Agreeing to be the organising authority in conjunction with others needs to be reasoned and weighed against the benefits and risks.

The Racing Rules of Sailing under rule 89.1(d) allows an affiliated organisation such as a class association to be the organising authority in conjunction with a club. The rules allow this to be done without any approval from the national authority. We often see this on race documents expressed as:

"The organising authority is Sailing Club in conjunction with Class Association."

Clubs are constituted to be organising authorities. We can not think of a single affiliated sailing club whose objects in their constitution do not include running sailing events. The clubs’ strategic plans reflect this. Their operations, volunteers, committees and if they have them, staff are all geared to running races and regattas. They are trained, skilled and experienced. The clubs have the equipment, they have safety systems and risk management plans, and they have insurances.

Class associations might be best described as ‘owners associations’; groups of like-minded people with a common interest in a particular design or type of boat. When the class association is part of the organising authority in conjunction with a club, it is getting some control over the event it has a clear interest in, but their committee are also accepting some risks.

The usual reason the class association wants to be part of the organising authority in conjunction with a club is to establish some control over the way the event is run. The class will have a hand in appointing the race and protest committees, it will share responsibility for what goes in the notice of race, it is able to help direct the race committee. We have often seen class associations quite rightly disappointed, or even angered in some cases, when a club runs the event the club’s way and not the way the class wanted it run.

Sharing the responsibility is not always easy, even if agreeing to run the event in conjunction with another body. The push and pull of direction have to be handled constructively and collaboratively. But cooperative parties won’t have any problems.

Class associations need to be conscious of what the commitment is when being part of the organising authority with a club. The association and its committee members will share the responsibility for the event. This includes the duty of care toward competitors and volunteers. The class needs to check and challenge the approach of sharing responsibility by asking itself whether it can meet these responsibilities, and whether it has appropriate insurances in place.

•    What oversight does the class association really have over safety policies and practices?
•    Can the class association lead training or induct the event volunteers and staff?
•    What controls does the class have over the adequacy and maintenance of safety equipment being used at the event?

If the class association cannot meet these responsibilities or is not appropriately insured, then it should seriously rethink being part of the organising authority.

Committee members of a class association carry the same responsibility of those on any incorporated association. That they are volunteer committee members does not diminish the liability risks around their role or the activities undertaken by the association. However, when running events, the class association usually has little influence over the safety controls of an event.

This does not mean a class association should shy away from the responsibility; there is no right or wrong way of doing this. Our recommendation is that when drafting race documents the class association should take care to reason the decision and weigh up the benefits and risks in being named as part of the organising authority.

Class associations who chose to not be named as part of the organising authority but still wanting to maintain control over how the event is run could also consider other ways of achieving their objectives. The appointment by the class association of a club to host a class event should clearly articulate the class association’s minimum standards for the aspects of the event they are most concerned about and then let the club go about the business of being the organising authority.

Racing Rule of Sailing 89.1 describes who can be the organising authority and can be read at https://cdn.revolutionise.com.au/site/l7njxnmon2hnjcry.pdf#page=54.

By Glen Stanaway https://www.sailing.org.au/about/ourstaff/.