CASE 32        

Rule 89.2(c), Race Committee; Sailing Instructions; Scoring: Sailing Instructions

A competitor is entitled to look exclusively to written sailing instructions and to any written amendments for all details relating to sailing the course.

Summary of the Facts
The sailing instructions included, among other things, the following:

1. All races will be sailed under The Racing Rules of Sailing with RYA prescriptions, except as modified hereunder.
2. A briefing will be held in the clubroom 60 minutes before the start of the first race each day.
3. Shorten 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 a briefing, the race officer clarified the phrase in item 3, ‘go straight to the finishing line’, as meaning just that, but boats should finish in a windward direction to ensure that all classes, some of which might be finishing from different marks, should finish in the same direction.

Subsequently, a race was shortened. Six boats, which had not attended the briefing, followed the written sailing instructions, 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 89.2(c). The protest committee upheld their requests for redress on the grounds they had cited.

The race committee appealed to the national authority, holding 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 for the 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 sailing instructions and to any amendments for all particulars of the course. Rule 89.2(c) requires changes to the sailing instructions to be in writing. In any case the sailing instructions cannot change the definition Finish (see rule 86).

RYA 1975/3