The Special Regulations will be published as a dynamic document with open ended validity date, ending the current 4-year cycle of publication.

The Special Regulations are the safety rules for sailing and are published on a 4-year cycle. The current edition of the Special Regulations expires on 30 June 2021. Because of the speed of technological development, the need to respond promptly to incidents and general improvement in practices the concept of having a static document with a 4-year life is considered impractical and obsolete. This cycle also created a problem every four years when volunteer committees were faced with a massive workload to review and update the Special Regulations for the next edition.

Publishing a dynamic version of the Special Regulations means Australian Sailing will be able to make amendments to the Special Regulations from time to time in response to changes, and not be faced with performing a wholesale review under a looming expiry date. The authorised version of the Special Regulations incorporating all amendments would always be available on the Australian Sailing website. 

For the Special Regulations go to https://www.sailingresources.org.au/safety/specialregs/.

By Glen Stanaway