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.
At National and World class team racing events, ISAF certified judges are present..they might not be paid to be on the water but their housing, food and travel expenses are covered.
And yes you are correct on the hearing. All of this is moot when pertaining to the Florida 300, as there won't be on the water judging, and there won't be an international judging team present that can wrap up a full protest in 15 minutes. It's pretty clear the F300 rule writers were searching for loopholes in the Appendixes which were created for entirely different purposes, and failed to look at the big picture. A protest in this race is likely to only happen if there was equipment damage that caused significant time lost and/or an insurance claim...you need real paperwork...it's not that hard.
We either get proper unbiased judges to form a protest committee on the beach, or we skype those judges into a hotel room. If those two options are out of the question, I like the Sumo suits combined with the light saber idea.
