These are the new rules we'll be using from next January.
http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/ISAFRRS20132016Final-%5B13376%5D.pdf
Doubtless new versions of Elvstrom and Willis' books will be hitting the shops soon so you all know what to get each other for Christmas, or for that matter what hint to drop to relatives desperate for ideas for presents... Nothing very game changing this time as I understand it, but a lot of rewording and hopefully clarification and loophole filling.
The new version of the Case Book isn't out yet, but when it is available on line I strongly recommend reading it.This is a whole collection of example protests, real and hypothetical, which illustrate how the rules should be worked in action. If you're on a protest committee it should be required reading before you make any decisions.
Also of interest if you want to study the rules more deeply are the documents on this page.
http://www.sailing.org/raceofficials/internationaljudge/document_library.php
The judge's manual, for instance, goes into great detail as to the best way to hold a protest hearing.
Finally, while on the subject of the rules these two pages list all the protests that were heard at the Olympics and Paralympics. The utter triviality of some of the protests may depress you, the way Olympic sailors have trouble with some of the same rules as the rest of us may reassure you, and the deperate attempts to get some hearings reopened in the hope of changing the results may amuse you!
http://www.sailing.org/olympics/london2012/results/notices/protests.php
http://www.sailing.org/paralympics/london2012/32145.php
enjoy (maybe??)
Jim C