Racing

Yacht racing is a very popular past time and many people take part in it, either as apart of a club or organisation or just owning a yacht enables a person to race. The Racing Rules of Sailing, aka RRS, governs any type of wind associated sport on the sea e.g. Yacht racing, windesurfing, kitesurfing. A new set of rules is set up every 4 years after the Olympic Games by
the International Sailing Federation.
www.fbyc.net/Fleets/Offshore

Here are a few rules, taken from the 1940 charter:

• Boats on a port track must give way to vessel on starboard side.


• When two vessels are about to make the same tack, the windward boat must keep clear of the leeward boat.


• If two boats are tacking at same rate once more, the vessel astern must bee clear from the boat ahead, to give it room to tack.


• When a boat is tacking, it should not go near boats who are not in the tacking position during the race.


• Even with right of way, a sailor should avoid colliding at all costs, to avoid accidents and serious injury.


• If you want right of way, you must warn the boats around you, to see if they would like to aquire it
  
• When a boat tries to change course, the sailor controlling the vessel must let other sailors aware of this.

Other rules cover the topics of sailing, including starting errors, taking penalties or when a vessel becomes capsized.

There are only 14 rules in sailing now, ever since 1997 but before there was as much as 90 rules. It was proved that it's not necessary to know every basic rule of dingy sailing.

Sailing takes much of team work and communication, ignoring each other and what they say and do, may result in losing the race or even in tragedy.

It is never a good idea to go sailing in bad weather and it's recommended not to.