Competitors are sometimes upset because of something that you did and they want it fixed. What to do about it though? The Racing Rules of Sailing provide the options.

Things you can do about it include:

Read the rules beforehand.
Finding out what your obligations before you enter and show up can save the race officials and volunteers, and your peers a bucket load of effort. There is no rule regarding reading the rules. Its common sense.

Take a penalty.
It’s the right thing to do. The RRS are pretty clear that, as a fundamental principle of sportsmanship, when a boat breaks a rule it will take an appropriate penalty. See the basic principles.

Do one turn.
When you hit a mark, do a turn. See rules 31 and 44.1 for the details.

Do two turns.
Few rules breaches are as inexpensive as hitting a mark (presuming it’s an inflatable mark, of course.) If you think that you may have broken a boat on boat rule, “do your turns”. You might want to check to see whether this has been changed from two to one turn, as can happen. See Part 2 and rule 44.1 for the details.

Retire.
You can do this at the time. You can do it after finishing. If you caused injury or serious damage or
gained a significant advantage your penalty is to retire. See rule 44.1(b) for the details.

This also applies at events using special procedures for rule 42 (pumping, rocking, ooching), which are typically off the beach classes such as 420s, ILCA and Optimists. Once a boat is penalised a second or third time, it shall retire. See Appendix P2 for the details.

Take a post-race penalty.
Many events allow competitors to take a post-race penalty after the race until the beginning of a protest hearing involving the incident. This is effectively a scoring penalty rather than risking a protest committee disqualifying you. See Appendix T for the details.

Best of all, know the rules and avoid the situation in the first place. Taking a penalty on the water or post-race is far better than being disqualified. It saves you some reputation damage too. Indeed, taking the penalty on the water will usually enhance your reputation for good sportsmanship.

Should you find yourself in the position as the competitor who may have broken a rule, you can save your friends, peer competitors and the people running the event all the palaver of trying to protest or follow some other procedure.

More about the Racing Rules of Sailing is here.
To see what else you could have done about it, click here.

By Glen Stanaway