Basic Sailboat Racing Rules

[Stu Jackson]

It's a nice, bortherly concept

Flying an ensign should alert racers to the fact that you are not racing- it does in our corner of the lake anyway......An ensign is always taken as a sign that the boat is a cruiser.

and would work in small corners of the world. The issue, I think, is if you'd ever be able to actually SEE the "non-racer" ensign in real life situations with higher winds. Say, for instance, you're a non-racer coming downwind into a fleet of racers heading upwind. Your "I'M NOT A RACER!!!" ensign is flying from aft to dead ahead of YOUR non-racing boat, which means the thin side of the flag is flowing directly AT the racers coming uphill. They simply cannot see it. Same deal going the other way.

In many cases, here on SF Bay, we have multiple races on any given day, and even if not on the same courses, the racing courses eventually cross each other. In some cases, a long race can have folks in the same race going upwind and downwind on the same course, sometimes they're spread out, sometimes together right at marks where adrenaline is pumping and looking for flags is the last thing on anyone's mind. In our neck of the woods, for some bizarre reason, known only to three legal size sturgeon, a sea bass and four carp, gaggles of fishermen in small boats hang out right at start and turning marks, too! Go figure.

It's a good idea, and I applaud you for having it work on your lake. Can you come out here and help us out?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Tim, question about the Basic Racing Rules Link you posted

Does it include the new 2009 rules for distances at marks?

 

[Tim C350 April IV]

Yes, Three Boat Lengths (room at the mark) is part of the new rules.

One thing the linked document mentions, but way on the last page, is the primary directive: "Avoid Collisions" - all the rest of the stuff is just trying to add a little structure and predictability to that prime directive.

Tim Brogan
April IV C350 #68
Seattle

 

[Richard Bryer]

and would work in small corners of the world. The issue, I think, is if you'd ever be able to actually SEE the "non-racer" ensign in real life situations with higher winds. Say, for instance, you're a non-racer coming downwind into a fleet of racers heading upwind. Your "I'M NOT A RACER!!!" ensign is flying from aft to dead ahead of YOUR non-racing boat, which means the thin side of the flag is flowing directly AT the racers coming uphill. They simply cannot see it. Same deal going the other way.

In many cases, here on SF Bay, we have multiple races on any given day, and even if not on the same courses, the racing courses eventually cross each other. In some cases, a long race can have folks in the same race going upwind and downwind on the same course, sometimes they're spread out, sometimes together right at marks where adrenaline is pumping and looking for flags is the last thing on anyone's mind. In our neck of the woods, for some bizarre reason, known only to three legal size sturgeon, a sea bass and four carp, gaggles of fishermen in small boats hang out right at start and turning marks, too! Go figure.

It's a good idea, and I applaud you for having it work on your lake. Can you come out here and help us out?

Believe me, Stu, we can see the cruiser who is cutting through the fleet quite easily. The cruiser on starboard who gives us the "hold your course" and ducks even the port tackers rates the smiles and the waves.

And what is it about those marks that makes people like fishermen (and in our neck of the woods- party boats-) want to hang around the marks? I am sure those party boat captains are very popular with their drunken, rap-at-100 decibels passengers when they take up a position immediately down wind of the upwind marks so they can see "all those pretty sails", but they are not popular with us!!!

 

[Rick D]

Ensigns and Burgees

I had always understood that no ensign nor burgee was to be flown while racing. However, I decided I would fly the ensign anyway and have for years. I can't imagine someone protesting it. I don't fly the YC burgee however.

 

[KenQuant]

Glad this piece is of help

Hi all - as the original author of the Basic Sailboat Racing Rules document, it has been great to see how many forums and email links have been made to this document. I sincerely hope it helps get more people into sailboat racing.

One word of caution, the protest wording is not US Sailing's prescribed actions. They were specifically written for our Friday night fleet here in Milwaukee which will not hear protests in a formal sense. It is all settled with friendly on-shore discussion.

To that, and given the overwhelming response to this document, I'm planning an revising the document to become more generic and to modify the protest wording to reflect US Sailing's official routine.