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  3. Rule 63.1

Part 5 — When Boats Meet

Section B — General Limitations

63.1

Rights of Parties

(a) All parties to a hearing shall be (1) informed of the time and place of the hearing, (2) given access to the protest, request for redress, or report to be considered at the hearing, (3) allowed reasonable time to prepare for the hearing, and (4) allowed to have a representative present throughout the hearing of the evidence but, in a protest involving a breach of a rule of Part 2, 3 or 4, representatives of boats shall have been on board at the time of the incident unless there is good reason for the protest committee to decide otherwise. (b) If a party does not come to a hearing, the protest committee may proceed with the hearing in their absence.

Definitions in Context

Committee

The protest committee, the race committee or the technical committee.

Party

A party to a hearing is

  • (a) for a protest hearing: a protestor, a protestee;
  • (b) for a redress hearing: a boat requesting redress or for which redress is requested; a boat for which a hearing is called to consider redress under rule 61.1; a committee acting under rule 61.1;
  • (c) for a redress hearing under rule 61.4(b)(1): the body alleged to have made an improper action or improper omission;
  • (d) a person against whom an allegation of a breach of rule 69.1(a) is made; a person presenting an allegation under rule 69.2(e)(1);
  • (e) a support person subject to a hearing under rule 62 or 69; any boat that person supports; a person appointed to present an allegation under rule 62.2.

However, the protest committee is never a party.

Protest

An allegation made under rule 60 by a boat or a committee that a boat has broken a rule.

Rule
  • (a) The rules in this book, including the Definitions, Race Signals, Introduction, preambles and the rules of relevant appendices, but not the Basic Principles or titles;
  • (b) World Sailing Regulations that have been designated by World Sailing as having the status of a rule and are published on the World Sailing website;
  • (c) the prescriptions of the national authority, unless they are changed by the notice of race or sailing instructions in compliance with the national authority’s prescription, if any, to rule 88.2;
  • (d) the class rules (for a boat racing under a handicap or rating system, the rules of that system are ‘class rules’);
  • (e) the notice of race;
  • (f) the sailing instructions; and
  • (g) any other documents that govern the event.

Related Cases

Case 48

Part 5 of the racing rules aims to protect a boat from being unfairly treated, not to provide loopholes for protestees. A protestee has a duty to protect herself by acting reasonably before a hearing.

Case 49

When two protests arise from the same incident, or from very closely connected incidents, they should be heard together in the presence of representatives of all the boats involved.

Rule 63.2

(a) The protest committee shall hear each protest or request delivered unless it allows it to be withdrawn. (b) The protest committee may combine hearings which...

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