Race Management

One of our chief goals is to improve the quality of racing in our region, to ensure that it is fair, fun, & safe. We believe we can achieve this by working to improve race management by our clubs.

SAIL provides many services to local sailing organizations to improve race management and judging in the Rocky Mountain region. We do them because they are directly related to our mission “to promote the sport of sailing .. by ensuring excellence in race management and judging.”

SAIL’s race management services include:

Race Committee Training: We conduct at least one session each year to share the benefits of knowledgeable race officers with local sailing organizations and sailors. More sessions are held, based on requests. Because our people aren’t certified as instructors by US SAILING, good as they are, these sessions don’t lead to certification. The current schedule is on the "Education" page. Additional sessions may be held at the request of clubs or fleets.
Rules Training: We provide workshops on the Racing Rules of Sailing as requested. We also fold rules discussions into the Winter Seminars.
Certification of race officers and judges: We assist sailors interested in becoming certified by US SAILING by arranging for seminars and workshops with certified instructors, putting them together with clubs needing race officers in order to meet the experience requirements, and by recognizing their training. See our list of certified race officers & judges.
Advice to Race Committees: We consult with clubs to help them conduct better racing. This website, for example, contains some helpful tools for race committees. Race officers & judges share their experience, as in "Pitfalls & Tips" and we've gone to the authoritative source (US SAILING's Race management Handbook) for "Regatta Planning" -- action steps with a timeline.
Tools for race committees. See our forms, all of which can be downloaded in PDF format

Sample Notice of Race: Follows the form required by the RRS/
Sample Sailing Instructions: A guide for avoiding common problems in writing sailing instructions and adapted to our region..
SAIL Race Committee Sheet For recording race data on the water. Check in boats, start times & courses, wind data, finishers, & noteworthy observations.
SAIL Race Committee Sheet (Sample). Shows how the Race Committtee Sheet is used.
SAIL Handicapping Sheet:-- If you're handicapping by pencil & paper
SAIL Series Scoring Sheet -- If you;re scoring by pencil & paper.
SAIL R/C Flags -- A chart of the commonly-used signals flags & their meanings.
Race Committtee Quick Reference Sheet

Computer Scoring: Scoring races, especially with handicaps, was once one of the more painful aspects of race committee work. After seeing many failed attempts to harness computers' powers to the task, SAIL has found a Windows-based program that works easily & reliably. We conduct regular training programs on SailWave ©. See "Education".

Appeals: We hear qualified appeals from decisions of protest committees. This is often a learning experience for both the appellant and the protest committee. We also file "Requests for Interpretation" of the rules when there's a question. See "Appeals" for more information.

Portmsouth handicapping, click here.

PHRF ratings issued by SAIL, click here.

[Home] [Go Top]

Revised: 3/1/06