After the victory party, the Italian team Allagrande Mapei Racing before the protest hearing! Skipper Ambrogio Beccaria's team will have to answer a protest from the Imoca Class Technical Committee this Thursday morning in Genoa. The committee had to report to the International Jury that it had not received the obligatory photo of the intact sealed engine from the Allagrande Mapei Racing team after the start of the third leg within the prescribed three-hour period.
Ocean Race Europe: the International Jury meets
Other teams and their rules specialists are also called upon at the green table in the Italian stage harbour of Genoa, as there are three more cases to be heard by the International Jury. The second hearing concerns a request for compensation by Team Holcim PRB. The Swiss team is convinced that it has reached the early classification goal on stage three in the battle for bonus points as the second team.
The position would have been worth a bonus point, but it was awarded to Yoann Richomme's French team Paprec Arkéa. Very attentive live tracker observers will remember that the tracker initially made it look to spectators as if "Holcim-PRB" had reached the gate before "Paprec Arkéa".
In the other case, "Paprec Arkéa" applied for compensation for the position at the early scoring gate of the fourth stage. In this case, the bonus point for second place at the "Holcim-PRB" gate was awarded. In both cases, it had taken a long time for the race organisers to confirm the official positions at the scoring gates. Click here for the intermediate results of the Ocean Race Europe after four of five legs.
Team Malizia protests against Team Paprec Arkéa
The fourth protest was lodged by Boris Herrmann's team Malizia. It concerns a right of way situation in a duel with "Paprec Arkéa" shortly after the start of the fourth leg from Nice to Genoa. The situation is also briefly discussed in the NDR Live Talk with sailing reporter and presenter Sven Kaulbars and expert Tim Kröger: Excerpts can be seen from around minute 8:40.
The Malizia protest is about a controversial upwind port-starboard situation shortly after the start of the fourth leg. The courses of "Malizia - Seaexplorer" and "Paprec Arkéa" had crossed each other twice. Once with right of way for Team Malizia, once with right of way for "Paprec Arkéa". Team Malizia's protest relates to the first of the two situations.
By then, "Paprec Arkéa" had held her course without right of way, while "Malizia - Seaexploer" passed behind the French Imoca with right of way. At the second encounter shortly afterwards - now "Paprec Arkéa" with right of way - "Malizia - Seaexplorer" again passed the stern of her opponent. Boris Herrmann shouted "Protest!" loudly and audibly, referring to the first encounter.
Protest negotiations on Thursday
The technical protest against Allagrande Mapei Racing is the first case on the International Jury's small protest marathon. The hearing began on 4 September at 9.30 a.m. in Genoa.
The update with the jury decisions
The International Jury ruled on three of the four protests on Thursday. The first hearing in the technical protest against Allagrande Mapei Racing by the Imoca technical committee, the jury was informed that a photo of the engine seal had been received 45 minutes late. The Italian team admitted the mistake and explained that they had been concentrating on the race and had unfortunately not sent the photo in time.
Evidence was presented that showed that no performance advantage was achieved. The jury decided that Allagrande Mapei should receive a 10-minute penalty for the stage. The judgement has no effect on the classification or the team's placing. The second hearing concerned a request for redress by Team Holcim-PRB, which had questioned the accuracy of the tracking data used to determine which boat was the second to reach the scoring gate in the battle for bonus points and was awarded the one point. The point was awarded to "Paprec Arkéa" in a close race.
The jury found that the tracking devices used for the scoring gate (primary and secondary) all showed the same results - "Paprec Arkéa" crossed the scoring gate ahead of "Holcim-PRB" - and that there was no evidence to contradict these results. Therefore, no correction is made and the scoring results stand.
A protest hearing was postponed
In a very similar case, Team Paprec Arkéa also applied for compensation for the scoring gate on the fourth leg, in which Team Holcim PRB was the second boat to receive a point for the gate passage. This case will be heard at a later date so that further evidence can be gathered.
Team Malizia's protest against Paprec Arkéa was declared invalid and rejected because Team Malizia had not hoisted a red protest flag and had not informed the race organisers of the protest immediately. The team had only sent a message four hours after the incident.
"The protest was rejected on technical grounds and Team Malizia understands and respects the jury's decision on this matter," said Boris Herrmann. "But like Paprec Arkéa, we believe that there are important questions about exclusion zones and the requirements for turning space near these areas that should be answered, and the jury has agreed that we can submit questions to them so that we can all gain clarity on how the rules will be applied in the future."
