, the race committee did not
make the sound signal required by rule 29.1, an omission that was clearly
improper. The second requirement is that a boat’s finishing place has been
‘made significantly worse’. Here, this requirement is met since A was
scored OCS. The third requirement is that a boat suffered the consequences
of the improper action or omission ‘through no fault of her own’. Here, A
had no part in causing the race committee to omit the sound signal and she
thought she had started correctly.
The requirement in rule 29.1 and in Race Signals regarding the making of a
sound signal when flag X is displayed is essential to call the attention of
boats to the fact that one or more of them are being recalled. When the sound
signal is omitted from an individual recall, and a recalled boat in a position
to hear a sound signal does not see the visual signal and does not return, she
is entitled to redress. However, a boat that realizes that she was on the course
side of the line is not entitled to redress, and she must comply with rules
28.1 and, if it applies, rule 30.1. If she fails to do so, she breaks those rules.
In addition, she fails to comply with the first Basic Principle, Sportsmanship
and the Rules, and breaks rule 2.
When it is decided that a boat is entitled to redress, rule 64.3 requires the
protest committee to ‘make as fair an arrangement as possible for all boats
affected.’ When the situation involves a boat scored OCS, if the redress
given is to adjust the boat’s race score or finishing place, it should reflect
the fact that, generally, when a recalled boat returns to the pre-course side
of the line after her starting signal, she starts some time after boats that were
not recalled. An allowance for that time should be made.
Concerning B’s request, the provision of rule 26 that ‘the absence of a sound
signal shall be disregarded’ applies only to the warning, preparatory, oneminute
and starting signals. When the individual recall signal is made, both
the visual and sound signals are required unless the sailing instructions state
otherwise.
B’s appeal is dismissed. The protest committee’s decision to give redress to
A is upheld.
GBR 1974/7