Dear readers,

Today, one day after the start of summer, Kiel Week begins. And for the race organisers and judges, it is, as always, an entertaining time. Because one thing is certain: there will be protests. Of course, where there are rules, there are also infringements, or at least borderline cases that end up in front of the jury. That's part of the game. But it's not always sporting.

Legendary are the - fortunately overcome - disputes over the America's Cup, in which legions of lawyers in the 21st century analysed the regulations of the Deed of Gift of 1851 down to the molecular level.

As spectacular as these fights in the back rooms may have seemed, they were just as annoying for the fans, who found the legal wrangling incomprehensible and would have preferred to watch cup matches rather than the exegesis of lengthy pleadings.

Personally, I have more sympathy for the sailing instructions of some long-distance regattas, which state that a protest automatically results in the disqualification of the protest leader or, alternatively, a round of free beer for all participants. It really exists! It works! But of course, this only works for amateur races. Something like that would cause irritation at Kiel Week.

The bizarre situations that protests can lead to can currently be observed in the Imoca class. And because of a rule that is the mother of all disputes, so to speak: 41 aka "Outside Assistance".

It applies to Opti parents who want to coach their offspring to the right side of the course with pre-arranged hand signals or whistle lutes, just as it prohibits Vendée Globe participants from receiving weather advice from ashore. To put it in European Championship jargon: What counts is on the course.

But as understandable as that sounds, all the paragraphs are grey. Because what actually is "outside help"? Where does support begin? Where is it just okay?

The jury of the Transat CIC - the first of two qualifying regattas for the Vendée Globe, in which Boris Herrmann came second in both races and thus became the best Imoca skipper of the 2024 season - is currently facing the dilemma of sorting this out. Boris bought his ticket for the Vendée long ago. Oliver Heer, however, the German-Swiss skipper, has to worry, and that also has to do with rule 41.

In the final third of the Transat CIC, its autopilot failed at night in a stormy front and rough seas. Within seconds, the boat made a brutal patent jibe. Because the tilting keel and all movable equipment were suddenly on the wrong side, it didn't take much to go upside down to 128 degrees. A worst-case scenario.

Ollie managed to get his boat upright again, but his entire power supply had collapsed due to the water ingress. And there was plenty of other damage too. Tatjana Pokorny describes just how bad it was in her Report for YACHT impressively described. Looking back, the 36-year-old said: "I was completely devastated. It was the first time like that on a sailing boat. I just didn't know what to do or how to do it. I still had those 1,300 miles to go."

He did manage to somehow connect his solar cells to one of the batteries and generate just enough power to keep his team informed. Later, when he was close to exhaustion and giving up, his mental coach, Professor Dr Wolfgang Jenewein, called him at the request of his team.

The Austrian, who teaches in Switzerland and counts athletes and top managers among his clients, advised him not to waste his resources on regrets and worries, but to concentrate on what he could do. Ollie scribbled the quintessence on his cabin wall: "Embrace this shit!"

Little by little, the Swiss sailor actually managed to get out of his misery and finish the regatta within the time limit. It was actually a masterpiece, one of those epic turns of events that we love single-handed regattas so much.

But then: Rule 41!

It was the organisers themselves who recognised "Outside Assistance" in the call to Wolfgang Jenewein and lodged a protest against Ollie Heer with the jury - one day before the return race, the New York Vendée, started.

Fortunately, the skipper was spared the news; unaware of the protest, he sailed towards Les Sables-d'Olonne and only found out on arrival that a sword of Damocles was hanging over his Vendée qualification.

It is already the second protest of this kind within three months.

Clarisse Crémer had previously been accused of receiving unauthorised weather advice from her husband, Tanguy de Turquais, during her first Vendée Globe in 2020/21 because a whistleblower had made parts of her WhatsApp chat public. The protest was rejectedbut it has shaken up the class enormously. Because where does help begin, what is just tolerated in the context of a private conversation?

Would it have been legal if Oliver Heer had spoken to his wife on the phone and she had given him moral support? Or if a friend who is not a mental coach had given him the same advice as Wolfgang Jenewein?

The crux of Rule 41 is that although it is undoubtedly justified, in the fully networked reality of a long-distance regatta, which allows exceptions anyway, it almost becomes a farce.

Want some examples?

If Ollie had called the race doctor or a medical advisor appointed by himself beforehand instead of Jenewein in his desperation and excessive demands, which amounted to a trauma, the exact same procedure would most probably have remained within the rules. Because advice from the doctor is expressly permitted.

If Ollie had asked his technical team for help on how to sort out the chaos of the damage on board and his crew on land had sent him a detailed plan of action, which would ultimately have been even more effective than Jenewein's more general advice, Ollie wouldn't have to worry now. After all, technical assistance is permitted under the sailing instructions and the rules of the Imoca class.

This shows how blurred the boundaries are and how much a skipper is ultimately dependent on the goodwill of the jury. The Imoca class is in the process of clarifying the rules of what is permitted. This is also because the nimbus of the race around the world, which is based on the fact that it is sailed single-handed, non-stop and without outside help, should not disappear.

Meanwhile, the judgement in the case of Ollie Heer's phone call is still pending. The possible sanctions range from a time penalty to disqualification. If it were a DSQ, the Swiss would no longer be the first contender for the wildcard to take part in the Vendée Globe. I hope the jury makes a sporting decision!

And I pray that rule 41 doesn't lead to any more interpretation problems. Imagine the winner of the Vendée being disqualified because his grandma encouraged him via WhatsApp to continue kayaking through the waves in the Southern Ocean at 40 knots with J Zero ...

Jochen Rieker,

YACHT Editor

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