IYRU Rules
This is for educational purposes only (buy your own copy of the rule
book). No warranties.
This text was posted to rec.boats.racing by fishmeal@netcom.com (Paul
Kamen) and put into hypertext format by Fritz. Hypertext links for all the definitions were added by Luke Turnbull (lt@ohm.york.ac.uk). Please send suggestions for
improvements (cartoons illustrating the rules would be cool, of
course).
Click here to jump to Fundamental rules:
A. Rendering Assistance
B. Competitors' Responsibilities
C. Fair Sailing
D. Accepting Penalties
to the definitions:
Abandonment
Bearing Away
Clear Astern and Clear Ahead; Overlap
Close-hauled
Finishing
Gybing
Interested Party
Leeward and Windward
Luffing
Mark
Mast Abeam
Obstruction
On a Tack; Starboard Tack; Port Tack
Overlap
Parties to a Protest
Postponement
Proper Course
Protest
Protest Committee
Racing
Room
Rules
Sailing
Starting
Tacking
Windward
and to rules:
30 Hindering Another Yacht
31 Penalty Limitations
32 Serious Damage
33 Contact between Yachts Racing
34 Retention of Rights
35 Limitations on Altering Course
36 Opposite Tacks - Basic Rule
37 Same Tack - Basic Rules
38 Same Tack - Before Clearing the Starting Line
39 Same Tack - After Clearing the Starting Line
40 Other Limitations on a Leeward Yacht
41 Changing Tacks - Tacking and Gybing
42 Rounding or Passing Marks and Obstructions
43 Close-hauled, Hailing for Room to Tack at Obstructions
44 On the Course Side of the Starting Line
45 Keeping Clear after Touching a Mark
46 Person Overboard; Yacht Anchored, Aground or Capsized
51 Sailing the Course
52 Touching a Mark
53 Anchoring, Making Fast and Hauling Out
54 Propulsion
55 Aground or Foul of an Obstruction
56 Manual and Stored Power
57 Boarding
58 Leaving, Crew Overboard
59 Outside Assistance
60 Personal Buoyancy
61 Clothing and Equipment
62 Increasing Stability
63 Skin Friction
64 Setting and Sheeting Sails
65 Fog Signals and Lights
66 Flags.
Fundamental Rules
A. Rendering Assistance
Every yacht shall render all possible assistance to any
vessel or person in peril, when in a position to do so.
B. Competitors' Responsibilities
It shall be the sole responsibility of each yacht to
decide whether or not to start or to continue to race .
By participating in a race conducted under these rules,
each competitor and yacht owner agrees:
-
- (i) to be governed by the rules :
-
- (ii) to accept the penalties imposed and other action taken in
accordance with the rules , subject to the appeal and review procedures
provided in them, as the final determination of any matter arising
under the rules ; and
-
- (iii) with respect to such a determination, not to resort to any court
or tribunal not provided by the rules .
C. Fair Sailing
A yacht, her owner and crew shall compete only by
sailing , using their speed and skill, and, except in
team racing, by individual effort, in compliance with
the rules and in accordance with recognized principles
of fair play and sportsmanship. A yacht may be
penalized under this rule only in the case of a clear-
cut violation of the above principles and only when no
other rule applies, except rule 75.
D. Accepting Penalties
A yacht that realizes she has infringed a rule while
racing shall either retire promptly or accept an
alternative penalty when so prescribed in the sailing
instructions.
Definitions
When a term is used in its defined sense, it is printed
in italic type.
- Abandonment
- An abandoned race is one that is declared void at any
time and that may be re-sailed.
- Bearing Away
- Altering course away from the wind until a yacht begins
to gybe .
- Clear Astern and Clear Ahead; Overlap
- A yacht is clear astern of another when her hull and
equipment in normal position are abaft an imaginary
line projected abeam from the aftermost point of the
other's hull and equipment in normal position. The
other yacht is clear ahead.
The yachts overlap when neither is clear astern, or
when, although one is clear astern, an intervening
yacht overlaps both of them.
The terms clear astern, clear ahead and overlap apply
to yachts on opposite tacks only when they are subject
to rule 42. For the purposes of rules 39.1, 39.2, and
40 only: an overlap does not exist unless the yachts
are clearly within two overall lengths of the longer
yacht, and an overlap that exists when the leeward yacht starts , or when one or both yachts completes a
tack or a gybe , shall be regarded as beginning then.
- Close-hauled
- A yacht is close-hauled when sailing by the wind as
close as she can lie with advantage in working to
windward.
- Finishing
- A yacht finishes when any part of her hull, or of her
crew or equipment in normal position, crosses the
finishing line in the direction of the course from the
last mark , after fulfilling any penalty obligations
under rule 52.2(b).
- Gybing
- A yachts begins to gybe at the moment when, with the
wind aft, the foot of her mainsail crosses her centre
line, and completes the gybe when the mainsail has
filled on the other tack .
- Interested Party
- Anyone who stands to gain or lose as a result of a
decision of a protest committee or who has a close
personal interest in the result.
- Leeward and Windward
- The leeward side of a yacht is that on which she is,
or, when head to wind, was, carrying her mainsail. The
opposite side is the windward side. When neither of two
yachts on the same tack is clear astern , the one on the
leeward side of the other is the leeward yacht. The
other is the windward yacht.
- Luffing
- Altering course towards the wind.
- Mark
- A mark is any object specified in the sailing
instructions that a yacht must round or pass on a
required side. Ground tackle and any object
accidentally or temporarily attached to the mark are
not part of it.
- Mast Abeam
- A windward yacht sailing no higher than a leeward yacht is mast abeam when her helmsman's line of sight abeam
from his normal station is forward of the leeward yacht's
mainmast.
A windward yacht sailing higher than a leeward yacht is
mast abeam when her helmsman's line of sight abeam from
his normal station would be, if she were sailing no
higher, forward of the leeward yacht's mainmast.
- Obstruction
- An obstruction is any object, including a vessel under
way, large enough to require a yacht, when more than
one overall length away from it, to make a substantial
alteration of course to pass on one side or the other,
or any object that can be passed on one side only,
including a buoy when the yacht in question cannot
safely pass between it and the shoal or the object that
it marks. The sailing instructions may prescribe
that a specified area shall rank as an obstruction .
- On a Tack; Starboard Tack; Port Tack
- A yacht is on a tack except when she is tacking or
gybing . A yacht is on the tack (starboard or port)
corresponding to her windward side.
- Overlap
- See Clear Astern and Clear Ahead; Overlap
- Parties to a Protest
- (a) The protesting yacht, the protested yacht and any
other yacht involved in the incident that might
be penalized as a result of the protest ;
(b) a yacht that has requested redress;
(c) the race committee when it is involved in a
protest under the rules 69(a) or 70; and
(d) a competitor who has been or is liable to be
penalized.
- Postponement
- A postponed race is one that is not started at its
scheduled time and that can be sailed at any time the
race committee may decide.
- Proper Course
- A proper course is any course that a yacht might sail
after the starting signal, in the absence of the other
yacht or yachts affected, to finish as quickly as
possible. There is no proper course before the starting
signal.
- Protest
- An action taken by a yacht, race committee or protest committee to initiate a hearing on a possible
infringement of a rule or a consideration of redress in
accordance with rules 68, 69, or 70.
- Protest Committee
- The body appointed to hear and decide protests in
accordance with rule 1.4.
- Racing
- A yacht is racing from her preparatory signal until she
has either finished and cleared the finishing line and
finishing marks or retired, or until the race has been
postponed or abandoned, or a general recall has been
signaled.
- Room
- Room is the space needed by a yacht to maneuver in a
seamanlike manner in the prevailing conditions.
- Rules
- (a) These racing rules, including the definitions,
preambles and the rules of an appendix when it
applies;
(b) the prescriptions of the national authority
concerned, when they apply;
(c) the sailing instructions;
(d) the class rules; and
(e) any other conditions governing the event.
- Sailing
- A yacht is sailing when using only the wind and water
to increase, maintain or decrease her speed, with her
crew adjusting the trim of sails and hull and
performing other acts of seamanship.
- Starting
- A yacht starts when, after fulfilling her penalty
obligations, if any, under rule 51.1(c),
and after her
starting signal, any part of her hull, crew of
equipment first crosses the starting line in the
directions of the course to the first mark .
- Tacking
- A yacht is tacking from the moment she is beyond head
to wind until she has borne away to a close-hauled course.
- Windward
- See Leeward and Windward.
Alterations
A national authority may alter these rules by
prescription, with the exception of the rules of Part I and IV,
rules 1, 3.1, 16, 17, 18, rule 61 and 75,
and the
appendices of Group A, unless permitted in the rule or
appendix itself. US SAILING prescriptions are printed
in bold italics. The sailing instructions may alter a
rule only in accordance with rule 3.1.
The appendices to these rules contain alternative or
additional rules, guidance, or both. When the rules of
an appendix apply, they override any conflicting racing
rule.
PART IV - RIGHT OF WAY RULES
Rights and Obligations when Yachts Meet
The rules of Part IV apply to yachts that intend to
race , are racing or have been racing in the same or
different races, from the time they begin to sail in
the vicinity of the starting line until they leave the
vicinity of the course after finishing or retiring,
except when the sailing instructions prescribe that the
International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at
Sea (IRPCAS) or applicable government right-of-way
rules apply. All other vessels shall be treated in
accordance with the IRPCAS orthe government right-of-
way rules applicable to the area.
-
- Before or after she is racing , a yacht shall not
seriously hinder a yacht that is racing .
-
- Except when sailing a proper course , a yacht
shall not interfere with a yacht that is exonerating
herself in accordance with rule 52.2(a)
or accepting a 720 degrees turns penalty in accordance with Appendix
B1.
A yacht shall not be penalized for infringing a rule of
Part IV, other than rule 30.1, unless
the infringement occurs while she is racing .
When serious damage results from a collision, a yacht
that had the opportunity but failed to make a
reasonable attempt to avoid the collision shall be
penalized.
When there is contact between yachts racing that is not
both minor and unavoidable, the yachts shall be
penalized unless:
(a) one of them lodges a valid protest ; or
(b) one of them, or a third yacht, retires (or
exonerates herself by accepting an alternative
penalty when so prescribed in the sailing
instructions) in acknowledgment of an
infringement in that incident.
A yacht that may have infringed a rule but that is not
obviously retiring or exonerating herself retains her
rights under the rules of Part IV,
and other yachts
shall treat her accordingly.
These rules apply except when overridden by a rule in
Section C.
When one yacht is required to keep clear of another,
the right-of-way yacht shall not alter course so as to
prevent the other yacht from keeping clear, or so as to
obstruct her while she is keeping clear, except:
(a) when luffing as permitted by rule
39.2; or
(b) when assuming a proper course either:
-
- (i) to start, when she is on the starboard tack
and the other yacht is on the port tack ; or
-
- (ii) when rounding a mark .
A port-tack yacht shall keep clear of a starboard-tack
yacht.
-
-
A windward yacht shall keep clear of a leeward yacht .
-
- A yacht clear astern shall keep clear of a yacht clear ahead.
-
- A yacht that establishes an overlap to leeward from
clear astern shall initially allow the windward yacht
ample room and opportunity to keep clear.
-
- Before she starts and clears the starting line, a
leeward yacht shall not sail above her close-hauled
course when the windward yacht is mast abeam and would
have to alter course to keep clear.
-
- Before she starts and clears the starting line, when a
leeward yacht or a yacht clear ahead luffs so that
another yacht will have to alter course to keep clear,
she shall luff only slowly, and initially in such a way
as to give the windward yacht room and opportunity to
keep clear.
-
- After starting and clearing the starting line,
when a windward yacht has been mast abeam at any time
during the overlap , the leeward yacht shall not sail
above her proper course unless she luffs and tacks
without interfering with the windward yacht.
-
- After starting and clearing the starting line, subject
to rule 32, a yacht clear ahead or a leeward yacht may
luff as she pleases unless the windward yacht has been
mast abeam at any time during the overlap .
-
- A yacht on a free leg of the course shall not sail
below her proper course when she is within three of her
overall lengths of a leeward yacht or of a yacht clear
astern that is steering a course to leeward of her,
unless she bears away and gybes onto another proper
course without interfering with the other yacht.
-
- When there is doubt that a windward yacht is mast abeam
and her helmsman hails 'Mast Abeam' or words to that
effect, the leeward yacht shall promptly comply with
rule 38.1 or rule
39.1. When she believes the hail is
improper, her only remedy is to protest.
-
- When a windward yacht hails that an obstruction , a
third yacht or other object limits her ability to keep
clear when a leeward yacht luffs , the leeward yacht
shall give the windward yacht room to pass the object.
-
- A leeward yacht shall not luff unless she has the right
to luff all yachts that would be affected, in which
case they all shall respond, including any intervening
yacht that does not otherwise have the right to luff .
-
-
- A yacht that is either tacking or gybing shall keep
clear of a yacht on a tack.
-
- A yacht shall neither tack nor gybe into a position
that will give her right of way unless she does so far
enough from a yacht on a tack to enable that yacht to
keep clear without having to begin to alter her course
until after the tack or gybe has been completed.
-
- A yacht that tacks or gybes has the onus of satisfying
the protest committee that she completed her tack or
gybe in accordance with rule 41.2.
-
- When two yachts are both tacking or both gybing at the
same time, the one on the other's port side shall keep
clear. When one yacht is tacking and another is gybing
at the same time, the one that is tacking shall keep
clear.
When a rule of this section conflicts with a rule of
Section B, it overrides the conflicting
part of that rule, except that rule 35
always applies.
Rule 42 applies when yachts are about to round or pass
a mark on the same required side or an obstruction on
the same side, except that it shall not apply:
(a) at a starting mark surrounded by navigable
water (including such a mark that is also an
obstruction ) when approaching the starting line
to start until clearing the starting marks.
However, after her starting signal, a leeward yacht
shall not deprive a windward yacht of room
at such a mark by sailing either:
-
- (i) to windward of the compass bearing of the
course to the next mark ; or
-
- (ii) above close-hauled .
(b) between two yachts on opposite tacks:
-
- (i) when they are on a beat; or
-
- (ii) when one, but not both, of them will have
to tack either to round or pass the mark or
to avoid the obstruction.
An Outside Yacht
(a) Except as provided in rule 42.3, an outside
yacht shall give each inside overlapping yacht
room to round or pass the mark or obstruction ,
including room to tack or gybe when either is an
integral part of the rounding or passing
manoeuvre.
(b) An outside yacht overlapped when she comes within
two of her overall lengths of a mark or
obstruction shall give room as required, even
though the overlap may thereafter be broken.
(c) An outside yacht that claims to have broken an
overlap has the onus of satisfying the protest committee
that she became clear ahead when she
was more than two of her overall lengths from the
mark or obstruction .
An Inside Yacht
(d) A yacht that claims an inside overlap has the
onus of satisfying the protest committee that she
established the overlap in accordance with rule 42.3
(e) When an inside yacht of two or more
overlapped yachts, either on opposite tacks or
one the same tack without luffing rights, will
have to gybe in order most directly to assume a
proper course to the next mark , she shall gybe at
the first reasonable opportunity.
(a) When a yacht clear ahead comes within two of her
overall lengths of a mark or obstruction , a yacht
clear astern shall keep clear until the yachts
complete the rounding or passing maneuver,
provided the yacht clear ahead remains on the
same tack or gybes . A yacht clear ahead is not
required to give room to a yacht clear astern
before an overlap is established.
(b) A yacht clear ahead that tacks to round a mark is
subject to rule 41, but a yacht clear astern
shall not luff above close-hauled so as to
prevent her from tacking .
(a) Limitations on Establishing an Overlap
A yacht that establishes an inside overlap is
entitled to room under rule
42.1(a) only when, at
that time, the outside yacht:
-
- (i) is able to give room ; and
-
- (ii) when the overlap is established from clear
astern, is more than two of her overall
lengths from the mark or obstruction .
However, when a yacht completes a tack within two
of her overall lengths of a mark or obstruction ,
she shall give room as required by rule
42.1(a)
to a yacht that, by luffing , cannot thereafter
avoid establishing a late inside overlap .
(b) Limitation When an Obstruction in a
Continuing One
When yachts are passing a continuing obstruction ,
such as a shoal or the shore or another vessel,
rule
42.3(a)(ii) does not apply, and a yacht
clear astern may establish an overlap between a
yacht clear ahead and the obstruction , provided,
at that time, there is room for her to pass
between them in safety.
-
- When two yachts are on the same tack and the yacht
clear ahead or the leeward yacht is close-hauled , and
safe pilotage requires her to make a substantial
alteration of course to clear an obstruction , and when
she intends to tack , but cannot tack without colliding
with the other yacht, she shall hail the other yacht
for room to tack and clear the other yacht, but she
shall not hail and tack simultaneously.
-
- The hailed yacht at the earliest possible moment after
the hail shall either:
(a) tack , in which case the hailing yacht shall begin
to tack as soon as she is able to tack and clear
the other yacht; or
(b) reply 'You tack' or words to that effect, in
which case:
-
- (i) the hailing yacht shall immediately tack
and
-
- (ii) the hailed yacht shall give the hailing
yacht room to tack and clear her.
-
- (iii) the onus of satisfying the protest
committee that she gave sufficient room
shall lie on the hailed yacht that replied
'You tack'.
-
- (a) When an obstruction is a starting mark surrounded
by navigable water, or the ground tackle of such
a mark , and when approaching the starting line to
start and after starting , the yacht clear ahead
or the leeward yacht shall not be entitled to
room to tack .
(b) At other obstructions that are marks , when the
hailed yacht can fetch the obstruction , the
hailing yacht shall not be entitled to room to
tack and clear the hailed yacht, and the hailed
yacht shall immediately so inform the hailing
yacht. When the hailed yacht then fails to fetch,
she shall retire or accept an alternative penalty
when so prescribed in the sailing instructions.
After her starting signal, a yacht that has not started
and is sailing toward the pre-start side of the
starting line or its extensions shall, until wholly on
its pre-start side, keep clear of yachts that have
started or are on the pre-start side. She shall then
give any newly obligated yacht ample room and
opportunity to keep clear.
A yacht that has touched a mark and is exonerating
herself shall keep clear of all other yachts until she
has completed her exoneration and, when she has
started , is on a proper course to the next mark .
-
- A yacht under way shall keep clear of another
yacht racing that:
(a) is maneuvering or hailing for the purpose of
rescuing a person overboard; or
(b) is anchored, aground or capsized.
-
- A yacht shall not be penalized when she is unable
to avoid fouling a yacht that she is attempting to
assist or that goes aground or is capsized.
-
- A yacht is capsized from
the time her masthead is
in the water until her masthead is clear of the water
and she has steerage way.
-
- A yacht anchored or aground shall indicate the
fact to any yacht that may be in danger of fouling her.
Under normal conditions, a hail is sufficient
indication. Of two yachts anchored, the one that
anchored later shall keep clear, except that a yacht
dragging shall keep clear of one that is not.
(Number 47, 48, 49 and 50 are spare numbers)
PART V - OTHER SAILING RULES
Obligations in Handling a Yacht
A yacht is subject to the rules of Part V only while
she is racing .
-
- (a) A yacht shall start and finish only as prescribed
in the starting and finishing definitions.
(b) When any part of a yacht's hull, crew or
equipment is on the course side of the starting
line or its extensions at her starting signal,
she shall thereafter start in accordance with the
definition.
"Round-the-Ends" Rule
(c) When Code flag 'I' has been displayed, and when
any part-of a yacht's hull, crew or equipment is
on the course side of the starting line or its
extensions during the minute before her starting
signal, she shall sail to the pre-start side of
the line across one of its extensions and start .
(d) Failure of a yacht to see or hear her recall
signal shall not relieve her of her obligation to
start correctly.
-
- A yacht shall sail the course so as to round or
pass each mark on the required side in correct
sequence, and so that a string representing her wake,
from the time she starts until she finishes , would,
when drawn taut, lie on the required side of each mark ,
touching each rounding mark . When she fails to do so,
she may correct her error before she finishes by making
her course conform to this rule.
-
- A mark has a required side for a yacht as long as
she is on a leg that it begins, bounds or ends, except
that a starting mark begins to have a required side
when she is approaching the starting line from its pre-
start side to start, and a finishing mark ceases to
have a required side when she finishes .
-
- It is not necessary for a yacht to cross the
finishing line completely; after finishing , she may
clear it in either direction.
-
- US SAILING prescribes that, in the absence of the
race committee, a yacht shall take her own finishing
time and report it to the race committee as soon as
possible. If there is no longer an established
finishing line, it shall be a line extending from the
required side of the finishing mark at right angles to
the course from the last mark and of the shortest
practicable length.
-
- A yacht shall neither:
(a) touch:
-
- (i) a starting mark before starting; or
-
- (ii) a mark that begins, bounds or ends the leg
of the course on which she is sailing ; or
-
- (iii) a finishing mark after finishing and
before clearing the finishing line and
marks ; nor
(b) cause a mark or mark vessel to shift to avoid
being touched.
-
- (a) When a yacht infringes rule
52.1, she may
exonerate herself by, as soon as possible,
sailing well clear of all other yachts and,
while remaining clear, immediately making one
complete 360 degrees turn including one tack and
one gybe.
(b) When a yacht touches a finishing mark , she shall
not be recorded as having finished until she
completes her turn and returns wholly to the
course side of the line, and then finishes .
-
- When a yacht is wrongfully compelled by another
yacht to infringe rule
52.1, she shall be exonerated:
(a) by the retirement of the other yacht (or by the
other yacht accepting an alternative penalty when
so prescribed in the sailing instructions) in
acknowledgment of the infringement; or
(b) in accordance with rule 74.4(a)(ii) after lodging
a valid protest .
-
- When racing , a yacht may anchor, but shall neither make
fast or be made fast by means other than anchoring, nor
be hauled out, except for the purpose of rule
55, or to
effect repairs, reef sails or bail out.
-
- Means of anchoring may include the crew standing on the
bottom or any weight lowered to the bottom. A yacht
shall recover any anchor or weight used before
continuing in the race, unless, after making every
effort, she fails to do so. In this case she shall
report the circumstances to the race committee, which
shall penalize her when it considers the loss due
either to inadequate gear or to insufficient effort to
recover it.
-
- Except when permitted by rule 54.3,
a yacht shall compete only by sailing , and her crew shall not
otherwise move their bodies to propel the yacht.
Fundamental Rule A and rule
55 override rule 54.
-
- Without limiting the application of rule
54.1, these actions are prohibited:
(a) pumping: repeated fanning of any sail either by
trimming and releasing the sail or by vertical or
athwartships body movement;
(b) rocking: repeated rolling of the yacht, induced
either by body movement or adjustment of the
sails or centreboard, that does not facilitate
steering;
(c) ooching: sudden forward body movement, stopped
abruptly;
(d) sculling: repeated movement of the helm not
necessary for steering;
(e) repeated tacks or gybes unrelated to changes in
the wind or to tactical considerations.
-
- (a) A yacht's crew may move their bodies to
exaggerate the rolling that facilitates steering
the yacht through a tack or a gybe, provided
that, at the moment the tack or gybe is
completed, the yacht's speed is not greater than
it would have been in the absence of the tack or
gybe.
(b) On a free leg of the course, when surfing
(rapidly accelerating down the leeward side of a
wave) or planing is possible, the yacht's crew
may, in order to initiate surfing or planing,
pump the sheet and the guy controlling any sail,
but only once for each wave or gust of wind.
-
- Class rules may alter rule
54.
A yacht, after grounding or fouling another vessel or
other object, is subject to rule 56 and
may, in getting
clear, use her own anchors, boats, ropes, spars and
other gear; may send out an anchor in a boat; may be
refloated by her crew going overboard either to stand
on the bottom or to go ashore to push off; but may
receive outside assistance only from the crew of the
vessel fouled. When a yacht fails to recover all her
own gear, she shall report the circumstances to the
race committee, which shall penalize her when it
considers the loss due to insufficient effort to
recover it.
A yacht's standing rigging, running rigging, spars and
movable hull appendages shall be adjusted and operated
by manual power only, and no device shall be used for
these operations that derives assistance from stored
energy for doing work. A power winch or windlass may be
used in weighing anchor or in getting clear after
running aground or fouling any object, and a power
pump may be used in an auxiliary yacht.
Unless otherwise prescribed in the sailing
instructions, no persons shall board a yacht, except
for the purposes of Fundamental Rule A
or to attend an
injured or ill member of the crew or temporarily as one
of the crew of a vessel fouled.
Unless otherwise prescribed in the sailing
instructions, no person on board a yacht when she
begins racing shall leave, unless injured or ill, or
for the purposes of Fundamental Rule
A, except that any
member of the crew may fall overboard or leave her to
swim, stand on the bottom as a means of anchoring, haul
her out ashore to effect repairs, reef sails or bail
out, or to help her to get clear after grounding or
fouling another vessel or object, provided that this
person is back on board before the yacht continues in
the race.
Except as permitted by Fundamental Rule
A and rule 55
and rule 57, a yacht shall neither receive
outside
assistance nor use any gear other than that on board
when her preparatory signal was made.
-
- It shall be the individual responsibility of each
competitor to wear adequate personal buoyancy when
conditions warrant. A wet-suit is not adequate personal
buoyancy.
-
- Unless otherwise prescribed in the sailing
instructions, when Code flag 'Y' is displayed before or
with the warning signal, life-jackets or other adequate
personal buoyancy shall be worn while racing by all
competitors.
-
- (a) Except as permitted by rule
61.2, a competitor
shall not wear or carry clothing or equipment for
the purpose of increasing his weight.
(b) Furthermore, the total weight of clothing and
equipment worn or carried by a competitor shall
not be capable of exceeding 15 kilograms when
weighed as provided in Appendix A4, unless class
rules or the sailing instructions prescribe a
lesser or greater weight, in which case such
weight shall apply, except that it shall not
exceed 20 kilograms.
-
- When so prescribed by the class rules, weight
jackets of non-metallic material (excepting normal
fasteners), with or without pockets, compartments or
containers, shall be permitted, provided that the
jacket:
(a) is permanently buoyant;
(b) does not extend more than 30 mm above the
competitor's shoulders;
(c) is worn outside all other clothing and equipment;
and
(d) can be removed by the competitor in less than ten
seconds;
and that ballast carried in the pockets, compartments
or containers shall only be water. For the purpose of
rule 61.1(b), the pockets, compartments
and containers
shall be filled completely with water and included in
the total weight.
-
- When protested or selected for inspection, a
competitor shall produce all containers referred to in
rule 61.2 that were carried while
racing .
-
- Unless otherwise prescribed by the sailing
instructions, rule 61.1(b) shall not
apply in events
for cruiser-racer type yachts required to be equipped
with lifelines.
(a) Unless otherwise prescribed by the class rules,
a yacht shall not use any device, such as a
trapeze or plank, to project outboard the weight
of any of the crew.
(b) When lifelines are required by the class rules or
the sailing instructions, no crew member shall
station any part of his torso outside them,
except when it is necessary to perform a task,
and then only temporarily. On yachts equipped
with upper and lower lifelines of wire, a crew
member sitting on the deck facing outboard with
is waist inside the lower lifeline may have the
upper part of his body outside the upper
lifeline.
A yacht:
(a) shall not eject or release from a container any
substance (such as polymer); or
(b) unless otherwise prescribed by her class rules,
shall not have specially textured hull or
appendage surfaces;
the purpose of which is, or could be, to reduce the
frictional resistance of her surface by altering the
character of the flow of water inside the boundary
layer.
-
- While changing headsails and spinnakers, a replacing
sail may be fully set and trimmed before the sail it
replaces is taken in, but only on mainsail and, except
when changing, only one spinnaker shall be carried set.
-
- Only one spinnaker pole or whisker pole shall be used
at a time and, when in use, shall be attached to the
foremost mast.
-
- (a) No sail shall be sheeted over or through an
outrigger, except as permitted in rule 64.3(b).
An outrigger is any fitting or other device so
placed that it could exert outward pressure on a
sheet or sail at a point from which, with the
yacht upright, a vertical line would fall outside
the hull or deck planking. For the purpose of
this rule: bulwarks, rails and rubbing strakes
are not part of the hull or deck planking. A boom
of a boomed headsail that requires no adjustment
when tacking is not an outrigger.
(b)
-
- (i) Any sail may be sheeted to or led above a
boom regularly used for a working sail and
permanently attached to the mast from which
the head of the working sail is set.
-
- (ii) A headsail may be sheeted or attached at
its clew to a spinnaker pole or whisker
pole, provided that a spinnaker is not set.
-
- The following distinction shall apply between
spinnakers and headsails. A headsail is a sail in
which the mid-girth, measured from the mid-points of
the luff and leech, does not exceed 50% of the length
of the foot, and in which any other intermediate girth
does not exceed a value similarly proportional to its
distance from the head of the sail. A sail tacked down
abaft the foremost mast is not a headsail.
-
- Class rules may alter rule 64.
When safe pilotage requires, every yacht shall sound
fog signals and exhibit lights as required by the
international Regulations for Preventing Collisions at
Sea or applicable government rules.
US SAILING prescribes that the use of additional
special purpose lights such as masthead, spreader and
jib-luff lights shall not constitute grounds for
protest.
US SAILING prescribes that flags shall not be
displayed, except for signaling. A yacht shall not be
penalized for infringing this rule without prior
warning and opportunity to make corrections.
(Number 67 is a spare number.)