Racing Rules: ABandoning a race after it has finished

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ABandoning a race after it has finished

Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Racing Rules
Forum Discription: Discuss the rules and your interpretations here
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12487
Printed Date: 09 Aug 25 at 8:11am
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Topic: ABandoning a race after it has finished

Posted By: croft
Subject: ABandoning a race after it has finished
Date Posted: 15 Aug 16 at 2:02pm

A race in a major national champsihips abaadoned several hours after it was finished on the water. The majority of the fleet finished the course within the time limit... can they do that??? - Rule is 31.1

Replies:

Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 15 Aug 16 at 2:28pm

Possibly binned rather than abandoned. I would imagine there was some kind of hearing or meeting between the RC and the competitors.

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Paul
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D-Zero GBR 74

Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 15 Aug 16 at 2:30pm

They certainly can. Whether they should... normally its very much a last resort.

Jeffers, I can't find "binned" in the RRS!. Not sure what you mean.

Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 15 Aug 16 at 6:52pm

Originally posted by JimC

They certainly can. Whether they should... normally its very much a last resort.

Jeffers, I can't find "binned" in the RRS!. Not sure what you mean.

Binned as in thrown out/ What they have effectively done is thrown the race out and will re-sail it.

Looks like an almighty cock-up to me reading the report now, hardly the level of race management you would expect for a class national champs.

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Paul
----------------------
D-Zero GBR 74

Posted By: GML
Date Posted: 15 Aug 16 at 10:50pm

Originally posted by jeffers

Originally posted by JimC

They certainly can. Whether they should... normally its very much a last resort.

Jeffers, I can't find "binned" in the RRS!. Not sure what you mean.

Binned as in thrown out/ What they have effectively done is thrown the race out and will re-sail it.

In other words 'abandoned' - there isn't any other way to "throw out" a race that has been started (leaving aside a general recall). A race that has been abandoned may be resailed (see definition of Abandon in RRS).

Posted By: Brass
Date Posted: 15 Aug 16 at 11:56pm

Originally posted by croft

A race in a major national champsihips abaadoned several hours after it was finished on the water. The majority of the fleet finished the course within the time limit... can they do that??? - Rule is 31.1

There is no rule 31.1.

Relevant rules are:

27.3 Before the starting signal, the race committee may for any reason
postpone (display flag AP, AP over H, or AP over A, with two
sounds) or abandon the race (display flag N over H, or N over A,
with three sounds).

32.1 After the starting signal, the race committee may shorten the course
(display flag S with two sounds) or abandon the race (display flag N,
N over H, or N over A, with three sounds), as appropriate,
(a) because of an error in the starting procedure,
(b) because of foul weather,
(c) because of insufficient wind making it unlikely that any boat
will finish within the time limit,
(d) because a mark is missing or out of position, or
(e) for any other reason directly affecting the safety or fairness of
the competition,
...
However, after one boat has sailed the course and finished within the
time limit, if any, the race committee shall not abandon the race
without considering the consequences for all boats in the race or
series.

Posted By: GML
Date Posted: 16 Aug 16 at 10:21am

RRS 64.2 may also be relevant:

64.2 Decisions on Redress

When the protest committee decides that a boat is entitled to redress under rule 62, it shall make as fair an arrangement as possible for all boats affected, whether or not they asked for redress. This may be to adjust the scoring (see rule A10 for some examples) or finishing times of boats, to abandon the race, to let the results stand or to make some other arrangement. When in doubt about the facts or probable results of any arrangement for the race or series, especially before abandoning the race, the protest committee shall take evidence from appropriate sources.

Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 16 Aug 16 at 10:55am

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/191610/Selden-Merlin-Rocket-Nationals-day-1" rel="nofollow - Seems to be the Merlin Nationals . Certainly sounds like a pretty good stuff up, although the report isn't very clear to me on exactly what went wrong. I should have thought that the RO advising people to go back isn't, if unsolicited, actually against the rules of sailing, even if it is a very unwise thing to do.

Posted By: Paramedic
Date Posted: 29 Aug 16 at 2:00pm

It was a great shame that this happened on the first day and almost sullied the nationals before they had even started.

Aside from this, albeit extreme, cock up the rest of the week was ran very well by the race team and PSC.

With regards to why the race was resailed, as i understand it there was enormous confusion with boats sailing through the finish line then sailing back to re round the mark before re finishing and once the published results were (Quite correctly) challenged it proved impossible to verify them presumably due to recording issues.

The PRO stood in front of the whole fleet, apologised and invited requests for redress. The protest committee, PRO and fleet reps slept on things and the race was declared void and to be resailed the following morning - the only equitable outcome really though obviously harsh on those who felt they had done well.

A lesson learned the hard way for someone, but it's very unlikely they'll make the same mistake again...............