Water a the mark protest

Interested on people's views on this.

Windward mark. 2 boats inside and overlapping each other and the 3rd outside boat at 2 boat lenghts. 3rd outside boat after repeated calls did not give enough room for the 2nd boat to give enough room to boat 1. Boat 1 hits boat 2, boat 2 was very, very close to 3 but didn't hit boat 3. There was a protest. On the face of it a open and shut case you would think. Boat 2 protested boat 3 for not giving water for insurance claim for damaged from boat 1's collison with her. Boat 2 lost the protest beacuse it did not hit boat 3. Boat 3 was judged to of given enough room beacuse it wasn't hit by boat 2.

Is this correct?

Or was the Protest committee using an old rule book!
I was a wittness not the protester. Boat 3 didn't give enough room.


2005-2008 ISAF sailing rules...

AVOIDING CONTACT

A boat shall avoid contact with another boat if reasonably possible.
However, a right-of-way boat or one entitled to room...

(a) need not act to avoid contact until it is clear that the other boat
is not keeping clear or giving room, and

(b) shall not be penalized under this rule unless there is contact that
causes damage or injury.

You definitely don't have to hit someone to win a protest. (Possibly this was less true in earlier rules.) If you did, Boat 2 would have only been able to win the protest if it hit both boats 1 and 3. Boat 1 would  have had to hit the mark and Boat 2 to show that there wasn't enough room.

It should come down to whether the protest committee believed that a reasonable person in Boat 2's position would feel confident that it has space to do what it is required to.(I think is what the Isaf cases say) So its a believeability contest.

As a general point it seems to be better to try and hit the boat which is 'the most' wrong if there is a multiple boat situation, ie Hitting Boat 3 as windward and outside. Not much help now, sorry.

You are much more likely to win a protest if there is actual contact.

There are situations when it can be a good idea to let contact happen. ie. when two boats are parallel (paralell, parallell, i dunno) in a w/ward l/ward situation, or in this case, water at a mark.

But when its blowing its tit off, and two boats meet on opposite tacks, damage is imminent, and I would advise anyone to avoid contact!

Might be worth an appeal to the RYA if you're not outside the time limit.  What were the facts found?

Boat 2 was also entitled to call witnesses and the protest committee can't overrule that if the witnesses actually saw what happened (same goes for boat1 & 3 as well).

Edited by Garry

Thanks Jim I will pass that on.