Adults protesting children

That's what i meant  

Learning through experience is best yes, and rules and protests should be part of that experience in my view.

I've never sat down and read the rule book fully (except when I can't sleep) but have a handle on the most used ones by racing with other people and being in situations where they were needed.

I hope not, and as stated earlier, most "Experienced" club racers don't know them all anyway. I was just saying that sometimes it's healthy to have a protest so that the situation is clarified for all, including the children in the fleet.

surely this is the best way for them to learn the rules then, whilst taking part in club racing with people they know protesting them and judging them? if they don't learn the rules at club level they never will.

I suspect in most clubs (certainly ours) the Protest committee is made up of knowledgeable impartial sailors from the club who do exactly that. and if the child is competent enough to take part in club racing surely it's about time they started learning the rules?

Totally agree. A youngster was protested for excessive pumping recently in our club.(He was the only one who made it anywhere against the tide!) . All his mates hung about at the club to support him and wait for the verdict. When he lost the protest, all the youngsters in club learned that excessive pumping was not acceptable

The protest achieved it's purpose  - good lesson learned for all of them.

Yeah but you have to work out if the kid even knew the rules at all... If its normal club racing not all of the adults know the rules let alone kids that are there jsut having fun...

I know some squad type kids seem to know everything and can get the adults taken out but if its someones first time unless they have had some kind of coahcing they could be well out there in the right and still loose because they dont know what it is they have to prove the ohter boat did/didnt do.
And its not the jurys job to coax the correct information out of them, if the facts seem clear to them then is good.

I think that in the case of kids who are just generaly out there hvaing a good time and get protested the clubs aught to get a knowledgable sailor (preferably impartial) to just talk the incident through with the kid and say well this is what the rule says/means then at least they go in with some form of even footing...

I was protested by 2 x 14 year olds and lost. I am now scarred for life. Did they gat an advantage because they were youngsters - I doubt it in this case but I could see it happen.

At our club we use the RYA racing charter which is a much less formal way of dealing with incidents.

Either way I think representation should be allowed for everyone.