Protest Decisions

1. The protest committee shall conduct a hearing as required by rule 63 to decide a protest.
2. A boat shall only be penalized
   1. at a protest hearing to which she is a party,
   2. under rule 62.4, 64 or 69, or
   3. under a rule which expressly states that a penalty may be applied without a hearing.
3. If the protest committee decides that a boat has broken a rule it shall disqualify her whether or not the applicable rule was mentioned in the protest. However, the boat shall not be disqualified if
   1. she is exonerated or some other penalty applies,
   2. the boat has already taken an applicable penalty, in which case she shall not be penalized further unless the penalty for a rule she broke is disqualification that is not excludable,
   3. the race is restarted or resailed, in which case rule 36 applies, or
   4. she broke a class rule and rule 60.5(d) applies.
   If a boat has broken a rule when not racing, her penalty shall apply to the race sailed nearest in time to the incident.
4. If the protest committee decides that a boat has broken a class rule:
   1. the boat shall not be penalized if any deviations in excess of tolerances specified in the class rules were caused by damage or normal wear and they did not improve the performance of the boat,
   2. the boat shall not race again until any such deviations have been corrected unless the protest committee decides there is, or has been, no reasonable opportunity to do so,
   3. any breach of the same rule in earlier races in the same event may have the same penalty imposed for all such races without further protest, and
   4. the boat may compete in subsequent races without changes to the boat, but only if she states in writing that she intends to appeal. If she fails to appeal, or the appeal is not successful, she shall be disqualified without a hearing from all subsequent races in which she competed.