Race officers must also be prepared to receive from a yacht, or yachts, a claim for a resailed race under the 'man overboard' rule (Rule 29), which states that competing yachts 'shall use their utmost endeavours to render assistance in case of a man falling overboard from a competing yacht; and if it should appear that any yacht was thereby prevented from winning the race, the committee shall have power to order it to be resailed between any yacht or yachts so prevented, and the actual winner.' By the wording of the rule the race officers can only report the matter to the committee, and cannot settle it themselves. Nevertheless, they have the power to 'award the prizes' (Rule 1) in the absence of any such claim, or protest; but this is seldom done in practice, because owners rarely send their declaration (in accordance with Rule 10) to the secretary of the club until it is demanded. _See_ Duties of Owners. Practically, therefore, race officers can only declare the probable winners; and in some clubs, where the same yachts race frequently, this is done at the termination of the racing, by hoisting the colours of the apparent winners under the signal flags denoting their races. _Duties of Owners_ The principal duty of a racing owner is to see that everything in connection with the racing of his yacht is done in a perfectly fair and honourable manner. An owner who breaks or infringes any racing rule flagrantly 'may be disqualified by the Council, for such time as the Council may think fit, from sailing his yacht in any race held under the rules of the Y.R.A.' (Rule 33). When a yacht is officially measured, the owner should be on board, or have an experienced racing friend on board to represent him. He should note the position of the inside ballast, ship's stores, unbent sails, and other gear, entering same in his note-book. He should see that the crew is properly placed, viz. 'amidships' (Council's instructions to official measurer, March 1, 1883), as, by a resolution passed December 6, 1892, a yacht (Rule 3, December 1892) must now be marked by the owner, such marks being clear above the water surface in smooth water in 'racing trim,' which evidently means with crew and all weights (live or dead) carried in a race on board. The taxable length will in future be officially measured to the 'outer edges' of said marks, a length somewhat greater than the yacht's L.W.L. An owner should take the greatest care to see for himself that his yacht's taxable length is never increased, and that any alteration to her ballast trim, sanctioned by a recent addition to Rule 15, is never made after 9 P.M. of the day previous to a race.