Everything You Need to Know About the 2025-2028 Racing Rules (pt 2)
New definitions, protest procedures and everything you need to know to race in 2025.
Welcome back to part 2 of my guide to the 2025-2028 changes to the Racing Rules of Sailing.
If you haven’t read part 1, make sure you read that before reading this.
I’ll be honest, this part of the guide probably won’t help you much on the water.
But it will help you in the protest room.
New Definitions Making Things Clearer
The new rulebook introduces new definitions to make it easier to read and understand the rules.
Boat - A sailboat and the crew onboard, that are subject to the rules.
This has been changed so the rules only apply to boats that are racing, not random boats that happen to be on the race course. This should be self explanatory.
Committee - In the new rules, any ‘Committee’ now refers to the protest committee, race committee or technical committee.
Continuing Obstruction - An obstruction is a continuing obstruction when the boat with the shortest hull referred to in the rule using the term will pass alongside it for at least three of her hull lengths. However, the following are not a continuing obstruction: a vessel under way, a boat racing, or a race committee vessel that is also a mark.
There are a number of rules which use the term “continuing obstruction”, but it didn’t have a definition.
A continuing obstruction is purely based on the size of the object relative to the boats. Some examples of a continuing obstruction: shore line, course boundary, oyster farm etc.
Finish
A boat finishes when, after her starting signal, any part of her hull crosses the finishing line from the course side. However, she has not finished if after crossing the finishing line she
(a) takes a penalty under rule 44.2,
(b) corrects an error in sailing the course made at the line, or
(c) continues to sail the course.
After finishing she need not cross the finishing line completely. The sailing instructions may change the direction in which boats are required to cross the finishing line to finish.
Okay, I lied.
This definition might help you on the water. This makes it clear that you don’t need to pass entirely through the finish line to finish a race.
Protesting
60.3(a) When delivered, a protest shall be in writing and identify the protestor, the protestee, and the incident.
This makes it much less burdensome to submit a protest, but you can no longer add information after submitting the protest.
You need to have these three items to make the protest valid.
Actionable tip: now that you only have to submit these three things in a protest, get your protest form in ASAP. You can check the rules, or withdraw the protest later.
Changes to Technical Committee Protests
A technical committee no longer has to lodge a formal protest if they assess you to have broken class rules, or to be wearing illegal clothing.
Even more reason to be sure your equipment is class-legal.
There are other minor adjustments to the rules, but I didn’t want to overload you with unnecessary information - most of them won’t impact how you sail on the race course.
If you want to read more about them, I’d suggest checking out this article.
This will be the final part of this series. I hope you’re going into your next regatta feeling more prepared and confident in the new rules.
Thanks for reading, and if you’ve got any comments, suggestions or critques, feel free to comment below.