Forum: The Racing Rules of Sailing
Post-Race Penalty without Arbitration
Tim Hohmann
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
- Umpire In Training
- Regional Judge
0
I'm working on some sailing instructions for relatively informal club PHRF racing and am debating whether or not to offer arbitration. On the one hand arbitration offers an expedited means of adjudicating protests, but on the other hand if the arbitrator isn't permitted to sit on the panel if a hearing does result, it takes a scarce, experienced individual out of the judge pool. So I'm thinking a good compromise might be to offer the Post-Race penalty without the arbitration meeting - basically let the parties work it out between themselves (possibly with some informal advice from a knowledgeable person) and if the protestee thinks they're likely to lose or wants to avoid the risk of DSQ (or just doesn't want to sit through a hearing) they can volunteer to take a 30% scoring penalty. Presumably the protestor would then request to withdraw the protest.
Thinking about the following SI, wanted to see if you all have feedback:
"Arbitration will not be used. However, a boat protested for a breach of a rule of Part 2 or rule 31 in an incident not falling under RRS 44.1(b) may voluntarily accept a 30% Post-Race Penalty at any time after finishing but before a protest hearing for the incident has convened. If the protest is not withdrawn a hearing will be held, but if a boat has accepted a Post-Race Penalty RRS 64.1(b) will apply."
Thinking about the following SI, wanted to see if you all have feedback:
"Arbitration will not be used. However, a boat protested for a breach of a rule of Part 2 or rule 31 in an incident not falling under RRS 44.1(b) may voluntarily accept a 30% Post-Race Penalty at any time after finishing but before a protest hearing for the incident has convened. If the protest is not withdrawn a hearing will be held, but if a boat has accepted a Post-Race Penalty RRS 64.1(b) will apply."
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Appx[Addm] V is good. If you do both parts, you get a 1-turn also for fouls away from the marks. - AngMay be a USA problem
We actually experiment the PPC without arbitration on some events in France, but we restricted the possibility for the protestee to accept this penalty at the beginning of the hearing only, so that the jury can ensure that RRS 44.1(b) has not been broken.
X.Y Post-Race Penalty
X.Y.1 Provided rule 44.1(b) does not apply, a boat that may have broken one or more rules of Part 2 or rule 31 in an incident may take a Post-Race Penalty at the beginning of a protest hearing involving the incident.
X.Y.2 A Post-Race Penalty is a 30% Scoring Penalty calculated as stated in rule 44.3(c). However, rule 44.1(a) applies.
X.Y.3 A boat takes a Post-Race Penalty by delivering to the protest committee a written statement that she accepts the penalty.
X.Y.4 Unless all protests involving the incident are withdrawn, a protest hearing will be held.
X.Y.5 If the requirements of SI X.Y.1 are met, a boat that takes a Post-Race Penalty shall not be further penalized for the acknowledged breach, unless the penalty for a rule she broke is a disqualification that is not excludable from her series score.
During this event, the protest committee will try out the “Post-Race Penalty” without arbitration.
When a boat has broken a rule of part 2 or rule 31 and did not take a penalty on the water, the Post-Race Penalty permits her to take a penalty ashore. It is offered mostly within arbitration, after a judge (the arbitrator) offered his opinion on the outcome of a protest.
The Protest Committee wished to allow boats to take a Post-Race Penalty outside arbitration:
When a boat believes she has broken a rule of Part 2 or rule 31 in an incident on the water with no serious damage or injury, she may take a penalty according to rule 44.1.
If you did not take this penalty as soon as possible and think only later that you have broken a rule, then you cannot take a penalty on the water.
However, you will be able to acknowledge this breach at the beginning of a hearing involving this incident by taking a “Post-Race Penalty”.
Afterwards, the protest committee will offer the protesting boat to withdraw her protest. If she does so, there will be no hearing and you will receive a 30% penalty calculated under rule 44.3(c) in the race in which the incident happened.
If a hearing takes place, you cannot be further penalized for this breach, unless the protest committee decides you did not comply with the principles of sportsmanship and fair play
Hence there is no reason as the protestor not to withdraw the protest.
Seems like other countries would be safe in adopting something like the language of V2 as a sailing instruction.
Presumably, if a protestee takes a V2 penalty the protestor would request to withdraw the protest. They wouldn't have to, but if they didn't the jury would likely find that 64.1(b) applied and the protested boat would not be further penalized.
But a question: suppose that a protested boat, believing that she may have broken a rule and not wanting to risk DSQ in the room, agreed to take a 30% penalty under V2 but the protestor refused to withdraw the protest. And suppose the PC in the hearing finds that the protestee either didn't break a rule or was exonerated. Does the voluntary 30% penalty stand or is it eliminated?
Another solution is to have a reciprocal agreement with a close friendly club to provide an arbitrator and vice versa!
If someone changes their story the other party will surely bring it up!