The Racing Rules of Sailing published by World Sailing govern the sport of sailing in all its forms all over the world, from club racing at Aylesbury right up to the Olympics and the America’s Cup. Due to the nature of club sailing on a small inland lake such as Weston Turville some of those Rules are modified for the purposes of racing at Aylesbury Sailing Club. You will find the few modifications we apply to the Racing Rules set out in the Notice to Competitors and Race Instructions which are available on the Racing pages. Save for those modifications, the Racing Rules apply to all races held at the Club (although we always try not to be officious).
World Sailing published an amended set of Rules which will apply from 1 January 2025 until 2028 . There have been some important changes to the Rules which all sailors need to make themselves familiar with. The most significant changes from a club racer’s perspective are as follows:
- Change of definition of “proper course” which now reads: “A course a boat would choose in order to sail the course as quickly as possible in the absence of the other boats referred to in the rule using the term. A boat has no proper course before her starting signal.” The change is the addition of ‘as quickly as possible’ where the old rules said ‘and finish as soon as possible‘.
- Mark-Room: rules 18.2 and 18.3 have been re-written quite extensively and are now somewhat clearer than the old rules. Most significantly r.18.2(a) now says that “When the first of two boats reaches the zone, (1) if the boats are overlapped, the outside boat at that moment shall give the inside boat mark-room; (2) if the boats are not overlapped, the boat that has not reached the zone at that moment shall give the other boat mark-room. When a boat is required to give mark-room by this rule, she shall continue to do so for as long as this rule applies, even if later an overlap is broken or a new overlap begins.” Remember that this rule only applies where boats are on the same tack approaching a mark which they both are required to pass on the same side. Also remember that at Aylesbury the ‘zone’ is measured as two hull lengths of the boat nearer the mark.
- Avoiding contact: Rule 14 has been reworded so that it is not not enough to just avoid contact with another boat. You are now also obliged if reasonably possible to not cause contact between any boats, and not cause contact between a boat and an object that should be avoided. In other words, you need to consider the ‘ripple effect’ through the fleet of causing an adjacent boat to make contact with another boat.
- Room to tack at an obstruction: Rule 20.1 now specifies that you must hail for room by hailing ‘Room to tack‘. But you are still not entitled to call for room to tack if you are not sailing close-hauled or above, or if the obstruction is a mark and the boat you hail is fetching the mark but would be required to change course to respond to your hail.
Aylesbury Sailing Club 