Hi Roy,

I observe that nobody has come forth with a definitive answer, so I will
offer my opinion.

I cannot find any particular guidance on this issue. There is apparently
nothing in the rule book or the appeals book.

There are only two classes of reasons why someone would want to withdraw
a protest.

1) Perhaps the protest was in error because the protester did not
understand the rules or their correct application.

2) The incident happened, and a rule was broken, but the protester no
longer wants to "press charges". This could be for any number of reasons.

In the first case it is likely that the protest committee would quickly
agree to throw the case out, with or without a hearing. If the protest
is technically defective then the same throw-out result would occur.

In the second case the protest committee is correct to want to
understand more about the case. The obvious concern would be that the
two parties have made some sort of gentleman's agreement over the
incident. This could take many forms, but in some cases it could lead to
unfair preferential treatment on the race course at some future time.

Fair racing demands that the rules are followed, and there is no
provision for concepts such as, "I'll let you get away with it this
time," or "You owe me one."

The protester and the protestee can most likely kill the protest through
their testimony, but they may need to go through the hearing process.

Regards,
Gene Fuller

Roy Smith wrote:
There was a protest the other night, and the protestor now wants to
withdraw the protest. To the best of my knowledge, it was a
port-starboard with no contact (and thus no damage or injury on either
boat). Apparantly the race committee is refusing to allow the protest
to be withdrawn.

RRS 63.1 says, "...The protest committee shall hear all protests and
requests for redress that have been delivered to the race office
unless it allows a protest or request to be withdrawn.". Is there any
guidance for when it would be appropriate for the PC to refuse to
allow a protest to be withdrawn?