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Sailboat Racing Rules The Big Picture By Mike Fahle  There have been as many reactions to the new rules as there are racing sailors, but so
far one constant seems to be that the better the rules are understood, the more favorable the
reactions are. It seems only reasonable to attempt to understand the rules of any game that we
play, but especially one that we spend so much time and money on as sailboat racing. To help
everyone understand the new rules, it is helpful to put them into the context of "The Big Picture",
which is the subject of this article. With an understanding of the history of the rules, the rules
development process, and the organizational structure supporting the rules, it should be easier to
understand them and direct our energies to improving them as we feel is warranted.
HISTORY OF THE RULES Imagine racing cats around the buoys without any rules at all. Think of the changes it
would bring in the sport! No more new boats, no lightweight, fragile craft, and probably more
personal protective gear worn than in hockey. Maybe it would be something like "last boat afloat,
wins!" While that has a somewhat appealing, testosterone-tinged ring to it, probably there would
be less participation, not more. So most racers would readily agree that rules are good to have,
especially if they could just be kept simple and easy to understand and apply. Now imagine
having to develop just one set of rules for every different kind of sailboat afloat, easily
understood with all the languages around the world, and applicable under all conditions of wind
and water and geography on earth in every kind of racing application: from single-handed
around-the-world, to fleet sizes of over a hundred around-the-buoys racers, to high speed
formula 40 cats zipping around the course. That makes not only for a long sentence, but quite a
difficult task for the rules writers.
Different parts of the world had their own versions of the rules until 1929 when the European and
the U.S. racing organizations agreed on a common set of right-of-way rules that were fairly
vague but O.K. for the big, relatively slow yachts commonly raced then. As more small boats
were raced, rules in America were developed that focused on the three basic relationships
between boats; boats on the same tack, boats on opposite tacks, and boats changing tacks,
which were adopted in 1948 by the North American Yacht Racing Union (N.A.Y.R.U., forerunner
of the U.S.Y.R.U., now USSA) and the Canadian Yachting Association, CYA). These were much
less vague and more easily enforceable rules but created different rules for different parts of the
world again. Therefore the International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU, now ISAF) created a racing
rules committee in 1949 to study the various rules used throughout the world in order to develop
one set to be used everywhere in the world. Finally the rules drafted by this committee were
accepted and took effect in 1961 as the International Yacht Racing Rules. While these rules
have been modified over the years, they are what we have been using since then.
RULES DEVELOPMENT Each national authority, such as the United States Sailing Association or USSA, adopts these
rules for use in their own country with whatever prescriptions they make where allowed for in the
rules to best suit their situations. So when racing in different countries, sailors only need to
familiarize themselves with any prescriptions different from their own country, as opposed to an
entirely different set of rules. Notice that no changes are allowed to the definitions and the right-
of-way rules, thus ensuring that these remain identical throughout the world. This is important to
those who remember that Canada is not the 51st state and to others fortunate enough to
compete overseas. The policy of the International Sailing Federation or ISAF since 1961 has
been to make no changes for the four year period leading up to the Olympics to allow the
maximum time for sailors to become accustomed to rules modifications. Then rules changes
contemplated during the previous four year period are voted on at the next meeting of the
international body right after the Olympics. The draft that is voted on at these meetings
represent the culmination of four years of hard work by volunteers from member countries.
Sailors communicate their ideas to their own country’s rules committee as desired and these
committees study areas for improvement and communicate with each other to produce the draft
that is finally voted on at the post Olympic international meeting. Notice that the ISAF is very
interested in having sailors study the rules for improvements. Rule 3.1 (1993-96 rules) restricts
which rules the sailing instructions can alter, but "when so prescribed by the national authority,
this restriction shall not preclude the right of developing and testing proposed rule changes in
local races." The USYRU so prescribed and, in fact went even further on January 1, 1994, when
it issued an addendum to rule 3.1(b)(i) that read "...during 1994 -1996 the Experimental Right-of-
Way Rules and Definitions may be substituted for Part IV and alter Part I, Definitions..." This
unusual allowance is what allowed racers to be directly involved in testing and providing
feedback to the USYRU rules committee in formulating the draft that resulted in our new racing
rules for the 1997-2000 period. In an unprecedented effort to involve all racers in the change
process, Harken underwrote the cost of printing thousands of full color brochures provided free
for organizations to hand out when racing. These explained the experimental rules and clearly
stated the purpose and intent to create simplified racing rules in time for the 1997-2000 period,
inviting input from users to better refine them.
RULES SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS The umbrella organization for sailboat racing throughout the world is the International Sailing
Federation or ISAF which just changed its name from International Yacht Racing Union. The
officially recognized organization for sailboat racing in the U.S. is the United States Sailing
Association or USSA. It changed names a few years ago from the United States Yacht Racing
Union. Notice in both name change cases that "Yacht" and "Union" were eliminated. This was a
deliberate, purposeful change to better reflect the nature
and activities of the membership.
In fact, the effort to simplify the rules was the result of a membership survey taken by the IYRU
to determine how they could better serve the sport. The survey strongly indicated that many
would-be racers were discouraged by the length and complexity of the racing rules. The
member countries voted to allow the standing rules committee to once again start out with a
clean sheet of paper to rewrite the rules with the mandate to shorten, simplify, and better express
the rules. This is what Harold Vanderbilt did way back in 1935, but this time it took just four
years to ratify them instead of 26. This was due in part to the recognized need, the history of
change, and much better and faster communication technology.
The USSA communicates its activities through a monthly newsmagazine titled American
Sailor. For the last several years it has been delivered with Sailing World magazine and just
recently was put inside Sailing World. One of the features of American Sailor is a rules quiz
written by Dave Perry who is a USSA senior judge and is a member of the USSA Appeals
Committee. He authors a book available through USSA that is updated every four years with the
latest rules changes that explains the rules. Sailing World also features a monthly rules
column by Dick Rose, another USSA senior judge, who also serves on the appeals committee.
There are several other important publications available free with membership. They include the
USSA Directory, which lists lots of useful information such as who serves on various USSA
committees that interest you, and the Multihull Council Handbook, which includes rating info.
Several other important publications are available for a fee, including the Appeals Decisions and
the Race Management Manual.
The USSA maintains a judges directory with the intent to provide regatta organizers with
a list of judges available who can be counted on to render informed decisions in case of protests.
There is an appeals procedure available to racers who feel that the judges in a protest did not
apply the rules correctly, and ultimately the process leads to the USSA Appeals Committee.
This committee decides real appeals and also imagined situations that members send in asking
for clarification about the application of the rules to the stated situation. These appeals decisions
are published for the guidance of the membership in applying the rules. Sometimes, appeals
from member countries are forwarded to the ISAF for consideration by the international Appeals
Committee which also publishes their rulings in the form of the ISAF Cases. These rulings are
often the genesis of rules modifications made in the next four year period and, of course, are the
final arbitration. There is a flurry of activity by many dedicated volunteers right now (including
Dave Perry and Dick Rose) to rewrite the USSA Appeals to apply to the new rules. They expect
this to be finished sometime in April and to be published immediately afterwards.
Knowing and applying the racing rules is important to our enjoyment of sailboat racing.
The new rules are a major improvement over the old rules for ease of comprehension and use.
Still, sailboat racing is a complex sport, and no useful set of rules is ever going to be truly
simple. The best set will be the ones that work and are easier than the alternatives. Therefore
we should come to the sport expecting to make the effort to read, understand, apply, and help
develop the rules.
Mike Fahle Toledo, OH MCFahle@worldnet.att.net Back to Features |