Forum: The Racing Rules of Sailing
Collision between boats, then race is abandoned.
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This situation is result of an informal discussion among couple judges.
Situation
During the first race on the last day of an event, there was a collision with serious damage between two boats racing A and B. Due to a drop in wind, the RC displays N over A before any boats finish the race. Boat A protests B and in the hearing boat B is found to have broken RRS 10 and 14.
Situation
During the first race on the last day of an event, there was a collision with serious damage between two boats racing A and B. Due to a drop in wind, the RC displays N over A before any boats finish the race. Boat A protests B and in the hearing boat B is found to have broken RRS 10 and 14.
Question 1
Which other rules apply and what is the decision?
Question 2
Same as Situation A but the collision happens at 4:30 min before the starting signal. Which other rules apply and what is the decision?
Question 3
Does the answers to the questions above change if boat B is found also have broken RRS 2 as well? If so, what is the decision?
Comments
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It is not generally a thing to comment on current hearings or decisions while they are still ongoing in an official status.
Doing so is not all that fair to our fellow judges.
In all cases, a hearing must be held.
Question 1 - Rules 10 & 14 are the rules of Part 2 that apply. Once the PC decides a rule has been broken they would look at rule 60.5(c). Because the race was abandoned, there is no penalty applied as the race was not completed, i.e. scored, unless and until the race is restarted or resailed. Then rule 36(b) would apply and the boat would be penalized. The penalty in that case would be that she must retire per rule 44.1(b). If she doesn't retire then she would be scored DSQ.
Question 2 - The answer is basically the same as Q1 because of the preamble to Part 2 which says that the rules of Part 2 apply when the boats are in the racing area intending to race. At -4:30 they aren't racing yet, but the rules of Part 2 apply. The second sentence of the preamble covers this and the boat can be penalized if the race is restarted or resailed. The penalty in that case would be that she must retire per rule 44.1(b). If she doesn't retire then she would be scored DSQ. The boats aren't racing at that point in time but I don't think that you would apply the last part of 60.5(c) and look to 'penalize the boat in the race sailed nearest in time to the incident' if the race was never restarted or resailed. I.e. you would not penalize the boat in race 3 or 5 if this happened during race 4.
Question 3 - All the answers are the same. The only difference would be that instead of being scored RET/DSQ, she would be scored DNE if the race is resailed or restarted.
Is the complication (Q2), whether to apply a penalty in the last race of the previous day? Interesting.
There are some other rabbit holes you can go down. What it they postponed instead of abandoned? The N flag is to abandon races that are in progress. Can you abandon a race before the warning signal or can you only postpone it? Does that change the answers? I would hope the answer is no.
(We are assuming that your use of "last day of an event" in your OP implies there were races scored in a preceding day)
PS: the rule does not say "closest in time that day".
RRS 60.5(c) If the protest committee decides that a boat has broken a rule it shall disqualify her [unless, among other things] ... the race is restarted or resailed in which case RRS 36 applies.
But RRS 36 provides that non-penalisation does not apply to a resail if the boat broke RRS 14 and she caused ... serious damage, so B can be penalised in any resail of the abandoned race.
If the abandoned race is never resailed, then B is not penalised.
If the serious damage made A's score significantly worse, grounds for redress under RRS 61.4(b)(2) exist and the boat may request redress under RRS 61.1(a) or, without the boat requesting it, the protest committee may consider redress under RRS 61.1(c).
If the race is never resailed, then A's score in that race has not been made worse and she is not entitled to redress in that race.
If the serious damage made or may have made S's score in later races significantly worse, and the abandoned race is never resailed, then B has not been penalised, the conditions of RRS 61.4(b) (2) are not met, and A cannot be given redress in any races.
Boats are not racing, but the rules of Part 2 apply (Preamble to Part 2) so that the conclusions about breaking RRS 10 and 14 are correct, and there was serious damage, so B may be penalised (Preamble to Part 2 last sentence).
Ah Haaah
RRS 60.5(c) last sentence requires that the disqualification shall apply to the race sailed nearest in time to the incident, which, if the race is resailed on the same day will probably be the resailed race, or it might be the preceding race.
So a boat breaking a Part 2 rule
I'm not troubled by this. I'm quite happy that a boat that is careless or otherwise breaks a Part 2 rule while not under the pressure of racing should be more severely dealt with than while racing.
A may now be entitled to redress, whether or not the abandoned race is resailed.
If B broke RRS 2, her penalty is DNE.
In accordance with RRS 36 non-penalisation does not apply to a resail if the boat broke RRS 2 so B can be penalised in any resail of the abandoned race.
If the abandoned race is never resailed, then, once again, B is not penalised, and A is not entitled to redress because there has been no penalty to B as required by RRS 61.4(b)(5).
There is an alternative interpretation of RRS 36 (b), which is that B is penalised, but if the abandoned race is never resailed, there is no race to which the penalty can be applied. This interpretation would open the door to redress for A in subsequent races.
Seems that the crux of the question.
I guess it comes down the def: abandon and what "void" means. I was looking at some definitions and I think the one that makes sense to me is "a space with nothing in it".
Consider a planned day of racing. NOR/SI's state there will be 3 races that day. So we conceptualize Race1, Race2 and Race3 ... but they are "void" before the day starts ... just empty columns in an imaginary spreadsheet.
We get Race1 and Race2, but Race3 is abandoned. It's voided to a state as it was just after Race2 finished. Just an empty column in our spreadsheet.
So, I don't think that's the race closest as it does not exist.
I'll play devil's advocate, if the race didn't exist how could a rule be broken in that race, a race that never happened?
I think the race still happened, it's just that, other than for the exceptions carved out, it doesn't count for anything, i.e. there are no scores.
I think 'void' in this sense means:
Perhaps 'void' is not the best word to describe it, at least in American English. But replacing with some of the synonyms
Sounds like how to handle the last part of 60.5(c) would be a good Q that needs an A in this situation.
I would have thought of this applying for rule breaks like an Opti kid failing to put the "I'm on the water" tag back on the board when they returned at the end of the day and applying the penalty to the last race of the day.
Correct, races were completed the previous day.
With the way RRS 60.5(c) is written, the judges can go back to the last race of previous day and penalize it.
Also, am surprised no one commented on the Preamble to the rule of Part 2.
Apply the penalty to the previous race IMHO.
Maybe we need to add "Limbo" to our lexicon for these lost souls. :-)
But seriously, I think imagining a disembodied penalty searching for a body to reside-in is consistent with all the rules cited so far.
The rule uses 'shall' so the judges may not have much discretion in what to do.
That said, I think putting the penalty on the last race sailed is potentially problematic.
This is partly based upon a scenario that occurred back in 2018 at an event. The scenario presented is a modification of what transpired to make it more generic.
Is that ambiguity fundamentally different from a boat that gets redress as average points including future potential races?
Couldn't the instruction to the scorer be to score the boat DSQ in race 6 or race 7, which-ever race's start-time is closest to Sat@1400hrs?
So waking up the next day, the DSQ will be on Race 6, but it might move to Race 7depending. Not unlike an avg-score redress that is one number that morning but will change at the end of the day if races are completed.