Boat X requests redress under rule
62.1(b) claiming that her score in a race has been, through no fault of her own, made significantly worse by injury or physical damage caused by the action of boat Y that was breaking a rule of Part 2.
Does X need to protest Y to support her request for redress?
While a protest is the best way to establish that a boat broke a rule of Part 2, X is not required to protest Y. However, if X does protest Y after the incident that led to injury or physical damage and if the protest committee finds that Y did break a rule of Part 2, then clearly X can point to the outcome of her protest to establish that Y broke a rule of Part 2.
The Basic Principle, Sportsmanship and the Rules, states that all competitors, including X’s crew, are expected to enforce the rules, but there is no racing rule that requires X to protest Y in order to be eligible for redress under rule
62.1(b).
If X does not protest Y, her request for redress can succeed if evidence given during the redress hearing leads the protest committee to conclude that Y broke a rule of Part 2. Here are examples of evidence that would lead a protest committee to that conclusion:
- A member of Y’s crew is called as a witness, and the protest committee concludes from evidence given by the witness that Y took a penalty in acknowledgement of breaking a rule of Part 2 in the incident with X.
- A race official states that a representative of Y signed an acknowledgement of infringement or reported to a race official that Y took the appropriate penalty or retired from the race because she broke a rule of Part 2 in the incident with X.
- Any other evidence that leads the protest committee to conclude that Y broke a rule of Part 2 in the incident with X.