What would you do in this situation: you are racing in your local club series, you are rounding the windward mark, no one else is around, you have tacked several times just to try to get around the mark… you finally make it to the mark, far too tight, you sheet in hard, though the edge of your boat skims along the mark. No one else was there, no one else would know, who cares if you do or do not do your required penalty?
First, let us look at a few basic rules that everyone should be aware of before racing:
RRS 4 Acceptance of the Rules — summarized, it means that you, your coach, your support team (parents, siblings, friends) agree to follow the Racing Rules of Sailing, the Notice of Race and the Sailing Instructions governing that event.
What do you do if you break a rule — we will keep it relatively simple for this Issue of the Newsletter — looking at RRS 44 Penalties at the Time of an Incident: “RRS 44.1 A boat may take a Two-Turns Penalty when she may have broken one or more rules of Part 2 in an incident while racing. She may take a One-Turn Penalty when she may have broken rule 31…”
Before going deeper into RRS 44.1, you might ask: What is ‘Part 2’ and RRS (rule) 31.
Part 2: these are the rules of sailing that govern us “When Boats Meet”, such a Port-Starboard (RRS 10), avoiding contact (RRS 14), mark-room (RRS 18), hailing (RRS 20.1) — all the rules from 10 to 23.2 (it is always great to be very familiar with your rulebook).
RRS 31 Touching a Mark — “While racing, a boat shall not touch a starting mark before starting, a mark that begins, bounds or ends the leg of the course on which she is sailing, or a finishing mark after finishing.”
Further to RRS 44.1 is a very important rule that we should all be aware of — RRS 44.1(b): “if the boat caused injury or serious damage or, despite taking a penalty, gained a significant advantage in the race or series by her breach her penalty shall be to retire.” THEREFORE, if you do break a rule, you do your turn(s) and you still have an advantage, you MUST (shall is a requirement) retire.
REMEMBER, sailing is a ‘Self Policing Sport’. If we are familiar with the rules, what we need to do in different situations and follow through, our sport, in Alberta, can continue to have the great reputation of fair sailing for all. If this does not happen, people can get upset (disheartened for why should they be following the rules when someone else is cheating), they might leave the sport (who wants to participate when you train hard, follow the rules, though someone else is still beating you by cheating) and/or we bring in the judges and/or umpires on the water.
