Olympic Games 1996
IYRU Olympic Update>
THE PARTIES
The competitor, the yacht, and the yacht's representative
'Yacht racing' is an unfortunate term. 'Sailboat racing' would be better. 'Yacht racing' conjures up ideas of rich men racing in very expensive boats. The vast majority or racing is done in sailing dinghies but as the racing rules were originally created for large sailing vessels, for the time being at any rate, we are stuck with the official term 'yacht racing' to describe all forms of sailboat racing, including radio-controlled models, children's single handed dinghies, keelboats.
However, it is worth noting how remarkable it is that all of these different kind of sailing vessels play more or less the same game: 'yacht racing'.
More important is the term 'yacht', which is used extensively throughout the rule book. It is usually what the boat itself does that matters, rather than what the skipper or crew do, or intend to do, or try to do. Yachts win races, yachts win trophies, yacths infringe rules, yacths lodge protests, yacths get penalised.
Even the rules governing the conduct of hearings speak of a yacht. 'A protesting yacht shall...' or 'A yacht may...'. Of course the yacht does not attend the hearing; the yacht is represented by its owner or a person appointed (explicitly or implicitly) by the owner. This person is called the yacht's 'representative' and isusually the skipper, but it can be anyone nominated by the owner, except that if the hearing is a protest alleging an infringement of a rule of parts IV or V (the saling rules), then the representative must be someone who was on board at the time of the incident.
The rules use the pronoun 'she', which of course relates to the yacht. In this book I'll use 'she' and 'her' to relate to the yacht, and merely to differentiate, 'him' and 'his' to relate to the skipper or owner, male or female.
So if the helmsman of a give-way yacht intends to bear away behind a right-of-way yacht, and tries hard to put the helm up to bear away but fails and there is contact, then it matters not that he tried, nor how hard he tried, nor that it was blowing hard and his mainsheet jammed; the yacht failed to keep clear. The only time a person or peoples actions come under scrutiny is if they do something dishonourable, like lying in a hearing, or cheating in some other way. Only a yacht can infringe a sailing rule; only a person can cheat or behave badly.
Unless there is a sailing instruction which says that points will be awarded to the helmsman then it doesn't matter who helms the boat, and in a series of races any number of different people can take turns in helming or crewing; the points for race results being accrued by the yacht.
Protestor, protestee
The protestor is the yacht that lodges a protest. The person who attends the hearing and speaks on behalf of the protesting yAcht is often referred to as the protestor, but strictly speaking is in fact the representative of the protestor. The protestee (not a word you'll find in the dictionary) is the yacht against which a protest has been lodged, and of course the person representing the yacht being protested is often referred to as the protestee.
Parties to a protest
The protestor and the protestee are parties to the protest in which they are involved. If a third yacht becomes implicated and involved to the degree that she is, or might be, penalised at a hearing, then she becomes a party to the protest. In a redress hearing where the race committee is involved, then provided that the body conducting the hearing is neither the race committee itself nor a committee appointed by the race committee, then the race committee is a party to the hearing. The significance of whether a yacht or a race committee is or is not a party to a protest is that only a party to a protest can appeal (provided the right to appeal has not been properly denied); a yacht which is not a party to a protest cannot appeal even though she may be affected by a protest committee's decision.
Witness
A witness is anyone who gives evidence at a hearing, about what he has seen or heard or knows in relation to an incident. the parties to the protest (the people representing the protestor and the protestee) are themselves witnesses. A member of the protest committee who gives evidence about what he or she saw of an incidient is a witness. Someone called to give an opinion, perhaps on some technical matter is aslo referred to as a witness even though he didn't actually see anything. The protestor, the protestee, the race committee if it is involved as a party, and the protest committee itself, all have the right to call any number of witnesses.
Third yacht
A 'third yacht protest' is a colloquial term applied to a third yacht not involved in an incident but who protests one, or more usually both, of the two yachts who are involved. The term is usually used in the context of a protest by a yacht who sees contact between two other yachts neither of which protests or retires or takes a penalty. The third yacht protests them both under rule 33 (which requires that when there is contact which is not both minor and unavoidable, one or both of the yachts shall protest or retire or take a penalty).
Whether or not you should protest when you see two other yachts make contact and neither protest or retire or take a penalty, is for you to decide. I never have; some always do; and it is certainly true to say that at championships, the majority do. You certainly have the right to do so provided you witness the infringement. (If you simply hear about it from someone on another yacht, you do not have the right to protest.)
The term 'third yacht' is also used to describe a yacht which is neither the protestor nor the protestee but is implicated in an incident. There may be a protest by A against B and at the hearing it becomes apparent to the committee that yacht C may be to blame. Yacht C (the 'third yacht') then becomes a party to the protests, and acquires the rights of a protestee, and may end up being disqualified, while A and B are 'acquitted'. How different to the procedures in a court of law!
Interested party
An 'interested party' is defined in the racing rules as 'anyone who stands to gain or lose as a result of a decision of a protest committee or who has a close personal interest in the result'. The relevance of the term is that 'no member of a protest committee shall take part in the discussion or desicion upon any disputed question in which he is an interested party, but this does not preclude him from giving evidence in such a case'. The rule (71.2) goes on to say 'A party to a protest who wishes to object to a member of the protest committee on the grounds that he is an interested party shall do so before evidence is taken at the hearing or as soon thereafter as he becomes aware of the conflict of interest'.
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