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 2013-2016 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 2013-2016.

Changes from 2009-2012 Version

The changes introduced in 2013 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. 

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.