I suppose that this started for me during Kieler Woche last year, when Alan Green the Race Director for RORC (Royal Ocean Racing Club), asked me if I would be interested in taking part in a trial E-mail Jury as part of the run up to the BT Global Challenge. Along with Malcolm McKeag and others, we ran some experimental protests during the warm up race and found several problems that we had to deal with on the administration front.

The next thing was the formation of the International Jury itself for the event. This was done, and we now get regular reports from Race HQ and of course the Requests for Redress and Protests as they arrive.

Working from an office at home does have it's advantages with this kind of project, as the fax and e-mail are kept busy during the periods when we have ongoing situations. There is also the time difference between the various Jury members to contend with, as we are spread about between the UK, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

This is obviously different from the usual kind of Jury role where you have face to face contact with those you are dealing with, and your ability to cross question is very much diminished. There is also the loss of direct feeling for the event, although I did have the opportunity of being at the start on that windy day last September in The Solent, when I was aboard one of the Ministry of Defence Police Launches (or was it a submarine, I can't quite remember).

This is very much a new venture both for this event, and the sailing world in general. If successful, we may have pioneered a new way of helping competitors to get more out of the race and be able to know much more quickly where they stand at any given time, rather than having to wait until sometimes much later to get an issue resolved.