Racing Rules

HRYC Race Observer (RO) Rule

When there are 8 boats or less a dedicated RO is not required, in each race the winner will record the finishing order.

When 9 boats or more are present, every skipper will be expected to take a turn as Race Observer. 

Requirements of the Race Observer are as follows

1. Call “clock going on” & press the 2 minute start button (also provide a verbal Countdown for any Novice)
2. Observe the start line and call the Nos of any boats over the line early
3. Observe the race, Call, and take note of, any contacts between boats or between a boat and a mark of the course.
4. Record the finishing order of all boats.

Its not the role of the Observer to comment or judge who is at fault when boats touch, that is down to the skippers involved to decide and take a penalty turn as needed.

In this system if boats collide the guilty party should take the penalty turn as soon as possible on the leg the incident occurs, not by the end of the race

It should also be made clear that the start line is a line between the front of the start line buoys, the finish line is a line on the rear side (course side)

Average Points for club Race Days

Average Points

Average points will be awarded for any skipper performing an RO duty during a racing session. A maximum of two awards are available per skipper.

Boat Repairs – No average points will be awarded for repairs. We will be using a 2-minute countdown for all starts assuming there are no other delays caused by events beyond our control. If that and the natural gap between races aren’t long enough for a skipper to carry out a minor repair and get back on the water, they will be scored as DNS.

New Member Taster Sails – No average points will be awarded for taster sails. When potential new members have been invited to the lake for a taster sail these should be carried out during coffee break or after sailing to not prevent member skippers taking part in the racing.

Racing Rules

There are too many to post up here, so here are 10 basic rules of racing, these will hopefully keep you out of trouble (mostly)

Some More Explanation of the Rules, kindly prepared by Dave Green

And for those of us that attended Andy B’s session on9th April, please see download

This is a series of RYA YouTube Videos which also detail the rules to follow, sometimes its easier explained with a video.