SAILING: With the current sailing season well under way, an often over-looked item could prove a crucial decider to many crews' competition in the coming months.
The essential Racing Rules of Sailing has been released under its latest version as its four-year review cycle offers further tweaking to the sport.
With the same basic rules governing just about every type of racing, the RRS 2005-2008 is plainly a must for every skipper and tactician.
Lack of knowledge proves a regular source of amusement at events for opposing crews and protest hearings.
National race judge Ed Alcock recounts several regular errors. "There's still people screaming 'mast abeam' though that rule has been gone for years. I come across that frequently," he told The Irish Times yesterday.
"Another classic is the protest situation. The rule requires the call 'protest' to be made at the earliest possible moment (Rule 61).
"But what happens is people call for the other boat to make its penalty turn, then call again and by the time they actually call 'protest', the earliest possible moment has been lost and the protest becomes invalid."
Alcock points to a famous remark by the late Mary Pera, one of the world's legendary rules experts and international judge when she said if a crew was in the water with the mainsheet wrapped around their neck, she might allow them 15 seconds to call protest.
Collision avoidance is a major element of the RRS and a key reminder is that there are just four right of way rules that a boat can claim over another boat to keep clear.
These include opposite tacks (the classic port and starboard) from the same tack when over-lapped, when one boat is clear astern of another and when tacking.
Of the latest revision, the most significant amendment concerns penalty turns taken immediately after an incident by an offending boat that averts a decision ashore in a protest hearing.
These were previously defined as a 360-degree turn and 720-degree turn, depending on the nature of the infringement.
These are now simply defined as one tack and one gybe or two tacks and two gybes offering an easier way of knowing when you have completed the penalty.
But the Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club race judge cautions strongly against a piecemeal approach to the rules.
Nothing replaces a good working knowledge of the RRS and the ability to select the correct rule is essential.
Therefore, the latest racing rules together with the Irish prescriptions are available from the ISA at 3 Park Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, priced at €15 per copy.
While these are rule of law as such, aids to interpreting the rules in practice abound.
A selection of publications from Adlard Coles Nautical offers a choice, depending on how seriously a racing sailor takes this issue.
The purist's perennial favourite must be Paul Elvtrom's explanation of the latest version of the RRS. Another is Eric Twiname and Bryan Willis's pocket-sized edition The Rules Book.
But perhaps the most appealing is the highly-graphic, spiral-bound Yacht Racing Rules - the essentials. Clear language and diagrams make this well-suited to junior sailors and club racers alike and taken with the official rule book must be a highly recommended addition to a cart table or kit bag.
