A proposal to make rule 42 less arbitrary

When light winds prevailed at the Paris 2024 Olympics, competitors were challenged to avoid the wrath of umpires empowered to penalize sailors they deem to have infringed the prohibited propulsion actions within rule 42.

Double Olympic gold medalist Rodney Pattisson (GBR) found the jury calls during the Men’s Dinghy Medal Race as too random, prompting a rethink of the rule by Ted Keenan:

I have a simple proposal on how to make rule 42 less arbitrary. Require that the initial protest come not from the “jury” but from a competitor.

Almost all the other rules require that a competitor initiate the protest, as only a competitor can adequately judge if they are disadvantaged by the action of another competitor. Even in events that are umpired, the competitors are initiating the reviews of infractions, not the umpires.

Yet random judges are empowered to prejudice the outcome of events for no reason. It baffles me that we continue to allow non-competitors to have decisive roles in events where they may have no concept on what movements are necessary for good seamanship and what movements are purely to gain advantage.

But to me the solution is clear, require that rule 42 protests come from competitors.

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