"zilatu" wrote in message
om...
Your second guess was the right one, sending someone below to look for
the flag. Being the Corinthian racer that I like to think that I am, I
feel I would owe a 720 if I committed the foul. The issue will come
down to whether or not the protesting boat violated rule 16.2,
sometimes called "Hunting", because we filed and won a protest against
him a few weeks ago that involved safety due to a flagrant violation.
I still am interested in the appeals number so that I can cite it as a
reference.
Thanks

Chairing various protest committees, this 'issue' sometimes appears. Within
a protest hearing, there are two phases. The first being validation of the
protest itself (the technical aspect) and that is where the protest flag
concern would occur. Phase two would be the hearing of evidence.

In terms of how long it took before a hail of "Protest" and the flag was
flown becomes a concern relates to whether the protested boat, or other
boats, are visually made aware of a protest situation. For example, if
there was delay in getting the flag up and the intended protested boat say
tacks away and is 'gone' then it might be construed that the protested boat
never had a fair opportunity to become aware of the protest, determine if
they feel they were in the wrong, and then take the necessary actions to
rectify the situation (exonerate itself).

Also, delaying flying the protest flag and then dowm the course it goes up
does draw the attention of other boats that something hapened. If it
happens reasonable clsoe to when the alleged rulle infraction occured,
other boats can then clarify whether it was them, or they can make mental
note of what they saw for possible committee witness action. More than a
few times We and others have asked a protesting boat who they were
protesting because it was not clear to us when and what happened -- you just
never know. All the protesting boat is oblidged to do is hail protest and
fly the flag. The onous is not on them to ensure that the protested boat
hears them. But good wisdom suggests they should really try.

Earliest opportunity also has to take into account, as you stated, your boat
safety and the safety of any other boats around you, as well as the action
of your getting the flag (crew member pulled from a needed position) not
causing you to break a rule.

A few seasons back, on starb. tack, a boat below us and ahead, tacked and
came right back at us on a dead ahead collision course. We hailed starboard
a few times, had maybe 6 to 9 seconds before a head on (with large boats), I
called for an emergency hard tack to starboard to avoid the collision, which
knocked all of us down (six crew) -- I was up on the starboard aft of the
mast trying to keep an eye on the offending boat (we were going to push them
either to tack and dip us or go beyond their lay line, get into grief with
another class coming down on them = tactics). Well, by time I go out from
underneath the portion of the jib that came across and hammered me, all of
us quickly made sure we were okay, trimmed to get the boat moving again,
hailed protest somewhere in there, and then went unfurled the protest flag
(it was tied and wrapped on the back stay), well more than a minute
transpired. Once we protested and theys aw the red flag, they did their
penalty turns and were gone. We were still trying to get back to coruse and
up to speed and actually the offending boat gained substantial course
advantage through all of that.

Afterwards, in the club, the skipper of the offending boat sail to me that
our helm paniced and that he was no problem to us. I kept my temper and
said, how the hell would you have even known, you had sails out obscuring
us, no one on watch, and never moved an inch from collision. He repleid
that there was plenty of time -- I replied back, and your boat speed was (it
was over 6 knots as was ours), so a closing speed of 12 knots, which menat
that given our boat lengths we were covering our own boat length to them in
1.5 seconds, and we were perhaps 50 feet from collision when I called
emergency tack = which meant maybe 3 to 6 seconds before bang. He never
questioned that one again.