The Rules and RYA Prescriptions
The Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) are revised and published every four years by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), the international authority for the sport.
The RYA makes prescriptions to the RRS and publishes the RRS together with the prescriptions and other addenda in the RYA booklet YR1.
The RRS 2009-2012 can be downloaded from the ISAF website.
Member National Authorities (the RYA for the UK) are allowed to make variations to certain areas within the rules - to be known as 'National Prescriptions'. The RYA prescriptions can be downloaded in isolation.
The RRS together with the RYA prescriptions can be purchased as an RYA publication RYA Racing Rules of Sailing 2009-2012.
Changes Made in January 2010
In January 2010 changes and corrections were made to the RRS. These can be downloaded from the links here:
Changes from 2005-2008 Version
The changes introduced in 2009 can be viewed in isolation by clicking on the links on the right side of this page. The documents available are:
- Changes from the competitors' and judges' perspective.
- Changes with implications for race management.
- All changes - a powerpoint presentation and the same presentation in pdf format. With a little homework, any qualified race official or proficient sailor should be able to deliver this hour-long presentation. Alternatively contact your local Regional Rules Advisor for help. The first slides will help you set up your computer to be able to deliver it. Slide 4 is a menu where you should choose the last option, “Quick Guide”. This is the part to use. For those wanting to prepare in depth or who are curious to discover more, the rest of the programme will provide you with a detailed step-by-step route through all the new changes in the Racing Rules of Sailing 2009 – 2012 (NB further changes have taken effect from January 2010).
Questions and Answers on the Rules
There will always be questions on what the rules mean and how they should be interpreted. ISAF offer a Q&A service and publish updates of these regularly.
Future Changes
The process for changing the rules in the future is prolonged as you may expect. Anyone with a 'good idea' may submit a proposal to the Racing Rules Committee. This proposal will then be considered, together with the implications it may have on other rules within the RRS. This first stage itself can be a complicated process. The refined proposal will then, if considered appropriate, be put before the RYA Racing Committee before it is presented to the RYA Council. If the 'good idea' has survived this process it will then be submitted to ISAF for consideration along with other 'good ideas' from around the world.