CASE 31        

Sportsmanship and the Rules
Rule 2 Fair Sailing
Rule 26 Starting Races
Rule 28.1 Sailing the Course
Rule 29.1 Starting; Recalls: Individual Recall
Race 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 over the line she must return and start correctly.

Summary of the Facts
At the start of a race the visual individual recall signal required by rule 29.1 was correctly made, but the accompanying sound signal was not made. One of the recalled boats, A, did not return 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 gave A redress, but, at the end of the day B, another boat, requested redress from the protest committee's earlier decision. B was not given redress, and she then appealed on the grounds that rule 26 states: ‘the absence of a sound signal shall be disregarded’.

Decision
Appeal dismissed. The protest committee’s decision to give redress to A is upheld. 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. (If the redress given is to adjust the boat’s race score, 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 usually starts some time after boats that were not recalled. An allowance for that time should be made.) However, a boat that realizes that
she was over 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 rule 2 and fails to comply with the Basic Principle, Sportsmanship and the Rules. Concerning Boat B’s request, the provision of Rule 26 that ‘the absence of a sound signal shall be disregarded’ applies only to the warning, preparatory, one-minute and starting signals. When the individual recall signal is made, both the visual and sound signals are required unless the sailing instructions state otherwise.

RYA 1974/7