Can I use the RYA Exoneration Penalty?
In August 2006 the governing body for sailing in the UK, the
Royal Yachting Association (RYA), introduced an arbitration process and the Exoneration Penalty as a
way to promote best practice. It is a way for a boat that infringed a rule
while racing, but did not resolve the situation during the race by taking a penalty,
to accept a penalty after the finish.
Full details of the procedures to be used are set out in the Best Practices part
of the RYA web site. In essence, a boat taking an exoneration penalty:
- Takes a 20% scoring penalty in the same way as if she had put up a yellow flag during
the race (Racing Rules of Sailing 2005-2008 rule 44.3(c)) but with a minimum penalty
of two places, provided that her score is not worse than that for Did Not Finish
(DNF).
- The Exoneration Penalty may be accepted after finishing and before the start of
any protest hearing and is available for breaches of the rules in Part 2 and of
rules 31.1 and 42.
- Once accepted, it cannot be withdrawn and a protest committee cannot further penalise
the boat for that incident.
Details of implementation in HAL's Race Results
- A boat is allocated an exoneration penalty by selecting the status XPA for its result.
- The only thing to note is that the 20% scoring penalty is based on the number of
boats entered in the race, as set out in RRS 44.3(c). As with yellow-flag (SCP)
scoring penalties, this is worked out by taking the number of boats in the class,
that is the number of boats on the Class Register, and multiplying by 0.2, rounding
to the nearest integer number.
