CASE 37        

Rule 32.1(d), Shortening or Abandoning After the Start
Rule 62.1(a), Redress

Each race of a regatta is a separate race; in a multi-class regatta, abandonment may be suitable for some classes, but not for all.

Summary of the Facts
In the third race of a regatta involving about 120 boats and 15 offshore classes, all classes sailed the same course on which a reaching mark was found to have shifted off station by almost a mile. Various boats in several classes sought redress because of it. None of the boats in the last two classes, which had approached the displaced mark for over an hour after the mark had shifted, found any need to protest. The protest committee, however, abandoned the race for all classes. The boats in the last two classes asked for redress but it was denied. They appealed.

Decision
Appeal upheld. The protest committee failed to distinguish between different procedures under which a race may be abandoned. The race committee could have abandoned the race under rule 32.1(d) because the mark was out of position. It did not do so, however, and appeared to have been satisfied to let the several races stand.

When several classes are racing at the same time, each class is competing in a separate race. Had the protest committee taken up the question on a class-by-class, race-by-race basis, it would have found that there was no requirement or need to abandon the race for the last two classes. There may have been sufficient evidence to warrant abandonment of the races of some classes, but the protest committee erred in applying it to the classes in which no redress was sought. Its decision to do so was an ‘improper action’ within the terms of rule 62.1(a). The appeals are upheld, and all of the boats in the races of the two classes in question are reinstated in their finishing places.

USSA 1977/200