ISAF Q&A 2010 – 007, 008 & 009

Again a triplet from the ISAF Racing Rules Q&A panel.
For one thing you can’t say they are not active. With the publication of the new rules cycle 2009-2012 in total now 41 + 9 = 50 Q&A’s have been published, on top of the 20 from previous years.
The smart thing to do is to download the most recent Racing Rules Q&A booklet (20100215). That way you have all the pertinent information in one place.
The new Q&A’s published on the Website are:
ISAF Racing Rules Q&A 2010 – 007 about national prescriptions not complying with rule 86.1(a) and therefore does not validly deny the right of appeal.
This Q&A makes it clear that it is not so easy to deny appeal rights to competitors. The OA or even an MNA might want to do this for the sake of simplicity or for any other reason, but they better make doubly sure they do it the correct way. A sentence in a national rules book as prescription does not comply. The only sure way is to get an International Jury to the event.
ISAF Racing Rules Q&A 2010 – 008 is about redress when boats get entangled with marks. From the answer:

For a boat that gets entangled in a mark’s ground tackle to be entitled to redress under rule 62.1(a), there must first be an improper action or omission by the race committee. This will be so only if there is a risk of entanglement that boats could not reasonably be expected to anticipate and the race committee could clearly have done something different that would have avoided or substantially reduced this risk.

ISAF Racing Rules Q&A 2010 – 009 about the finishing mark and rules 18.2 and 18.5.
In short; a finishing mark is not different from any other mark with regards to rules 18.2 & 18.5. You have mark-room depending how the zone is entered and you’ll be exonerated for breaking a rule in Section A. The fact that you can sail another course to also reach the finish line, does not in itself switch rules 18.2 or 18.5 off.

About the Q&A’s: Unlike the ISAF Cases, which are authoritative interpretations and explanations of the rules, these answers are solely to assist Race Officials in applying the rules consistently.
International Race Officials who would like to submit a question to the Q&A Service should do so via email to the ISAF
.