Irish double Olympian Robert Dickson has won redress at the GP14 World Championship on Belfast Lough after an International Jury found his Race 5 score had been made significantly worse through no fault of his own by an improper action or omission of the Race Committee.

Dickson, sailing GP14 14116 with Adrian Lee of Howth Yacht Club, has been awarded average points of 21.8 for the race following the hearing at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club.

The decision has helped the pair to ninth overall after seven races.

Dickson's appearance at the GP14 Worlds comes immediately after the two-time Irish Olympian competed at the LA 2028 Olympic test event in San Pedro before flying back to Ireland to join Lee for the Belfast Lough championship.

Race Five Restart

The unusual redress case arose from the first start of Race 5.

The International Jury found that Dickson did not sail in Race 5 after a notice on the committee boat posted 14116 as DSQ.

Sailing Instruction D10 stated that a boat must not sail if such a notice was posted.

However, the original race was subsequently abandoned and restarted. Crucially, the Jury found that D10 did not state that it altered Racing Rule of Sailing 36.

Rule 36 concerns races that are restarted or resailed.

The matter had initially been raised not by Dickson but through a Request for Redress by the Protest Committee, initiated by International Judge Michael Butterfield.

Dickson did not attend the subsequent hearing, although the Jury recorded that notice of it had been posted to notify the parties. The Race Committee was represented by Ruan O'Tiarnaigh.

International Jury Grants Redress

The Jury concluded that 14116's Race 5 score had been made significantly worse "through no fault of her own" by an improper action or omission of the Race Committee.

It ruled that the requirements for redress under RRS 61.4(b)(1) had therefore been met.

Redress was awarded on the basis that Dickson and Lee should receive points equal to the average, rounded to the nearest tenth, of their points in all the applicable races sailed before the last scheduled day of the regatta, excluding Race 5.

No other boat's score was to change.

The championship results subsequently show RDGa1-7 21.8 against Dickson and Lee for Race 5. Their opening-race DNC is currently their discard, leaving them ninth overall on 61.8 points.

The International Jury was chaired by Sweden's Bo Samuelsson and also comprised Michael Butterfield and Denis Todd of Great Britain and Antonio Mata of Portugal.