3 minute protest is used very often in college sailing and team races. It works fine unless you have someone in the room like Sam Seriously though, we used to do it right on the finish boat, works great.
I've umpired high school and college team racing, so no, you probably don't want to be in the room with me
The big difference between that and this is you have pro or semi-pro judges on the finish or umpire boat making a decision, and another big difference is these rules experts see the incident in real time. At the high school level, the boat has coaches from opposing teams and a third unbiased judge. At the college level, it's professional umpires in the boats making the calls and hearing the on-the water protests.
A 3 minute shootout on the beach isn't going to work. I agree with Jake that we would be better served by conference calling/Skyping judges into a hotel room.
I have been involved in a lot of "3 minute justice" hearings, but we never really put a watch on things. The idea is more that you don't necessarily need a form, which allows for hearings in an umpire boat between races. Works great for team racing.
I will disagree with Sam on two points: 1. Really no such thing as 'pro' umpires... or else I'm doing the wrong events! 2. If you are hearing a protest in a team race you very likely didn't see the incident. The only hearings are either yellow flag, or because no umpire was present.
