Rule 13.—There shall be no limit as to the number of paid hands, and no restriction as to the number of friends, or to their working. No paid hand shall join or leave a yacht after the signal to start, except in case of accident or injury to any person on board. [This rule is not intended to apply to Corinthian matches.]
Rule 14.—All yachts exceeding a rating of 10 shall be fitted below deck with the ordinary fittings of a yacht, including two transverse bulkheads of wood. The following shall apply to all yachts: their platforms shall be kept down, and bulkheads standing.
No water shall be started from or taken into the tanks after the signal to start has been made. No more than the usual anchors and chains shall be carried during a race, which must not be used as shifting ballast, or for altering the trim of the yacht. No bags of shot shall be on board, and all ballast shall be properly stowed under the platform or in lockers, and shall not be shifted or trimmed in any way during a race. No ballast or other dead weight shall be shifted, shipped, or unshipped, so as to alter the length of the load water-line, after a yacht has been entered for a race, nor without giving notice thereof to the secretary of the Yacht Racing Association, as enjoined in Rule 3.
The races organized by the recognized yacht clubs of the British Isles are all sailed under the Y.R.A. rules, but those clubs that have been established to encourage the construction and racing of small boats, such as are many of our Corinthian and river sailing clubs, adopt different methods of measurement from those of the Y.R.A., which last are not adapted for the classification of small craft. As a rule, small boats are classed by length; in some cases, their rating is ascertained by adding length, breadth, and depth together, the sum being the measurement in feet and inches.
The Y.R.A. rules for ascertaining the area of sails for rating purposes seriously handicap small yachts rigged in what may be termed river fashion. For instance, the area of the head sails of a lug-sail boat is computed in accordance with the method provided in the rule for a cutter’s head sails; that is, the after limit of the area is taken along the mast; whereas a lugsail, projecting before the mast, prevents the boat from carrying head sails that will reach so far aft as the mast.
Again, in the case of a Una or balance lug boat carrying a spinnaker, but no head sails, the whole area of the spinnaker is reckoned in the rating; whereas in the case of a boat carrying head-sails as well as spinnaker, the area of the spinnaker is not taken into account at all unless it be larger than that of the head sail, in which case the difference between them is added to the sail area. The result is that the first boat only carries the sail area for which she is rated when running before the wind.
There are various methods of arranging the start in a yacht race. One plan is to have the competing yachts anchored or moored in a line with all sails down, or after sails up and head sails down, or all sail up, as the sailing committee may direct. Lots are drawn for the different stations. Five minutes before the start a Blue Peter is hoisted and a gun is fired. At the expiration of the five minutes the Blue Peter is hauled down, and a second gun is fired as a signal to start. The yachts then slip from their moorings. If a yacht let go her moorings or drag her anchor before the second gun is fired, she is liable to be disqualified, unless the parting or dragging be explained to the satisfaction of the committee, or unless she has returned, after the signal to start, within the line of starting buoys, so as not to obtain any advantage from the accident.
Another method of starting is what is known as a flying start. The yachts are all under way, and have to keep inside an imaginary line between two marks until the starting gun is fired. Then they cross the line. If a yacht crosses the line before the signal, she must return and recross it.
Should the owner of any yacht or his representative consider that he has a fair ground of complaint against another for foul sailing, or any violation of the rules, he must, if it arise during the race, signify the same on first passing the committee vessel, by showing an ensign conspicuously in the main rigging.
We refer the reader to the little book published by Harrison and Sons, before mentioned, for the other racing regulations of the Yacht Racing Association, and to the special rules of the sailing clubs in whose regattas he wishes to compete.