Australian Sailing has been giving approval to most applications from clubs wanting to deny appeals at their event. One of the conditions of that approval, as set down by World Sailing in the RRS, is often forgotten by the club and race officials. 

Under 2021-24 RRS 70.5(b), Australian Sailing can approve a ‘National Jury’ for a particular event open only to boats entered by an organization affiliated to that national authority, a member of an organization affiliated to that national authority, or a personal member of that national authority. 

Note the condition that the event can be open only to members of an Australian club. 

This same condition has been carried forward into the 2025-28 RRS 70.3(c)1, which says there is no right to appeal decisions made at an event open only to boats entered by an organization affiliated to the national authority, or a member of such an organization. 

So whilst the term ‘National Jury’ is being retired with the new RRS, the condition that denying appeals for a domestic event is conditional to it being only open to members of an Australian Sailing affiliated organisation, invariably a club, remains unchanged. 

How does this work? In short, the notice of race has to state clearly that entry is open only to members of an Australian Sailing affiliated club. There are different ways to deal with this, but SailPass is an easy method of getting someone into a club’s membership to meet a one-off need. Bonafide international events, however, will still need to rely on using an international jury as is the norm. 

Information about ‘jury’ approvals is here.
Click here for the 2025-28 RRS. 

By Melanie Peasey