Jake

Where in the rules does it say the PRO can protest a sailor's rating?

These are issues for the organizing authority , eg the regatta chairmnen, (who is not necesarrily the PRO) and the class representative .... not the PRO.

The problem you point out is that nobody has stepped up to organize the class... In this case... Open class. What group of individuals decides ratings issues for the region's open class.

If an F18 team showed up with the heavy sail plan and was racing lite.... Who does what?
IMO... It only comes to an issue if a sailor in the event protests the light team. The Organizing authority then holds the protest hearing and turns to the class rep for rules. The protest committe then makes a decision on the facts found and the printed rules.

Somebody in open class in your region has to have the authority to make decisions on ratings... So.. when the protest committe comes to the Open Class and says... OK... what are your ratings rules so we can decide the protest... They get an answer. If the sailor and the ratings committe disagree and it's not resolved before the regatta...the protest committe has no choice but to take the ratings committe answer.

The thing to do is to reach agreement on the rating before the regatta So the rating committe needs the time to go further up the chain to the National USPN and get an answer if necssary... It should not involve the regatta or the regatta staff.

Obviously, this is a stupid way to handle a ratings issue. Windyhill is trying to get it sorted out... It just needs to happen before the regatta at the class level.

In WindyHills situation... I would say... the boat is basically a one off design. The changes are too extreme to get a fair value for the rating. I would calculate a Texel or ISAF rating based on his actual measurments and then map it back to the USPN system to get a base PN number. As a one off boat... he will have to live the rating forever since his sailing skill will always be mapped to the one of a kind boat.

Mark