Page 58 - Salcombe Masthead 2020

56 Rules
PLAY FAIR
Unlike many field sports, match officials that keep a real-time eye on the competitors aren’t widely used in sailing. This means that largely, sailing is a self-policing sport and indeed it’s woven into the fundamentals of the game.
Be safe, play fair and accept a penalty when appropriate are the first three racing rules.
Accepting when you’ve broken a rule and doing the right thing has
a big impact on the culture within the club or fleet that you sail and means everyone can get on with enjoying the best sport in the world.
So how do you go about making sure you stay on the right side of the law?
Familiarise yourself with the rule book. I don’t mean you have to know all 182 pages!
If you have a handle on the five pages that cover rules 10 to 24 then you’ll be in good shape, another 5 pages up to rule 33 and you’ll know more than many. You can even download the rule book for free in the form of an App for your smartphone or tablet so you can have a look whenever you get a spare moment.
Work out what you need to do when you think you might have broken a rule (rule 44).
With your new-found knowledge of the rules in the nifty rules App you should be able to work out who has right of way or is entitled to room 80% of the time. Usually it will be a turns penalty (one
or two turns depending on the rule) but others such as points or percentages could be used. Remember that if it’s a turns penalty you need to take it as soon as you can after the incident. Sailing off down the leg for convenience, or while you think about it, doesn’t count.
Find out what the dispute resolution process is.
If you’ve had an incident and can’t agree whether you had that overlap or if you were still tacking then you need to know what happens next, such as a protest hearing, arbitration or something else. Standard practice is to lodge a protest which starts with a hail of protest and the display of a red flag at the time of the incident
and ends with a protest hearing by way of a written description of what happened. Sometimes a hail of protest and the waving of a red flag can tip the balance of whether someone takes a penalty or not.
Remember if your boat is less than 6m then you don’t need the flag. As a class or fleet, you may want to talk to the race managers
about the penalty system and come up with a penalty that everyone considers suitable for the racing that you’re doing. If a two turns penalty is considered excessive then how about agreeing to a one turn penalty? If the penalty is smaller maybe more boats would be happy to take one voluntarily.
The dispute resolution system can also be shortened so more time can be spent in the bar and less time wading through hearings. Appendix T right at the back of the rule book could help form a system that might work. Again, talk to the race managers, anything that speeds up the process is a win all round. Arbitration can also make the protests less intimidating which is good for events where fun is supposed to be the primary focus.
At the end of the day the responsibility rests with sailors to lead by example and take a penalty when they’ve broken a rule. If everyone takes this on then the racing is more enjoyable. If it all seems a bit much, then at least read the first sentence of racing rule 2 and try
to sail by it. I’m not going to tell you what it says, you can download the App and find out.
Craig Mitchel,
Event Manager and Sail Race Official