View from the Protest Room
At
Team Whistler we are not used to the dark and murky world of the protest
- firstly because the Skipper has a pathological aversion to anything
on the race track that could damage his pride and joy - and secondly because
time in the protest room is time away from the bar! However a week or
so ago we found ourselves on the wrong side of a protest in a race of
the HRSC Garmin Winter Series.
The details of the incident itself are complicated enough, involving a
number of yachts and 60,000 tonnes of container ship. The rights or wrongs
of the situation would, we felt, be very much subject to the opinion of
the Protest Committee - but we did feel that we had a very strong defence
in the timing of the hail and display of the red flag.
During the week we were able to bounce the situation around a number of
our fellow 31.7 skippers and got not only a great deal of helpful advice
but an immense amount of moral support!
Looking at the RRS, Rule 61.1a states that "A boat intending to protest
shall inform the other boat at the first reasonable opportunity. When
her protest concerns an incident in the racing area that she is involved
in or sees, she shall hail 'Protest' and conspicuously display a red flag
at the first reasonable opportunity for each". In our case we did
not get hailed at the incident, on the next windward leg, or the leeward
leg after it, in fact not until halfway up the final beat. This delay
did mean that we had no opportunity to protest any other parties (or even
identify some of them).
The first thing the Protest Committee did, having checked that we were
happy with the composition of the panel was to check the details about
the calling of the protest itself. To give our protestor their due, they
did not try to claim that they had hailed or displayed the red flag immediately
but confirmed that they had displayed the red flag shortly after the incident
and hailed us "at the next approach", suggesting that this some
10-15 minutes later.
Here I was able to politely chip in and with the benefit of the print-out
from my handheld GPS, advise that the incident happened at 12.06 and that
the hail was not received until sometime after the final beat was started
at 12.50; I was also able to gently able to correct the protestor who
had suggested that he had hailed on the next leg...
At this point the Committee asked both myself and the protestor to leave
the room and, after a few minutes discussion, called us in to advise that
the protest was ineligible because the hail and display were not made
in time. They then carefully explained their reasoning with the help of
examples from the RYA - and offered advice for the next time!
So, getting to the point at last, the advice they gave us was:-
- If
you intend to protest, or are even considering it, do it immediately
at the incident - use your next breath to shout "PROTEST!";
you can then display the red flag at the first reasonable opportunity
- even a delay of 5-10 minutes could invalidate a protest. You can always
decide not to progress later.
- Make
the hail even if you are not sure that the protestee will hear it.
- Have
your red flag handy and ready to be unfurled - on the backstay, or the
pushpit - you don't want to have to rummage around for it and accidentally
end up displaying someone's bright red underwear...
A few things that I would add, whether you are a protestor or protestee:-
- Talk
it through with someone - there is a huge amount of experience in the
31.7 fleet and I found everyone very willing to offer support and advice.
- Get
your facts straight with any data and evidence in order - I feel that
it adds credibility if you can confidently state "this happened
at 12.06" rather than "I think it was at... but I'm not sure
because I was busy..."
- Unless
it's catastrophic keep it in perspective - this is something we do for
fun after all!
All that said, I still prefer to spent my post race time in the bar!
AUTHOR:
Mark
Lloyd - Whistler GBR 7592T
DATE:
21 November 2005