49er medal race

1: Sailing Instructions 18.7 states, that breaches of 21.1, 21.2 and 21.3, are not grounds for a protest by a boat. It also states, that the penalty for breaching it may be less than disqualification, should the jury so decide. IOW, a competitor can't protest towards infractions.

2: NoR point 4 states: Boats may be required to carry cameras, sound equipment or positioning equipment as specified by the organizing authority.

3: Point 13.7 in MR states: A breach of this Instruction will not be grounds for protest by a boat. This changes RRS 60.1(a). The penalty for a breach of this Instruction will be at the discretion of the International Jury and may include ranking the boat tenth in the regatta. If there are two such boats they will be ranked ninth and tenth, in order of their opening-series ranks, etc.

Ok, as far as I understand it, it seems like CAS has to decide whether the Jury acted correctly or not. IMO there seems to be a significant chance of that CAS will support the jury in their decision, aka ESP & ITA will lose appeal case.

One thing I dont see very clear, is ITA's case. They claim to have sailed to obtain the 5th spot in the medal race, in order to secure the bronze medal. Not seing the DEN boat on the race course (and proberbly wondering what the h... the Croatians were doing) they figured 5th place was sufficient for the bronze.

After the race it became clear, that CRO was DEN, and they lost the medal.

IMO they might have a case here.

What is the case here?

How could they know about the boat swap?

Could they disq the Danes? (I guess not)

Could they claim redress?

I agree with your points, Ryan, from a sailors point of view. But how would a lawyer look at it?

I dont see them protesting about this, or?

I cant see the connction between the case for ITA and the case for ESP. They are substantially different.

ESP has sailed as good as they could, having won the medal race. As a matter of fact, you could discus whether a rule 2 "Fair Sportsmanship" trial could be relevant, when looking at their eager for the gold, despite the clear logic, that they evidently didnt sail as fast as the Danes, during the event.

ITA might have had a disadvantage caused by the CRO-sail. They would, that they might have taken more chances and squizzed the lemon even more, if they knew that a 4th would give them a bronze medal. My problem is that I dont understand the juridical aspects of this.

(btw: what a worldclass website you run! Im impressed and entertained)

According to the rules in place, could they not claim redress in the medal race.

As I see it; an italian support boat COULD have given the message, since it was information freely available (known to the OMC, RC and visible on their bibs, if you came close enough (and I bet they can recognize each other on greater distances than you'd have to be to read the bib)). That is, if a support boat is allowed to come close enough to yell it or show a sign.

It's common sense, that it couldn't possibly be a croatian crew. IF the croats felt like going sailing, would everyone know, that they would be removed from the competition area. The danish wreck was known, so I would assume they somehow had gotten permission to use it. Of course, during a medal race, you're probably to focused to think straight.

Anyway, violation of appendix G calls for a warning and time to correct or a penalty decided by the jury. Not a competitior.