I've Chaired the Protest Committee at a couple of events recently, and thought to give a short 2 minute welcome speech at the initial competitors' briefing.  There are some sentences in [ ] parentheses which could be added or omitted depending on the event.

And I have two other pages dealing with protesting.  One is for street fighting, the other is the Dummies guide.

Hello and Welcome.

The Protest Committee offers a dispute resolution service. If you are aggrieved, promptly hail "X X protests Y Y". We'll do what we can to help if no turn is taken.

If there is a protest, by all means have a chat to clarify what happened. You may decide not to be aggrieved after all, and that is ALWAYS a choice.
In your chat, explain your point, respect theirs. No bullying, telling anyone what to do, repeating allegations, raising voices, etc. There are three relevant Rules.

Unique to Radio Sailing is Rule E2.2. A competitor shall not give advice to another competitor.
Then there is Rule 2 FAIR SAILING. A boat and her owner shall compete with sportsmanship and fair play.
And Rule 69 MISCONDUCT, which is, very simply, defined as bad manners (etc).

If there was contact and no boat took a turn, keep in mind that the Race Committee WILL be aggrieved.
If an Observer called "Contact", a chat to clarify what happened is acceptable. But arguing with an Observer could bring Rule 2 and even Rule 69 into play. Always good manners, please.

There may be some chat about Rule E4.3(b), Taking a Penalty: "If a boat gained an advantage despite taking a penalty, she shall take additional turns until her advantage is lost".
It may help to know that any advantage is relative to the whole fleet.  [As explained in Call P4 of the World Sailing Call Book for Radio Sailing.]  This is the heart of it:

Sometimes a boat may be in a better position
after taking a turn compared to the boat she fouled,
but she is almost always in a worse position in the fleet. 
In this case no further turns are due.

[When you are an Observer, call ONLY if you are quite certain. Do NOT call if you think that the contact probably happened, or likely happened because the mark bobbed up and down, or because some competitor is making a noise.  It is good practice for you to take a moment to consider what you saw and heard before calling. Your call does not need to be instantaneous, and it gives the boat a moment to acknowledge their breach.]

[When you are a competitor, your call is “Protest”.  It is when you are an Observer that your call is “Contact”.  If you are a competitor and you call “Contact”, the Race Committee might think you are impersonating an Observer in order to ensure a penalty is taken.  This is certainly a Rule 2 breach, and is Rule 69 if repeated or deliberate.]

[If you intend to take a penalty, your hail of “Acknowledged” would be very helpful to all.]

Please ask if you'd like to know more about any of this.  Fair winds!

©2025 Lester Gilbert