Simple Racing Rules

As I expect I've said before the big problem is that we deal with very complex situations.

There are three obvious ways to handle this:

1: The Colregs approach. No one is allowed to get close. Doesn't work at mark roundings and starts unless you introduce something like a two boat length buffer that no-one is allowed to get within. Fundamental change of the game.

2: The racing incident approach. Accept that some situations are sufficiently complex that a simple set of rules can't handle them, and that **** happens and sometimes boats will collide and get damaged. Fine with rotomoulds on a reservoir perhaps, not so clever with larger boats and greater speeds.

3: What we have now, in which there is a blame/no blame in just about every situation, but not everyone manages to sort it out on the water.

To my mind 3 is the least worst.

Originally posted by Solo4652 •5. Give boats enough time and room to avoid hitting things

Let's dare to be different for a moment. Let's put the current racing rules aside for an hour and look at some common racecourse situations using the Modified Becker Guidelines I posted above. Of course, the likely outcomes of applying different sets of rules will probably be different, so let's say that as long as nobody gets injured, nothing gets damaged, and manners/sportsmanship/jolly-good-show are the results, then that's a good outcome of applying the rules. If both sets produce outcomes that satisfy these 3 criteria, the Modified Becker Rules are deemed to be better because they're simpler and shorter. Let's try with;

Davidyacht's scenario; twenty five boats aim for the same bit of the beach in an attempt to cheat the tide.

Three asymmetric boats approach the leeward mark, two overlapped on Starboard, the other on Port.

At the start, an almost-stationary boat is luffed into the leeward side of a boat that's similarly almost stationary


I've no idea what's going to happen here - should be interesting!

Hello Brass,

Perhaps I could pick up some of your points;

- The game's already changed with the advent of 30 knot+ foiling craft. Rules have had to be changed for safety's sake. If crash-and-burn media-sailing leads to easier to understand rules, then that's fine by me. KISS principle

- Quite a few people who play our sport don't like the way it is. There are posts in this thread from people who say so.

- I do not assume that people who oppose my proposals are mindless conservatives, and I don't know where you get that idea from.

- If beginners can play the game with a simple (sub)set of rules, then why don't we all use them. KISS principle again.

- We might think that it's a complex game out there. Maybe it isn't. Maybe situations are basically simple, and are made to look and feel complex by desperately complex rules. The more I look at Jacksparrow's Go!/race/retire-if-you-collide approach, the more I think it could almost work. A "complex" situation involving a raft of boats at a gybe mark immediately becomes simple; Get round the mark without hitting anybody. KISS

- So, rules can be made much simpler. I can only see 3 rules here for high-speed sailing; pages 20 and 21 of :http://www.britishlandsailing.org.uk/uploads/1/0/2/9/10293636/training_manual_presentation_v5.pdf   Also, consider the revised rules for Foiling cats at the last America's Cup. Indeed, you yourself give good examples in your previous posts. So what's the problem with seeing if we can simplify them still further? Unless, of course, you want the rules to be complex, difficult to understand, written in obfuscatory legalese with 3 subordinate clauses, difficult to apply and off-putting to many people.

Finally, as a courtesy, perhaps I could ask you not to write "Also understand..." before making points because it comes across as you ordering me to understand.

Thank you.

Edited by Solo4652 - 13 Aug 15 at 4:51pm

If you are sailing assymetrics or foiling I suspect that you are further down the track than requiring simplified rules