National Judges News - Issue 26, July 2006

Here we have a couple more interesting incidents from your Regatta Reports.

SHORTENING COURSE
In an offshore race some boats felt it was advantageous to sail 1 nm wide of one mark in order to gain from better winds and tide along the coast.  But the RC shortened course at that mark and the boats following the coast passed too far away to see the RC boat with flag C, so they never finished.  Those boats requested redress.

Fortunately the SIs did not identify that mark as a rounding mark, and as a race can be shortened only at a rounding mark, the PC was able to find there had been an improper action by the RC and grant redress.

Even if the mark had been identified as a rounding mark, the boats following the coast would still not have seen the shortened finish line, so could redress then be granted?  There would have been no improper action by the RC.

SCORING QUERY
The SIs for the Nationals provided for a Qualifying Series then a Final Series.  The scoring SI stated one race would be excluded except if there were 11 or more races there would be one exclusion from the Qualifying Series and one from the Final Series.

Prior to racing commencing the race committee issued a SI amendment to cancel the Qualifying Series and the Final Series, which meant there was then to be the same number of races but just one overall series. The RC failed to make any amendment to the scoring SI.

The final race was race 11 and disputes arose as to how many exclusions should now apply. Emotions ran high as the jury decision would decide the Championship.

As there was no Qualifying Series for a race to be excluded, and no Final Series for a race to be excluded, could no race now be excluded?

As there was only one overall series did that mean there could now be only one exclusion?

As there was no Qualifying or Final Series should that bit of the scoring SI applying to 11 races simply be ignored?  If so, would that mean Appendix A had not been changed and under rule A2 there should be only one exclusion?

As it seemed the intent of the championship was to use two exclusions if there were 11 races, should combining the Qualifying and Final Series into one overall series not affect that principle and there still be two exclusions?

What did the National Jury do?  You may well ask, but first, what would you have done?
Interesting observation: Remember in the old days ‘exclusions’ used to be called ‘discards’?