Rules Advisory Service 

The RYA provides an advisory service to help individuals, clubs, classes and other organisations with their interpretation of the racing rules. It is intended to offer prompt informal advice without the delays inherent in a formal appeal.

The RYA regularly receives requests for rules advice not directly related to an appeal under Rule 70 and often not associated with a protest. Some requests can be answered within the RYA office but others are more complicated and are referred to members of the Racing Rules Committee.

A number of "advisors" have been appointed and one or more of them will consider the request and will either give a rapid answer to the problem or, if it is thought necessary, will advise the person making the request to submit a question and answer in accordance with Rule 70.4. Any answer given is an expression of a personal opinion and should not be treated as a formal response from the Committee.

Problems put to the advisory service should always relate to a specific question, event or difficulty. The service is not intended to answer questions of a more general nature.

Requests of this type are most welcome and can often solve a problem which seems intractable. To submit a request please email rulesadmin@rya.org.uk

There is also an advisory service for race management issues - click here for more information.