CASE 32

Rule 86, Changes to the Racing Rules
Rule 90.2(c), Race Committee; Sailing Instructions; Scoring: Sailing Instructions

A competitor is entitled to look exclusively to the notice of race or to written sailing instructions for all details relating to sailing the course.

Facts

The sailing instructions included, among other things, the following:

  1. All races will be sailed under The Racing Rules of Sailing except as modified below.
  2. A briefing will be held in the clubroom 60 minutes before the start of the first race each day.
  3. Shortened Course will be signalled by two guns and raising of flag S and the class flag. Boats in that class will round the mark about to be rounded by the leading boat and go straight to the finishing line. This changes the meaning of flag S in the Race Signals.

At one of the briefings, the race officer attempted to clarify the phrase ‘go straight to the finishing line’ in item 3 by stating that when the course was shortened, all boats should cross the finishing line in a windward direction. This would ensure that all classes, some of which might be finishing from different marks, would finish in the same direction even if that were not the direction of the course from the mark at which the course was shortened.

Subsequently, a race was shortened. Six boats, which had not attended the briefing, followed the written sailing instructions and crossed the finishing line from the course side of the line. To cross the line from its course side, it was necessary for those boats to cross while sailing downwind. The six boats were recorded as not finishing, and sought redress. The boats alleged that the race committee had improperly changed the definition Finish and had failed to follow the requirements of rule 90.2(c). The protest committee upheld their requests for redress on the grounds they had cited.

The race committee appealed to the national authority, asserting that the briefing sessions were a numbered part of the sailing instructions, all competitors should have attended, and the briefings constituted a procedure for giving oral instructions. Also, it argued that the sailing instructions were not changed but merely clarified by the race officer as to what the words ‘go straight to the finishing line’ meant.

Decision

Appeal dismissed. The remarks of the race officer amounted to more than mere clarification. This is borne out by the fact that the boats that did not attend the briefing acted as they did. Competitors are entitled to look exclusively to the notice of race and the sailing instructions, and to any amendments to them, for all particulars of the course, and rule 90.2(c) requires changes to the sailing instructions to be in writing. Moreover, rule 86.1 does not permit either the notice of race or the sailing instructions to change the definition Finish or the definition of any other term defined in Definitions. (Exceptions can occur when rule 86.2 or 86.3 applies.)

GBR 1975/3