Validity

Objection To Jury: Yes

Incident Identified: Yes

Red Flag Displayed: Yes

Within Time Limit: Yes

Proper Hail: Yes

Is Valid: Yes

Procedural Matters

n/a

Facts Found

1. SI 15(c) states; No less than 1.5 nautical miles from the finish line until its finish has been acknowledged by Race Committee, each boat shall display and secure its CMSR‐compliant reflective sailboard to the boat’s port side, aft of the beam, with numbers clearly visible to the Race Committee on Mackinac Island.

2. SI 19.e states; The Race Committee shall penalize a boat without a hearing for a breach of SIs 14.c, 15.c, 15.e, and 17.a by applying a scoring penalty of 5 minutes corrected time per infraction. This changes RRS 63.1 and A5.

3. Addendum A to the Sailing Instructions states; Per SI 19.e, breaches of the following SIs shall result in a 5‐minute corrected time penalty being applied without a hearing....15(c)...

4. More than 1.5 miles from the finish, the skipper of USA 325 mounted a sailboard with numbers forward of the aft stanchion.

5. At the finish, two race committee persons using binoculars and searchlights were not able to see a sailboard with numbers on USA 325 after two attempts.

6. There were no visual obstructions between the Race Committee and USA 325’s port side.

7. The RC played audio tape which indicated RC “did not see a sailboard on Global Nomad”

8. The Race Committee noted that USA 325 did not display clearly visible numbers on a sailboard and penalized USA 325 per sailing instruction 19(c).

9. While the Jury does not contain any expertise on coefficient of reflectivity of fabrics, a visual inspection did not reveal any reflective attributes in the numbers.

10. The sailboard has a black background with white numbers greyed from age.

11. USA 325 testified that their sailboard with numbers was at least 20 years old. 12. There is no timely method readily available after the finish to verify the coefficient of reflectivity of USA 325’s sailboard numbers.

Conclusions

1. The numbers on the sailboard were not clearly visible as required by Sailing Instruction 15(c).

2. There was neither an improper action nor omission of the race committee. Therefore, the requirements for redress in RRS 62.1(a) are not met.

Decision

1. Redress is not given.

Reason

1. The numbers on the sailboard were not clearly visible as required by Sailing Instruction 15(c).

2. There was neither an improper action nor omission of the race committee. Therefore, the requirements for redress in RRS 62.1(a) are not met.