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Observer duties and can a competitor call a rule breakage.


Terry Connell

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I believe that an observer should and or must call when he notices a contact between two, or more, boats,between a boat and a mark and a boat that is premature starter.Are there any more?All these infringements should be noted in a book.

Also may a competitor call when he sees a Rule infringement such as contact between boats,touching a buoy or not sailing the correct course?

Thanks.

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An Observer does NOT call premature starters - that is the job of the Race Officer.

One of the boats in a contact should protest the other.

Any boat in the heat witnessing a boat hitting a mark, may protest.

Any boat in the heat seeing a boat NOT sailing the course correctly (RRS 28 0 the string rule) may protest.

You may find my Chapter 4 Hailing and Chapter 9 The Protest useful.

https://sites.google.com/site/johnsrcsailingrulesandtactics/

John

John Ball

IOM CAN 307 (V8)

In my private capacity

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Hi Terry,

A competitor may protest as John states, however, what they cant do is apportion blame and act as judge and jury. Unfortunately, this does happen and we can all be guilty of this from time to time.

It is also important that the competitors themselves have a reasonable understanding of the rules, as many times one of the boats in an incident will call out, "who was at fault" which then leads to other competitors lending opinion...:)

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This is an interesting question. Appendix E6.3 changes RRS61.1(a) so the hail is 'at the first reasonable opportunity.

So the question becomes what is first reasonable opportunity? The replaced RRS61.1(a) says before finishing or as soon as possible after finishing.

To me, even though she has missed a mark or rounded the wrong way, it is not clear that the boat is breaking R 28 until she finishes, as up to that point, she could go back and correct her error. So I could argue that the first reasonable opportunity is when she finishes, as that confirms that she broke R 28, However, RRS61 provides that you are not providing outside help when you hail Protest if you hail before she finishes.

Would I hail at the time of the incident or at the finish? Probably as soon as it iwas obvious, and especially if the skipper is a rookie.

John

John Ball

IOM CAN 307 (V8)

In my private capacity

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Hello John and Darin.

Thank you for clear responses to my first question.

Regarding my second question.Supposing that I am clear astern and on the same starboard tack as a boat clear ahead and we are approaching a mark to be left to port and we are both on the lay line; a port tack boat attempts a lee bow tack on the vessel clear ahead of me and in so doing forces the starboard boat to go above close hauled but as he has sufficient weigh he is able to continue on starboard and round the mark.The starboard boat does not protest correctly,says something like "you shouldn't do that" and continues towards the next mark. The illegal boat is now ahead of me. Can I protest that the port boat has broken a Rule? If I see that a Rule has been broken and the consequence is of concern to my position in the heat/race why can I not make a protest or comment? Or can I?

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Interesting question. What you describe is a windward mark to be rounded to port and two boats fetching the mark from outside the zone. A third boat tacks from port to stbd inside the zone, causing the leading boat above close hauled. There was no contact. The stbd boat did not protest. so what rules may apply?

The port tack boat broke R 18.3. So either of stbd boats may protest Port, under RRS 60.1(a) as one was involved and the other witnessed the incident.

Soapbox mode ON

It shows the importance of protesting by the boat involved as her lack of action affects not just her own position in the race, but other boats too. When you break a rule, you don't 'owe' the penalty to the boat infringed, but to the whole fleet.

Soapbox mode OFF :)

John

John Ball

IOM CAN 307 (V8)

In my private capacity

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We are definably working up to a Nationals !

The Course is NOT tactical Information

So a competitor can ask at any time or, if there is a Course-board, walk down to it and have look.

That one competitor might mention to the fellow standing beside him that he did not get around a mark is NOT outside assistance particularly when

The Course is set such that the Skipper could not actually see his boat because of 10 other boats being between his boat and the Mark as has been the case at many Events. Southport Ranking 2018 immediately coming to mind.

A tactic of deliberately moving you boat into the line of sight of the boat ahead at a crucial moment giving the other skipper no possibility of moving to a different vantage point is becoming more and more common place.

Could we just sail please, use the rules as they were intended and not lose sight of the fact that this is Model Boat Racing and is Fun.

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