Spanish accuse Jury of being unfair over penalties in Volvo Ocean Race

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com on 4 Jun 2015 The Spanish entry in the Volvo Ocean Race has accused the International Jury of being less than even-handed in their allocation of penalties for breaches of the rules which occurred soon after the start of Leg 7 in Newport RI.

Yesterday the International Jury announced their Decisions in respect of four Reports lodged by the Race Director, Jack Lloyd, which affected three of the Volvo Ocean Race teams.

The Jury, presided by Frenchman Bernard Bonneau, have penalised Team SCA with two additional points to their overall classification, and a point each for Dongfeng and Mapfre for transgression of the TSS Exclusion Zone rules, as the fleet exited Newport RI.

Representing the Spanish team at the Hearing, were Mapfre’s rules expert Luis Sáenz de Mariscal and the team’s navigator Jean-Luc Nélias.

After hearing the final decision of the International Jury, Mapfre issued a statement.

“This is an unfortunate incident; we committed a small error in navigation that took us in the wrong direction for about 700 metres inside Buzzard Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). It is important to note that there was no merchant traffic, 6 knots of wind, full diurnal visibility and no danger to the navigation. The International Jury has penalised us for that, and we have full respect such decision. Having said that, I do not agree with several issues involving these cases,” Luis Sáenz de Mariscal said.

“First of all, with the data that is available to us (AIS position reports), Brunel also sailed inside and in the wrong direction in the Buzzard TSS. However, the Race Committee did not protest Brunel. It is important to note that boats are not allowed to protest for these issues, and only the Race Committee may do so.”

“Secondly, Dongfeng breached the rule twice. The first time in Buzzard TSS – for more than one kilometre- and, about twelve hours later, for a second instance in the Boston to New York TSS – for more than four kilometers.”

The Spanish team claimed they had to change sails twice to comply with that requirement of the TSS.

“However, the International Jury decided to impose the same penalty to Dongfeng (two breaches) than to Mapfre (one breach). Therefore, the penalties are not proportional to the breaches,” said the Mapfre rules expert.

Team SCA was found to have twice breached the race rules and International Collision Regulations over separate incidents in the TSS Exclusion Zone and was penalised one point for each incidence.

Co-skipper of the Spanish team, Xabi Fernández chipped in. “In my opinion the principle of proportionality has not been applied here. One point in a leg represents many hours of sacrifice, work, effort, and even risking your life in some cases. It was an action that didn’t provide us with any kind of advantage but has been penalised with a point, and I feel that it is completely disproportionate. We believe there could have been another kind of sanction, such as time instead of points, to compensate for the error, and which would not have distorted the general classification.”

Pedro Campos, Director General of the Spanish team, said that the rules were ambiguous – evidenced by the fact that half the fleet has been Reported by the Race Director and in the opinion of the Spanish team a fourth boat should have been carpeted as well.

“I believe that a large organisation such as the Volvo Ocean Race should reflect very deeply about the degree of confusion that exists in regard to the rules that define it,” said Campos in a statement released by the team.

“In my opinion, when four out of six boats competing make a mistake, and three are penalised for it, the rules are obviously not clear, particularly given that the best navigators in the world are taking part in this race, and they spend many hours and much effort to prepare each leg of the race.”

The penalties announced on Wednesday are the second to be levied against Mapfre. On Leg 5 they were docked a further two points by the International Jury for not complying with a reporting procedure for effecting precautionary repairs during a Southern Ocean storm soon after leaving New Zealand. A broken outrigger was also repaired. It was conceded by the International Jury that the additions of strengthening battens to the interior of the boat did not constitute any performance advantage, but claimed the Spanish may have gained some performance advantage through the outrigger repair as it was made stronger than when it had broken.

The Race Rules required the team to get permission from Volvo Class Association to obtain permission, before effecting the repair, to maintain the one design nature of the class. Mapfre did report to Race Control that both repairs had been undertaken as the boat was negotiating the tail of Cyclone Pam. However, they were tripped up for non-compliance with a second reporting rule.

In that instance, the Spanish were also very unhappy with the imposition of the two-point penalty. An attempt to have the Hearing re-opened failed.

The imposition of a one-point penalty has dropped Mapfre back to equal fourth place on points, with Team Alvimedica. Without the loss of three points in the Jury Room, Mapfre would be within two points of second place with two legs to sail in the 40,000nm round the world race.

The Decisions from the Int Jury can be read by clicking here