Organising authorities of an event can apply for a National Jury so that there are no appeals, if there are no international entrants.

There appears to be some confusion as to when the uses of a National Jury may, subject to the approval of Australian Sailing, be requested and used.

Addendum A, Part 2 of the Australian Sailing ‘Racing Rules of Sailing’ book lists the recommendations and requirements for a National Jury. A properly constituted National Jury does meet the requirements of a non-appealable protest committee referred to in rule 70.5 but this rule also provides some restrictions when a non-appealable Jury may be used unless it is an International Jury.

Rule 70.5(b) specifically prevents the appointment of a non-appealable jury (including a National Jury) when there are competitors from another country (MNA). Some are reading the prescription to rule 70.5(b) such that it allows Australian Sailing to overrule this requirement however rule 86.1 specifically prevents prescriptions changing rule 75.

The only exception to this would be for say a National Championship being run as a lead up regatta for a World Championship the following week, and the national Championship was a selection regatta for Australian competitors to sail at the Worlds event. In this case an application may be made to Australian Sailing for denial of the right of appeal under70.5(a) and the requirements for this are set out in addendum A part 1.

In summary Australian Sailing is unable to approve a National Jury, which includes denial of appeal, if an event is expecting overseas entries. In such cases the only options are to appoint an International Jury or simply accept that any protest decisions will be subject to the appeal process.

National and International Jury applications should be submitted via the Australian Sailing website at https://www.sailingresources.org.au/officials-volunteers/juryapprovals/.

It is expected there may be some changes to these requirements when the new rule book is issued in January 2021 but in the meantime if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact Australian Sailing