Shout "Protest"

This Sunday's YCC Drag Race involved twelve short races. There were two of us in Laser 1s, a Laser 2 and the RS400. 4 Lasers from a CNV course with teenage helms and their coach in his inflatable made a welcome addition to the fleet half way through. 

The regatta was useful for two things: starting practice and learning how to make a protest. Both are important aspects in gaining advantage over competitors in races. The first for obvious reasons. A good start gives you a huge advantage. The 2 races that I won out of the 12 were down to a combination of a fast start combined with being at the favoured end. The 10 races that I didn't win were due largely to catching dirty wind, mistiming the start and getting into irons, which is easy mistakes for Laser novices like me to make. 

Knowing the rules can give you an advantage as it could help to raise your ranking  - depending on relative positions (see below). I had to avoid Julie helming the RS400 who was on a port tack at the start and called "Protest". I then filed a Protest after the race - Julie and I sat in front of the panel (Rob) and were duly informed that the Protest was invalid because I had not marked the number of the race and the time it happened. According to Rob, the absolute minimum for the protest form is that you describe the incident + the time + the place where it occurred. At club level, it would be sufficient to state that it was "race 27, 2nd leg, shortly before reaching the zone of the windward buoy". 

How do you remember which it race it is? Take a white board and marker with you. If I had managed to file this info, I would have climbed from 4th to 3rd perhaps (as yes, boats on a port tack should move out of the way of those on a starboard tack). Julie quite rightly wanted to file a Protest against me for my port tack approach at the upward mark. She had hailed "Tribord" but not "Protest" after I had not moved out of the way quickly enough. She was allowed to file a protest, but this protest too would have been found "invalid" in the absence of not hailing "Protest". Like me, had known the right procedure, she could have gained some extra points (relative to me). 

Other highlights of the day included the boom smashing me square on the forehead...end of race 12, I lost concentration. 

Thanks to Andrea for helping us rigging the Lasers ...to Rob and Ricardo for organizing the day - putting out buoys, recording races, awarding points, taking registration fees, judging... 

So I finish with Rob's pointers to Julie and I in a mail from today Minimum requirements for lodging a protest: 

On the water: [RRS 61.1a] 

- hail "protest" 

- if hull > 6 m: show a red flag 

- if hull > 6 m: fix the red flag in the rig until the finish On land: - protest must be in writing - "the incident, including where and when it occurred" [RRS 61.2b] 

 Notes: - if you realise you break a rule (protest or not !) then immediately sail clear of other boats and take the penalty turns (1 turn if you touch a mark, 2 turns for all the rest). 

If you do this, you can't be penalised further 

- if you don't, you risk being disqualified.

- if you protest or are protested, then do not discuss on the water, do not ask questions, do not answer: only 1 word is used, "protest" 

  - if you decide to file a protest, beware that you can't gain, but can lose, when you protest a boat that finished behind you and in front of your nearest rival in the series ranking list ! If you win your protest, your nearest rival will move up one place. In addition, you can be disqualified as a result of your own protest (this is not uncommon).

Link to Sailing World article on Protesting