Shortly after the start of leg 7 in The Hague, 11th Hour Racing Team was hit by GUYOT environnement – Team Europe, knocking both boats out of the leg with significant damage.
Benjamin Dutreux, the skipper of GUYOT environnement – Team Europe promptly acknowledged responsibility for the collision, retiring from the leg.
11th Hour Racing Team returned to The Hague and immediately set about repairing its boat with a goal of rejoining the fleet for the Grand Finale in Genova.
The rules of The Ocean Race don’t permit a team to suspend racing on the final leg of the event, so 11th Hour Racing Team was also forced to retire from leg 7, before finishing its repairs and starting its ‘race within a race’ to get to Genova ahead of Saturday’s In Port Racing.
The team also filed a Request for Redress with the International Jury, a common procedure in the sport of sailing, whereby a team may be awarded points if its finishing position has been made significantly worse through no fault of its own.
The Jury has scheduled this hearing for 1000 on Thursday 29 June.
Currently, 11th Hour Racing Team trails Team Holcim-PRB by a single point on the leaderboard, but has scored no points for leg 7. Should the Jury award a redress of one point or more, 11th Hour Racing Team would be the winner of The Ocean Race. If no points are awarded, the current standings would become final and Team Holcim-PRB would be the overall race winner.
Since the outcome of 11th Hour Racing redress hearing may affect the full IMOCA fleet, the International Jury wants to give the teams the right to be present at the hearing to present their views and ask questions to ensure as fair an arrangement as possible.
Accordingly, the International Jury, acting under Racing Rules of Sailing 60.3(b), will simultaneously consider redress for Team Holcim-PRB, Team Malizia, Biotherm and GUYOT environnement – Team Europe, following the collision at the start of Leg 7.
The World Sailing International Jury consists of six Jury members, including Jury Chairman Andrés Peréz. The full Jury is here:
Andrés Pérez IJ/IU ESP (Chair)
Chris Atkins IJ/IU GBR (Vice Chair)
Pauline Den Burger IJ NED
Line Juhl IJ DEN
George Priol IJ FRA
Sofia Truchanowicz IJ/IU POL
IJ = International Jurer
IU = International Umpire
The procedures for a hearing on a Request for Redress are well established as outlined below.
The relevant section in the Racing Rules of Sailing is Rule 62.1, which reads, in part:
A request for redress or a protest committee’s decision to consider redress shall be based on a claim or possibility that a boat’s score or place in a race or series has been or may be, through no fault of her own, made significantly worse by… injury or physical damage because of the action of a boat that was breaking a rule…and took an appropriate penalty or was penalized…
Along with Rule 64.3. Decisions on Redress: When the protest committee decides that a boat is entitled to redress under rule 62, it shall make as fair an arrangement as possible for all boats affected, whether or not they asked for redress. This may be to adjust the scoring (see rule A9 for some examples) or finishing times of boats, to abandon the race, to let the results stand or to make some other arrangement…
The decision from the International Jury on the Request for Redress will be communicated after it is reached.
Under the rules of The Ocean Race, any party to the hearing (any of the IMOCA teams) would have 30 minutes after the decision to file a request to reopen. If no request is made after 30 minutes, the Redress decision is considered final.
If there is a Request to Reopen, the Jury may consider the request immediately. The decision made by the International Jury on this request is considered final.
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