Protest Committee & Hearing Procedures

On-the-water "3-minute Justice" NOR/SI/Appendix?

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Angelo Guarino
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Anyone have documents/text to implement on the water hearings?

Asking for a friend :-)
Created: 26-Feb-10 12:11

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Michael Butterfield
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Fleet or team race? 
Created: 26-Feb-10 12:14
Gordon Davies
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In match, team and umpired fleet racing the rules leave the on-the-water procedure to the discretion of the umpires. 
Radio sailing uses various procedures to accelerate procedures:
 - SYRPH (SYstem for the Reduction of the number of Protest Hearings) : a distant cousin of arbitration that allows a party to accept a lesser penalty after reading the protest and being made aware of what official observers saw.
- Accelerated Protest Procedure: Protests delivered orally, recorded in writing by umpire. Hearings scheduled by hailing. Followed by a procedure similar to SYRPH. Hearings are held immediately afterwards.
Created: 26-Feb-10 12:49
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John Allan
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I'm the friend.

Thanks Gordon and Mike.

I think what I want to see is US Sailing Appendix V from 2013 or earlier.

What I'm looking for is some elegant SI language, particularly about setting protest time limit differentially for Part 2/31/28 breaches (on water, shortly after finishing) and other protests and requests for redress.

RRS C6.1(b) and 6.4(b) won't work for the solo unstayed dinghies I have in mind, and i don't want to load up the RC with the blue flag requirements from Appendix UF..


Created: 26-Feb-10 13:32
Dan Bowman
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Angelo,
Check with SSA, they have 3 minute justice for the ILCA fleet during winter.
Created: 26-Feb-10 13:49
Giff Constable
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Angelo, I think this is the latest version we're using at American Yacht Club. Downside is it is not the easiest thing for sailors to understand.

These rules apply to all hearings except hearings under RRS 69.

  1. A boat intending to protest or request redress based on an incident in the racing area that she is involved in or sees shall, at the first reasonable opportunity after she finishes, inform the race committee at the finishing line of her intent to protest or request redress and, when applicable, the identity of the protestee.

  2. If the protest committee is able to assemble the parties to a hearing before the protest or redress time limit, it may begin the hearing and may waive the requirements of RRS 60.3, and thus 60.4(a)(1), or RRS 61.2, and thus 61.3.

  3. The US Sailing prescriptions to the preamble to RRS Part 5, Section B and RRS 63.1 are deleted.

  4. RRS 63.4(a) is changed to: ‘If there is no objection, the protest or request is valid. If an objection is made, the protest committee shall consider validity.  The hearing shall be closed if’

  5. Replace the third sentence of RRS 63.4(b) with the following: ‘However, the committee may limit the number of witnesses and the time during which parties may present evidence and ask questions.’

  6. RRS 63.6(b) is changed to: ‘If requested by a party in writing within 30 minutes of being informed of the decision, the above information shall be provided promptly in writing and the protest committee may, if it considers it relevant to do so, prepare or endorse a diagram.

  7. RRS 63.7(b) is changed to: ‘A party to the hearing may not ask for a reopening.’

Committee Protests - A committee intending to protest a boat, following an incident that is observed in the racing area, may, at the first reasonable opportunity, inform the boat by making a sound signal, hailing "protest" and her sail number. The signaled boat may then take a penalty as available under RRS 44. This changes RRS 60.2(a)(2) and Appendix D1.2(b).
Created: 26-Feb-10 15:12
Scott Williamson
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Angelo, send me an email and I can provide the three minute justice documents that we use with the ILCA fleet at SSA. My email address is laserfleet10@gmail.com.
Created: 26-Feb-10 16:20
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Angelo Guarino
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Reply to: 20517 - Scott Williamson
Scott ... can you just cut/paste some text here?
Created: 26-Feb-10 16:35
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Angelo Guarino
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I just got this from Andrew Cole (forum member) ...

PROTEST PROCEDURE – 3 MINUTE JUSTICE

Three minute justice is a protest hearing system that takes the burden off of the race organizers.  It is a system that has been around for years. The former head coach of the Old Dominion Sailing Team, K.C. Fullmer was the first to introduce it to the USTRA. Currently, the system has been used at many regattas including the USTRA Midwinters. The race organizers do not have to form a protest committee. The burden of forming a committee is put on the shoulders of the parties involved in the protest.  

For the Frostbite Series it will work like this:

If you feel have been fouled and you desire to protest another boat for an infringement of the RRS as applied to the Frostbite Series or, if you have been protested this is the process to follow:

  • Hail the boat at the time of the incident and state that you are protesting them (if you are unable to hail at the time of the incident, inform the boat at the earliest time subsequent to the incident.
  • Inform the Race Committee at the earliest time subsequent to the incident, at the end of racing or upon arrival of the RC boat to the SSA dock.
  • Find another sailor to act as one member of the Protest Jury

The Protest will be held in the upstairs classroom of the SSA Clubhouse as soon as practical.  All sailors are invited to observe.  This room has a whiteboard, markers and magnetic boats to reenact the incident.

  • The sailor protesting has one minute to present their case to the Protest Jury.
  • The sailor being protested has one minute to present their case to the Protest Jury.
  • Both sailors are excused from the Protest room.
  • The Protest Jury then has one minute to make a decision.  The Jury is strongly encouraged to make a decision, which is final.
  • If the Protest Jury cannot come to a decision then the protest is disallowed.
  • The outcome is then passed on to the Fleet Captain and the Scorer for inclusion into the day’s scoring.


Created: 26-Feb-10 16:34
Jerry Thompson
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The US Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association's (ICSA) Procedural Rules has Expedited Protest Procedure for Team Racing. The ICSA also has blanket right of appeal is denied for all ladder events. This is the only area that I have found expedited hearings.

Expedited hearings, aka Three Minute Justice, has some issues:

63.6(b) "If requested by a party in writing within seven days of being informed of the decision, the above information shall be provided promptly in writing.......". This may be changed per 86.1.

70 Appeals and Requests to a National Authority
70.1 "Unless rule 70.3 applies, a party to a hearing has the right to appeal the protests committee's decision......". This may not be changed per 86.1.

70.3 (b) allows for a no appeals regatta. In the US, US Sailing prescribes that its approval is required. I'm not sure about other MNAs.

I think we should be very careful about denying a party's right to appeal. 

If an OA moves forward with expedited hearings, it should be listed in the NoR so that sailors are aware before they register. I do not believe that just listing in the SIs is fair to sailors.

I believe a better approach is for judges to become more efficient at holding hearings. Be fully prepared, don't waste time, keep things moving.  I suspect we have all participated in hearings that could have been completed more efficiently.  

Created: 26-Feb-10 19:42
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John Allan
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Reply to: 20524 - Jerry Thompson
I believe a better approach is for judges to become more efficient at holding hearings. Be fully prepared, don't waste time, keep things moving.  I suspect we have all participated in hearings that could have been completed more efficiently. 
At a recent regatta, I introduced on-water Arbitration for Part 2/RRS 28/31.

The NOR already provided for all protests to be reported to the race committee at the finishing line and for protests to be oral.

The aim of on-water arbitration is to: 
  • Reduce time lost in awaiting boats to come ashore, complete written protests, and await expiry of protest time limit.  This particularly applies to large fleets of over 40 boats where last boat may finish 20 or more minutes after leading boats. 
  • Reduce perceptions of formality and difficulty in the protest process. 

Procedures was as follows:
  • a protesting boat was required to inform the race committee [vessel] or an umpire of the identity of the protestee and the incident at the first reasonable opportunity after finishing.  The race committee or umpire was required to record these details.  I initially used the attached Arbitration Form, but that was a bit unweildy in an Umpire RIB, and I switched to just writing in a WetNotes notebook.
  • the race committee informed the umpire/arbitrator of the details,
  • the umpire vessel collected the parties and conducted an Arbitration.  Note, there is no requirement to give time to prepare or access to the protest prior to Arbitration.  The protesting boat's description of incident in the Arbitration constitutes the protest information and, for purposes of any subsequent hearing is 'given' to the protestee when they hear it in the Arbitration.
  • if the protest was not resolved in Arbitration, a hearing ashore was scheduled and conducted.

Outcomes:  7 protests were received, 5 were resolved in Arbitration and 2 proceeded to hearing ashore.  I was pretty pleased with that success rate.

Difficulties/Resources were as follows:
  • managing parties' boats while arbitration is taking place:  conditions were benign and boats could be held alongside the umpire RIB.  This wouldn't have worked in heavier conditions.
  • With just one Umpire boat, and consecutive Gold and Silver fleets racing requiring umpire coverage, the Umpire RIB was not available in the finishing area to receive protests until some time after Gold Fleet had finished.  Cooperation from the race committee dealt with this.
  • This was a relatively quick-fire event.  It was undesirable to delay the start of the next race to accommodate the completion of more than one arbitration per race.  This was solved by scheduling arbitrations for after the finish of the next race, or if necessary this could have been scheduled for on the beach.

I was pretty happy with this outcome.  Given the restricted time-windows between races and lack of additional on-water judges I don't think on-water full hearings would have been practical.

What I'm now trying to do is to come up with some neat SI language to facilitate this.

Created: 26-Feb-10 21:19
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