OCSC's Racing Rules 101A:

"Racing Rules from the Start to the Finish"

Presented by Captain Michael Whitfield

Whether you are new to the race course or simply feel you need more confidence with the rules to be competitive, this course is for you. We cover only those rules that you, as an amateur racing sailor, need to know in order to navigate the course safely and competitively.

All of the steering and sailing rules in the "Racing Rules of Sailing" will be covered, providing you with the "whys" and "when", giving you the knowledge you need to be a good "citizen" on the race course.

Racing Rules 101A also is a critical part of preparing you for the second seminar, 101B, which covers how best to exploit the rules tactically and how best to avoid having them used against you by a competitor.

This is a practical session, designed to give you an immediate boost in your useable understanding of the rules. We will provide diagrams and photos on a screen to illustrate some of the more complicated situations where application of the rules get thorny.

Text Included:

• Understanding the Yacht Racing Rules, by Dave Perry

Topics Covered:

• The "no proper course" rule and the race committee's timing and flag sequences
• The "anti-barging" rule, overlap rule, the meaning and consequence of "OCS"
• The requirement for all boats to avoid contact interfering with commercial shipping
• When on the same tack, the definition of overlap and several ways it is obtained and broken
• When close to obstructions and two boats want the same space of water when tacking close to other boats, how close is too close?
• When rounding marks, what is the two boat length circle? How is it different at the windward mark than the leeward mark?
• When sailing downwind, what to do if a boat behind is covering and taking wind?
• At the finish, what if you touch a finishing mark? How to finish a race and still be racing according to the rules.
• When you break a rule -- the "the two tacks/two gybes rule"
• When you touch a mark -- "the one tack/one gybe rule"
• When one sailor observes another breaking a rule -- "Protest!"

Successful completion prepares you to:

• Be more knowledgeable on a racing boat when rules questions come up.
• Enter a club race with your boat and avoid fouling or colliding with another boat out of ignorance of the rules.
• Be prepared for the second racing rules seminar where you learn how to exploit the rules tactically to improve your competitiveness on the race course.