Kota Kinabalu: The status of the  KFC-16th Merdeka Regatta which ended on Sunday night has been elevated by the appointment of an international jury to oversee fairplay and resolve technical issues or preside over competitor versus competitor issues or competitor versus race committee and vice verse.

The appointment was made following a recent meeting by the event organisers.  The jury is made up of three International Sailing Federation (ISAF) International judges and two national judges, and there cannot be more than two jurors from the same country.

The International jurors appointed are international judges Leonard Chin from Sabah (Malaysia), Tan Tee Suan (Singapore) and Prasart Sribhadung (Thailand).  The national judges appointed are Remedios Fidel (Philippines) and Weng Samsi (Indonesia).

In accordance with ISAF recommendations, the chairman must not be from the host nation and therefore the jury will be headed by Tan Tee Suan (Singapore), a past SEA Games and Asian Games medallist and veteran international judge and he was a member of the Volvo Round the World race jury during the event's stopover in Singapore.

Prasat Sribhadung (Thailand) is a veteran international judge and has served in many regional events including the SEA Games.

Remedios Fidel (Philippines) is a seasoned former national sailor and coach and has served in the jury of the President's Cup Keelboat event recently and is a national judge.

The fifth member is Weng Samsi (Indonesia) who is instrumental in the development of sailing in Indonesia and is a national judge.

According to Leonard Chin, sailing is a unique sport in which there are in many cases no umpires or referees to oversee the sport.  Indeed, as the sailors disappear over the horizon or round the island of Tunku Abdul Rahman in the marathon race, they are policing themselves with all the rules of the game.  All the time they will be conscious of the right of way rules for instance or avoiding collisions.

If there are incidents on the water between the competitors, they bring their case back to shore and the international jury will preside over the case and hear evidence from both parties and witnesses as in a court hearing.  With the vast experience of sailing by all the judges combined, they are able to recreate the dynamics of the incident from evidence and conclude from facts which competitor infringed a rule and to be disqualified.

Other roles of the international jury are to solve problems with infringement of boat class rules, race results errors, and provided redress to competitors who may have been prejudiced by the actions or omission of the race committee or by the actions of another competitors.

More recently, judges have taken to the water to observe competitors to ensure that they only use the wind, the waves and the currents to propel themselves.  The use of body kinetic to assist in propulsion is strictly prohibited.

Sometimes the incidents between two competitors does not get to be heard by the international jury as a competitors may decide he is at fault and can exonerate or 'punish' himself by sailing his boat two complete circle or 'two turns' in sailing terminology.

According to Leonard, it is unsually when two competitors are unable to decide who is at fault that the issue os brought back to shore for the judges to decide at a hearing.

At this Merdeka Regatta, the decision of the international jury cannot be appealed and all results shall be final at the prize giving.