Strong Winds, Calm Winds, And a Protest

September 05, 2005  |  by Peter Wilkins  |  Results  |  News Archives...

For the Club Championships this year, the race committee decided to try a return to the two-day format over the Labour Day weekend with the final Champion of Champions race held early on Sunday afternoon, just before the corn roast. Although the Notice of Race called for a late start on Saturday morning, the day dawned with an good wind and fair weather. The wind increased some in the afternoon before settling back a bit later on. Three races were run on Saturday for those who survived the first two. Sunday turned out to be a gentler day with less wind and still fair weather allowing two more races before the Championship final.

The entry turnout was "OK" with 10 Lasers, 4 Wayfarers, 5 Cruisers and 3 in the Open A fleet. It was good to see the resurgence of the Lasers, although it seems that it may have come at the expense of a few Wayfarer entries. Several of the entries this year were new racers at FYC with one being two young students from our summer Sailing School, eager to try out their newly learned skills.

After the five races, the Laser results were rearranged following a protest in Race 4. However, new results are to come following an appeal to this protest:

The first place finishers from each fleet sailed off in an abbreviated final to determine the Champion of Champions. The finishing order, after Portsmouth Number corrections was:

Congratulations to all the racers!

***** Club Championship Protest Ruling Overturned !!! *****

In a first-time event for my memory, this year saw an appeal called on a decision from our protest committee at the Club Championship Regatta. During the fourth race, on Sunday morning, there was a protest called in the Laser fleet. The "plaintiff" protested the tacking methods of the "defendant" calling a violation of one of the rules of racing. The protest was heard by a committee of FYC racers, all in the usual manner. From my observations at the time, as I was working on the scoring for the race, it seemed that the violation in question was quite complex and rather controversial. The protest was upheld by the protest committee and the defendant was disqualified for that race.

According to the FYC rules of scoring at the time, a DSQ cannot be used as a throw-out score, so the protest resulted in a significant penalty at the end of the regatta, ultimately causing the defendant to lose the regatta and a chance at being Champion of Champions. The scores were tallied and the results were announced, including the running of the Champion of Champions race and the trophy presentations.

The protested racer decided to appeal the committee decision to the Ontario Sailing Association, so a re-run of the hearing was held in front of an appeal committee some several weeks after the regatta. After the second hearing, the original protest ruling was deemed invalid, removing the DSQ from the defendant's results and revising the Laser Fleet results, which affected all the positions from sixth and lower.

With this news, I dug out my score sheets and re-calculated them back to pre-protest conditions. The changes have a significant affect on the results. With the revised scores, the results are as follows:

The regatta committee ruled that there would not be a re-running of the Champion of Champions race, due to the timing of the ruling change and since the Laser did not place first on corrected time. The Laser fleet trophies have been re-scribed to reflect the revisions and this article will inform the membership of the changes. The significant part of this happening is the fact that it is extremely rare, if ever, that the OSA has been called in to rule on an FYC protest. And, it had to happen "on my watch"!

OSA's report on the protest appeal can be viewed here.

Peter Wilkins Race Committee Chair