Lake Winnipesaukee Sailing Association, Inc.

J/80 One Design Series
Fall 2007

Sailing Instructions

Rules: Races will be governed by The Racing Rules of Sailing 2005-2008, the prescriptions of US Sailing, the J/80 class rules, the fall series Notice of race, these sailing instructions, and, if any, the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions of the specific regatta referenced below in the schedule. Please note: The J Jamboree Sailing Instructions, not these instructions, will be in effect for the J-Jamboree dates shown in the schedule, except for the “scoring” section below which will govern scoring for the Fall series. J-Jamboree sailing instructions will be available at www.j-jamboree.org.

Schedule:

August 23^rd, 30^th	Thursday Night  1730 start time
September 8^th – 9^th	J-Jamboree
September 15^th	Saturday Afternoon 1300 start time

Notices to Competitors: Notices to competitors will be posted on the official notice board located on the Fleet 1 website at (www.lwsa.org/j80/notices), and will be sent to the j80fleet1 e-mail list (see www.lwsa.org/mailman/listinfo/j80fleet1/ to subscribe).

Changes in Sailing Instructions: Any change to these sailing instructions will be posted and/or e-mailed to the j80fleet1 list before 1200EDT on the day it will take effect. 

Signals Made Ashore:  Except for the J-Jamboree, which will have its own notification procedures, notice of delay or cancellation of any day’s racings shall be as follows:

In the event a regatta must be cancelled in advance, the organizing authority will post a cancellation notice on the notice board and send the notice to the j80fleet1 e-mail list before 1200EDT on the regatta day.

In case of bad weather on a regatta day, the Fleet Captain, or his designee, may decide to cancel or delay the start no later than 2 ¼ hours before the first scheduled start. If cancelling he will email the j80fleet1 list and arrange for calls to skippers who have requested phone calls. If you want a phone call, please be sure to inform the Fleet Captain (j80fleet1captain -at- lwsa.org) in advance. In addition notice of the cancellation or delay will be posted of the website at www.lwsa.org/j80/notices

Succinct email notices will also be sent to the j80fleet1alterts mailing list. That list is expected to mostly consist of fleet member’s pagers and cell-phones. You may subscribe to the alert email list at www.lwsa.org/mailman/listinfo/j80fleet1alerts/

Should the race committee find it necessary to postpone, abandon or use the alternate racing area on a regatta day, they will broadcast a notice to competitors on the VHF radio (Ch 72) no later than 15 minutes prior to the scheduled first warning signal.

Course:  The course will be windward/leeward.  The windward and leeward marks will be rounded to port.  The leeward mark will be on the course side of the start/finish line.  Should the leeward mark be absent at the start, the pin end of the start/finish line will be the leeward mark for that race. The default number of legs shall be four; however the race committee may designate any number of legs by hail or visual signal no later than the warning signal for the next race.  An odd number of legs will mean a windward finish.

Marks:  The race committee reserves the right to use whatever marks may be available.  A race committee boat may be used as the replacement for a missing or out of position mark. An RC boat acting as a replacement mark will display flag M and make repetitive sound signals.

The Start: Races will be started by using rule 26 with the warning signal given five minutes before the starting signal.  A J/80 Class flag or yellow flag will be used as the warning flag. The starting line will be between a staff displaying an orange flag on a race committee boat and a nearby mark. A boat starting later than five minutes after its starting signal will be scored Did Not Start.  This changes rule A4.1.

Change of the Position of the Next Mark:  To change the position of the next mark, the race committee will move the original mark (or the finishing line) to a new position.  The change will be signaled before the leading boat has begun the leg, although the mark may not yet be in the new position.  Any mark to be rounded after rounding the moved mark may be relocated without further signaling to maintain course configuration.

The Finish:  The finishing line will be between a staff displaying an orange flag on a race committee boat and a nearby mark.  In the absence of the race committee, a boat shall take its own finish by noting the boat that finishes previous and subsequent to it as well as the time and report to the race committee as soon as possible.  If there is no longer an established finishing line, a boat shall finish as close to the remaining mark as practicable on a line extending from the required side at a 90 degree angle to the last leg. 

Penalty System:  Rule 44.2 is changed so that the Two-Turn Penalty is replaced by a One-Turn Penalty, which must include one tack and one jibe in the same direction.

Time Limit:  If the first boat does not reach the first leeward mark rounding (or finish for a “once around” designated course) within sixty (60) minutes of the start or the first boat to finish does not finish within one hundred twenty (120) minutes of the start, the race shall be abandoned.

Boats failing to finish within fifteen (15) minutes after the first boat sails the course and finishes will be scored Time Limit Exceeded (TLX) and will be scored one more point than the last finishing boat. The race committee may hail the boat(s) on the radio.  A boat so hailed will be given five minutes to get to the starting area before the warning signal for its next race.  Use of the motor to return to the starting area is encouraged in the interest of expediency and may be used up until one (1) minute before the start as long as the returning boat remains on the course side of the start line.  This changes RRS A4.2

Navigation Lights:  Class rules require a battery and working navigation lights.  Any boats in or near the racing area after sunset must illuminate their navigation lights.  Boats not so illuminating their navigation lights are subject to protest.  Reference rule 48.

Motors:  All boats must carry the class-required outboard motor mounted to the transom at all times.

Protests:  The purpose of the One-Turn penalty provision is to reduce or eliminate off-the-water protests.  Adjudication of protests is difficult and inconvenient for all parties, including those disinterested parties who need to assemble to hear the protest.  The following protest protocol will be used:

All protests must be properly initiated. This includes immediate hail and display of the protest flag, display of the flag at the finish, and prompt notification of the race committee prior to the start of the next race.

Protests must be filed per the specific regatta’s instructions and be written on official protest forms available from US Sailing (available at http://ussailing.org/rules/ussapf2001.pdf). All protests, other than those from the J-Jamboree (or other regatta whose sailing instructions otherwise specify) must be mailed to Don Sibson, 210 Old Lake Shore Rd., Gilford, NH 03249 postmarked no later than the day after the incident.  Alternatively, a .pdf file of the completed protest form may be emailed to Don Sibson whose email address is listed at www.lwsa.org/contact no later than 1800EDT hours the day after the incident.  A copy of the protest must also be sent to the protested party(s) on the day after the incident.

Reasonable effort will be made to arrange a time and place convenient to all to hear the protest. Failing that, the convenience of the protest committee, the protested party, and the protester shall be considered in that order.

The parties may agree to an alternate penalty at any time after the race. The penalty will be a scoring penalty equal to one third of the number of the boats competing in the race rounded up to the next whole number. Both parties must sign a letter to the fleet captain informing him of the agreement.   

Scoring: Six races shall constitute a series. Abandoned races will not be rescheduled unless they are essential to meet the six race minimum requirement for a series.

Except for the J-Jamboree in which all races will be scored for the Fall Series, only the first three races of each day will be scored for the Fall Series.

For a race to count in the series, a minimum of three registered boats intending to race must be in the vicinity of the starting area during the starting sequence.

The low point scoring system of Appendix A of the Racing Rules of Sailing will be used.

Each boat’s series score will be the total of all its scores, discarding the worst score if more than six races are held in the series.  The maximum number of discards allowed in a series will be one. This changes rule A2.

The two days of racing at the J-Jamboree will count as two separate days for scoring purposes.

In the J Jamboree where there may be other boats, not registered for the Fall series, finishing ahead of a registered boat, their scores will be omitted for the sake of computing finish position for the registered boats. As an example: If a non Fall series boat finishes in 1st place at a J Jamboree race, that boat’s position will be omitted from calculating finishes for registered fall series boats. A registered Fall series boat finishing in 2nd place behind this boat would receive one point for the Fall series standings, etc.

A boat that did not come to the starting area, did not start, did not finish, retired after finishing, or was disqualified shall be scored for the finishing place one more than the total number of boats that started or were OCS. This changes rule A4.2 and A.9.

Boats that have not submitted an Owner’s Declaration or paid the fee as stated in the Notice of Race will be scored the same as a boat that did not come to the starting area.

Byes: Each boat will be entitled to receive her average score (after 1 discard as described above) for all races of one regatta (night) in which she was scored DNC. Should a boat receive DNC scores in more than one regatta (night), byes will be assigned to the qualifying races of the regatta (night) that will yield the most favorable result for the boat’s series score.

Support Boats: Friends and relatives in non-competing boats should be instructed to keep clear of the racing area and avoid verbal or physical contact with the competitors.

Radio Communication: The race committee will monitor and use VHF channel 72 to communicate with competitors. Note that class rules require a working VHF radio on all boats.

Cell Phones: For safety and organizational reasons, cell phones are allowed on board but must be off while racing.