Happy New Year. It is the beginning of the year after what should have been an Olympic Games year, so it is time for a new Racing Rules of Sailing. The Olympics may have been delayed a year, but the rule book was not. The rules took effect January 1, 2021, with the new book now available from the World Sailing website and the Sail Canada edition should be available soon. Most of the usual books interpreting the rules are releasing their new editions and will be available through the usual chandleries and bookstores. There is a great summary of the changes written by Dave Perry and available on the US Sailing Website.

This also means a new stream of articles from me on the changes. Most of my articles focus on the right-of-way rules (Part 2 of the Racing Rules of Sailing). This month, though, I will focus on changes in other areas. There are several small changes in the right-of-way rules and we will cover some of them in the next article, but I don’t believe they will make much of a difference to most sailors while racing. The first two changes covered here make a significant difference to racers and to race committees. Given our increased pool of volunteer race committees, this may be important to more people. Let us begin with the start. Until this year, a boat started when any part of “her hull, crew or equipment” crossed the starting line after the starting signal. With changes to the definition of start and rule 29.1 Recalls and the Starting Penalties, Rules 30.1, 30.2, 30.3 and 30.4, only the hull is considered. A crew member on a trapeze can be over the line. On a downwind start, the spinnaker can be over the line. This makes it easier for race committees, who now only have to look at the hulls. It also may look forward to a day when some form of electronic tracker is placed on the bow and used to determine who is “On Course Side”. The same change was made in the definition of Finish. Previously, crew or equipment in normal position crossing the line counted as finishing. Some people would ease their spinnaker sheets to get over the line earlier. The Race Committee would have to judge whether the spinnaker was “in normal position”, so the spinnaker counted, or not “in normal position”, so it did not. In the diagram, Yellow had finished under the 2017-2020 rules but not under the 2021-2024 rules. Blue has finished under both sets of rules. This now means that a race officer watching a finish line can watch only the hulls. Match Racers may recognize this, since it has been true in match racing for the past five years.


Note, however, that the change of reliance on the position of the hull alone applies only to starting and finishing. Many other rules are not affected. Overlaps are still based on “hull and equipment” in proper position, even though size of the zone is based on “hull lengths”. Touching a mark is based on the “boat” touching the mark and the “boat” includes the equipment and crew. A new definition has been added: “sail the course”. Its meaning and much of the language are drawn from the old rule 28.2. Now that it is a definition, though, it can be used in some other rules, such as the definition of proper course. This makes it clear that your proper course is to “sail the course” and “finish as soon as possible” instead of just “finish as soon as possible” which might have meant to sail directly to the finish while skipping some marks. “Sail the course” is used in Appendix A5.1 as well. This is significant. A race committee can now score a boat “NSC” or “Did not sail the course” without a protest and without a hearing. Previously if the race committee saw that a boat did not sail around the correct marks, they could protest the boat, but they had to score the boat as finishing. Now they can score a boat NSC. If the boat disagrees, she can request redress. There is a new race signal code flag V (White background with a Red X). It goes along with a new rule 37, Search and Rescue Instructions. It instructs competitors and support vessels to monitor the race committee communications channel for search and rescue instructions. For youth and dinghy regattas, this probably applies mainly to coaches. There is an old joke that says, “If you want to keep something secret from sailors, publish it in the Sailing Instructions, if you want to keep it really secret, publish it in the Notice of Race.” There are some changes here as well. Several things that used to have to be in both, now need only be in one. Some races use the collision regulations instead of the racing rules, particularly at night. This must be specified in the Notice of Race (preamble to Part 2). Changes to the class rules must now be in the Notice of Race (rule 87). When a race passes from waters governed by one national authority to waters governed by another, the notice of race must specify whose prescriptions apply to that race (rule 88.1). Appendix J, which is the guidance for the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions, now says, “A rule in the notice of race need not be repeated in the sailing instructions.” Rule J2.1, which lists what has to be contained in the Sailing Instructions says, “Unless included in the notice of race, the sailing instructions shall include the following….” We shall have to wait and see if this makes it more or less easy to earn a DSQ by skipping your pre-race reading, so I’ll stick with my long-held advice: “It really is a good idea to read the Notice of Race.”