ISAF publishes Test Rules for Match Racing

Rob Overton, Chairman of the US Racing Rules Committee and member of the ISAF Team Race Call book Working Party, provides this report on changes to the rules for 2015…

ISAF has released a set of new Test Rules for Match Racing. These rules will be tested in events worldwide in 2015, and, presumably, if the tests go well, adopted in the 2017 match-racing rules.

The Test Rules involve four changes to the Racing Rules of Sailing: they add a new rule 7, ‘Last Point of Certainty’; they replace rule 18 (Mark-Room) with a much simpler rule from the America’s Cup; they change the definition of ‘Mark-Room’; and they replace rule 17 (On the Same Tack, Proper Course) with a much more complicated rule from the Alpari World Match Racing Tour.

I will quote each of the Test Rules, followed by my commentary. A zip file with the new rules, official explanations of what the changes mean, and revised Match Race Calls for these rules, can be found HERE. In that same zip file is an “Implementation Document” describing how to write Notices of Race and Sailing Instructions to implement the new rules.

It is not clear yet what events will use these rules, but any event that wishes to do so must obtain specific permission from ISAF (under rule 86.2) or their national authority (under rule 86.3). In the United States, event organizing authorities should go HERE for instructions about how to get permission under rule 86.3.

Full report HERE