UMPIRES AND WHISTLE BLOWING

All major events have an International Jury
Yacht racing is a gentlemanly sport and one of the unique elements of the pastime was the ability to protest the outcome of a race if one of the competitors felt there had been a breach of the rules. All major sailing events have an International Jury composed of at least five rules specialists who may, if asked, conduct a hearing to establish the facts and determine if there has indeed been a breach of the rules and then what the punishment should be. This unfortunately often meant that the outcome of the race could be overturned in a hearing ashore hours later. For an event with a popular fan base and an ever hungry media, the possibility of a result being overturned hours after the race had finished was not a healthy state of affairs.

On-the-Water Umpires

In 1992, at the start of the current America’s Cup Class generation, On-the-Water Umpires were introduced and started speeding around the race-course in small powerboats monitoring incidents and doling out penalties and instant justice. Their job then, as it is now, is to determine if any of the Racing Rules of Sailing have been broken during the match and to respond to protest calls from either of the two competing yachts. The umpires can impose a penalty turn on an infringing boat, which requires a turn through at least 270 degrees of arc, one gybe on an upwind leg and one tack on a downwind leg, to exonerate oneself. This turn often represents a loss of more than 30 seconds, enough for the outcome of the race to be altered.

A yellow and red diagonally-striped protest flag

During the pre-start and elsewhere around the course both boats manoeuvre against each other, sometimes in extremely confined waters, and often less than a metre apart from each other. This game of wits often results in protests from one or other of the boats, although actual collisions are indeed rare. By hoisting a yellow and red diagonally-striped protest flag, a yacht is requesting the umpires to penalise the other boat following what the protesting yacht considers to have been a breach of the right of way rules. The umpires must consider the situation quickly and make a decision about the true facts before communicating back to the two yachts. If the umpires consider there has not been any breach they will fly a green flag - all-clear. If however one or the other yacht has indeed breached one of the right of way rules the umpires will fly either a blue or yellow flag corresponding to the boat that is at fault.

The penalty turn must be completed before the boat finishes the course but it can be carried out at any time around unless it is the second penalty that a boat has collected, in which case a penalty turn must be carried out straight away.

To try and force the opponent into a foul

A yacht with a penalty can decide to race around the course and try and get a sufficient buffer of distance between it and the opponent to make the penalty turn and still remain in the lead. Alternatively, if this is proving impossible, a penalised boat can try and force the opponent into a foul that is in turn penalised by the umpires. This has the effect of offsetting and cancelling the first penalty.

On-the-Water Umpires dramatically changed the face of match racing and gave us what we now have today; a highly refined version of an old art. The battle on the water now also involves forcing the opponent into a foul situation whilst avoiding the aggressive advances of the opponent trying to achieve the same ends. Thankfully there are now seldom protests after races and these only concern technical issues and never the right of way rules - The first boat across the finish line is the winner.

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