MANAGEMENT OF MATCHES.
The first rule of the Yacht Racing Association,* is that " all races and all yachts sailing therein, shall be under the direction of the flag officers or sailing committee of the club under whose auspices the races are being sailed." All matches are to be subject to their approval, and they have the power to settle all disputes, and their decision is to be final, but they may " upon the application of the parties interested, or otherwise, refer the questions at issue for the decision of the council ;" but there can be no appeal from the decision of the flag officers of a club, or sailing committee to the Council, nor can a party interested in a dispute demand as a right that the matter shall be referred to the Council, the option of so referring disputes to the Council rests entirely with the flag officers or sailing committee. However, the practice is, where both disputants request it, for the flag officers or sailing committee to refer the dispute, and in most cases such a request from one disputant has been complied with. Also in cases where a general principle is involved, or where none of the Y.R.A. rules appear to clearly meet the matter in dispute ; or where the reading of a rule is doubtful, or is open to more than one interpretation, the flag officers or sailing committee have of their own accord referred disputes to the Council.
However, whenever the cause of a dispute is clear and whenever a rule exactly meets the case, or whenever there can be no question that a breach of a rule has been committed, the flag officers or sailing committee should decide the case for themselves. They should apply the rules as stringently as possible, but at the same time should remember that the rules were founded upon the principle of "fair play " only, and were not intended to be penal in their operation ; exemplary penalties or decisions should be avoided ; on the other hand, that class of protest which has been aptly termed " frivolous and vexatious," should be discouraged.
In most cases breaches of rules are more or less the result of accident or errors of judgment, and in giving decisions regard should be taken of the character of the breach, and of the manner of its occurrence. But a protest should not be dismissed for the mere reason that it has had no effect on the issue of a race, although in certain instances that feature could be properly considered ; still in the majority of cases it is impossible to say how far a breach of the rules has influenced a result, even though it be such a trifling matter as carrying an anchor on the bow in a " cruising trim race " or " side lights in a race at night." It is not a sufficient excuse to say that a breach of a rule was the result of an error of judgment, carelessness, forgetfulness, or ignorance ; no such pleas are admissible ; nor should it be overlooked that a rule may be designedly and persistently broken. On the other hand, a rule might be broken through an entirely accidental cause ; such for instance as a delay in the delivery of an entry, or the dragging of moorings; such breaches might reasonably be overlooked, if satisfactorily accounted for ; but if a yacht crosses a line too soon through an error of judgment, or touches a mark through an error of judgment, or in a cruising-trim race fails to start with an anchor on the bow, and fails to carry one all through the race, such errors of judgment or persistent breaches of rules could only be regarded adversely.