Rule J1.1(2) requires that the notice of race inform competitors ‘that the event will be governed by the rules as defined in The Racing Rules of Sailing.’ If the notice of race includes such a statement, then the following all apply: the prescriptions of the national authority, the class rules, rules in the notice of race and the sailing instructions, as well as the World Sailing Regulations that have been designated by World Sailing as having the status of a rule and are published on the World Sailing website. These apply because they are all defined to be rules (see the definition Rule). In this case the notice of race for the Spring Tune-Up did not comply with rule J1.1(2). It stated only that ‘The Racing Rules of Sailing would apply.’ Nevertheless, documents 1, 2, 3 and 4 all applied. The reasoning that leads to this conclusion is presented in the next paragraph. If a term appears in italics in a racing rule, that term is used in the sense stated in the Definitions (see Terminology in the Introduction). Rules 4.1(a) and 4.3(a), in which ‘rules’ is in italics, make it clear that, by participating in the race, each competitor and boat owner agrees to be governed by the racing rules and by the rules in the documents listed in the definition Rule. Rule 5, in which ‘rules’ again appears in italics, implies that the rules in all the documents listed in the definition Rule also govern the organizing authority, the race committee, the technical committee and the protest committee while they are conducting and judging an event. The list in the definition Rule includes items 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Question 1. Other documents governing the event (item 5 in Question 1) apply only if they are listed in the notice of race (see rule J1.1(3)).

88.2: Changes to Prescriptions

Changes to Prescriptions