Tuesday 25 December 2007

Exercise CASE; Writing a Protest

In studying rules you are always at the lookout for new cases. You can find situations raised by sailors in the varoius forums on the intenet: The following case was posted on the yachts and yachting forum a couple of weeks ago:

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3670&PN=1&TPN=6

An interesting case has just been raised in discussions relating to a claim. I'd be interested to learn the thoughts of any rules gurus.The situation is as follows:
The Sailing Instructions of a regatta contained the following: "Boats whose warning signal has not been made shall keep clear of the starting area and of all boats whose warning signal has been made. Attention is drawn to RRS22.1"
Boat A has missed her start and is approximately 200m downwind of the start line 90 seconds after her starting signal, sailing close hauled on port tack. Boat B is sailing in a different fleet awaiting her preparatory signal, sailing on starboard tack. As the two boats approach, boat A hails "We are racing", boat B "Hails starboard". Boat A attempts to take avoiding action, but fails and a collision occurs. Obviously if both boats were racing, boat A should keep clear as per RRS10, but as Boat B is not yet racing, she should keep clear of boat whose warning signal has been made, as per the sailing instructions.
My question to the forum is - When the Sailing Instructions and the Racing Rules are in conflict, which should take precedent?

You can read all answers given and find out what others think about this.

I suggest however, to approach it as if you were the PC handling this protest. Write the facts found, conclusion and rules applicable and a decision. If you cannot find a fact because you are not able to get an answer from a person, don't worry, just assume a fact and go on. The purpose of this exercise is to get skilled in handling the paperwork, i.e. writing a protest.
Good luck!

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