Referee! The devil in the detail between French and Aussie penalties

At the SailGP Grand Prix in Rio there were some late chargers making a late but very fast run into the start box, hoping for a gap to appear in front of them. Sometimes this late charge paid off big time, like the Bonds Flying Roos who surged past their earlier – but non-foiling – rivals and into an unassailable lead in Race 5. 

But then it didn’t go so well for the Australians at the start of Race 6 when their come-from-behind strategy resulted in them making contact with Switzerland. Initially, a fairly soft stop-and-go penalty for Australia which was later upgraded to a tougher points punishment. 

And then at the start of Race 7, an incredible start by the French team from the top end of the start line after a late charge from the back by Quentin Delapierre. Then, the dreaded intervention from chief umpire Craig Mitchell: “This is the umpires. Penalty to France, Windward boat not keeping clear. Black Flag, you are disqualified.” So a DSQ disaster for Delapierre, but why such harsh treatment for the French compared with the others?

The devil is in the detail. In SailGP there are two different types of penalty: the first is for on-water infringements of the rules of Part 2 (When Boats Meet) of the Racing Rules of Sailing; the second is for infringements of Rule 14 (or Rule 57 for what SailGP call ‘Reckless Sailing’) for contact and damage. 

Australia received an on-water penalty for breaking Rule 15 (not giving room when becoming the right of way boat) so had to go 20m behind Switzerland. However, a subsequent Rule 14 hearing was held, following a protest from the protest committee and Australia was found to have broken Rule 14 and caused damage, which according to the SailGP umpire team’s Contact and Damage flowchart resulted in a 5-point penalty for the Bonds Flying Roos.

In the French black flag incident, France didn’t keep clear of Germany and so Delapierre had broken Rule 11 – windward boat must keep clear. As the incident was at the windward end of the start line where France were not entitled to mark-room, the SailGP umpires’ policy is to disqualify the boat. There are two reasons for this: 

1. The ‘gain’ from barging rather than tacking out can be measured in the hundreds of metres compared to taking the 20m get behind the boat you infringed penalty.

2. It’s also deemed very unsafe and could result in serious damage or injury if it goes wrong.

So, will this Draconian penalty on the French mean we’ve seen the last of the late-chargers? When you’ve seen what a race winning strategy it can be, you can be sure there’ll be more bold attempts to storm the starts from the back of the box.