Hastings & St Leonards Sailing Club

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Hastings & St Leonards Sailing Club

Sailing Rules and Instructions for Club races

(Revised January 2008)

1.0 Sailing Rules

The safety of the boat and her entire management including insurance shall be the sole responsibility of the owner/competitor racing the boat who must ensure that the boat and crew are adequate to face the conditions that may arise in the course of the race.

Neither the establishment of these Sailing Instructions nor the inspection of the boat under these conditions in any way limits or reduces the absolute responsibility of the owner/competitor for his/her crew, his/her boat and the management thereof.

The race organisers shall not be liable for any loss, damage, death or personal injury howsoever caused to the owner/competitor as a result of their taking part in the race or races. Moreover, every owner/competitor warrants the suitability of their boat for the race or races. Any participating boats must be covered by third party insurance to a minimum of £2 million.

All helms and crews must wear suitable and adequate personal buoyancy whilst sailing. Wet suits do not constitute adequate buoyancy.

If a boat is in difficulty its occupants or other participants must comply promptly with any instructions issued by the crew of any club patrol boat.

Any person entering a club race must comply with the club rules in relation to the payment of membership fees. Persons not complying will not be eligible to race and will not benefit from awards under the Sailing Instructions.

2.0 General Sailing Instructions

All races will be governed by the Racing Rules of Sailing 2005 – 2008, the prescriptions of the RYA, the rules of the class, (except where any of these are altered by the sailing instructions), and these sailing instructions

The Club has implemented the RYA Racing Charter and competitors will be required to undertake to sail in compliance with the Charter.

Competitors must enter each race by completing the name of the helm and crew of the boat and its class and sail number on the signing-on form.

Competitors must sign the declaration after completing each race, 2^nd race if back to back, including when retiring. Declaring your retirement must be done within 30 minutes of returning to shore by signing the Declaration Notice. Please note the Declaration Notice may be situated by the Course Board or at the Patrol Boat during recovery. The location will be at the discretion of the Race Officer. The Declaration Notice must be signed to declare that the competitor has sailed the Race/Races in accordance with ISAF Rules.

Competitors must comply promptly with any directions issued by the Race Officer.

Protests must be handed in on a Protest Form to the race Officer within 30 minutes of coming ashore. Protest applications for the first race of the day will be accepted within 30 minutes of returning to shore after the second (or subsequent) races in a back-to-back series. The display of a Protest Flag is not required.

The course to be sailed, direction of rounding marks and any additional instructions or variations to these instructions will be posted on the course board in the boathouse.

The Sailing Committee may amend the Club's fixture list at any time. Please consult the club notice boards for further information.

All sailors are expected to help launch and recover the Club Patrol Boats. The Race Officer may require competitors to declare their retirement at the Patrol Boats.

3.0 Starting

The Start Line will be an imaginary line drawn between the Red/White mast bearing an Orange flag above the Race Office, through a Yellow/Black pole topped with a triangle on the Lower Promenade. A Limit Mark, which may not necessarily lie on that line, will mark the end of the line. For Committee Boat starts separate instructions will be issued

The Starting System to be used is RRS 26 and is described in the Appendix to these instructions.

4.0 Recalls

Individual recalls will be signaled by leaving the relevant class flag signal in place and raising 1C flag 'X'. These will remain in place until the offending boat has cleared herself or for four minutes whichever is the earlier.

General Recalls
General recalls will be signalled in accordance with ISAF 29.2 "First Substitute" flag. Procedure for subsequent starts will be ISAF 26.

Prohibited Area Penalties
After a General Recall at the discretion of the Race Officer, either of the following prohibited area penalties may be implemented:-

a) "Round the Ends" - ISAF Rule 30.1 shall apply when IC Flag I is flown with the new preparatory signal.

b)"Black Flag" Rule - The rule shall apply when a black flag is flown with the new preparatory signal. Boats which race within the triangle formed by the starting line as defined earlier and the first mark during the minute before their starting signal shall immediately retire from that race and subsequent restarts and re-sails of that race. The start of the one minute period shall be signaled by lowering the black flag with a long sound signal.

5.0 Shortened Courses

1C Flag "S"(and 2 sound signals) indicates that the race will finish at the end of that leg still to be completed by the leading boat, i.e. a line between a mark of the course and the finishing line as defined earlier (or a patrol Boat flying a blue flag).

6.0 Finishing

The Finishing Line will be an imaginary line drawn between the Red/White mast above the Race Office and the designated mark shown on the Course Board. Boats must cross the finishing line in the direction of the course from the last mark, and therefore hooked finishes are not permitted or valid.

7.0 Abandonment

If it is decided to abandon the race in progress all boats must go ashore immediately, report to the race office and sign off.
Abandoned Races will be signaled by displaying International Code (1C) flag 'N'. Three sound signals may also be given.

8.0 Time Limits

The following time limit will apply for all Series and Handicap races

· 15 minutes after the first finisher for back-to-back races and,

· 30 minutes after first finisher for single races

A longer time limit may be set at the discretion of the Race Officer and boats "out of time" given a placing.

9.0 Changes to Sailing Instructions

Changes to Sailing Instructions will be posted at least 30 minutes before the advertised start of the race or races concerned.

Changes in the sailing instructions will be indicated by displaying 1C flag "L" and a numeral pennant signifying the number of notices posted if more than one change. When no further changes have been made, 1C flag "L " will be lowered after the start of the first race of that day.

10.0 Race Points

• 1 Point for first place, 2 points for second etc. awarded to club members only

• Did Not Finish - DNF - No of starters in that race + 1

• Retired after finishing - RAF - No of starters in that race + 1

• Disqualified – DSQ- Number of starters in that race +2

• Did Not Start - DNS - No of starters in that race + 1

• Did Not Compete -DNC - No of starters in that Series

Points are awarded to the helm, not the boat

To calculate Overall positions for the season a helm will be a warded 1 point for a series win, 2 for second etc. the helm with the lowest total, with no discards, will win the overall trophy. If a helm fails to sail any races in a series, the points awarded will be as DNC (number of starters in all series + 1).

11.0 Scoring
Series Races to count - the discard profile for Club races:-

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
0	0	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	3	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	6	6	6

Race No

Discards

Allowance may be made to a Helm who is scheduled to, and undertakes a duty on a day when racing takes place. If that Helm's "number of races sailed" falls short of the minimum requirement for that series score (after discards) in compensation for the races missed. The Sailing Committee will award that helm the average score of his/her points achieved overall in that series for each race missed. This compensation will only apply to the day when a helm's name appears on the duty roster or a previously arranged exchange of duties has taken place.

Ties - When there is a tie in accumulated series points between two or more boats, the tie will be broken in favour of the boat with the most first places or, if the tie remains, the most second places or lower places if necessary, using only the scores for each boat that count for her series. When the tie still remains, it will be broken in favour of the boat that has the best score in the last race in which the tied boats raced and scored differently.

When there is a tie in accumulated points for the overall trophy between two or more boats, the tie will be broken in favour of the boat with the most series wins, or if the tie remains, the most second places or lower places if necessary, when the tie still remains, it will be broken in favour of the boat that has the best result in the last series sailed.

Overall Scoring

To calculate the overall positions each series will be counted as a race, ie, a win in the Spring Series will be 1 point, second in the Early Summer Series 2 etc. The boat with the lowest score will be the winner of the Overall Trophy for that season.

Handicap Races to Count - the discard profile for the season's Handicap Series will be as above. However, specific named handicap events shall be as follows;

Race No

Discards

Series – Definitions

A series race is a race in which 3 or more of the same class of dinghy compete. Only a series race with 3 or more of the same class of dinghy will qualify for their own start. If less than 3 boats are competing they will start with the Handicap Fleet but the points gained will count towards their own Class Series.

Handicap Racing

The Club will from time to time organize and run separate named Handicap events. Helmsmen may sail different classes of boat within the same series or event, however for the purpose of scoring, the points will be awarded as if that helmsman was a different competitor.

This rule will also apply the Tiddler's Nip Trophy.

Tiddler's Nip Trophy - This Handicap event is for both helm and crews who will be under the age of 18 on the date the event finishes.

Alternative Penalties

Touching a Mark; a boat shall exonerate herself in accordance with ISAF31.2.

Other infringements ISAF 44.1/44.2 "720degree Turns Penalty" will apply for infringement of a rule of Part 2 of the ISAF Rules.

Appendices

Starting Sequence:

Sequence

No.

Signal

Flag and Sound

Visual