2017 NSC Sailing Instructions

The 2017 Sailing Instructions & Race Calendar are available as a pdf. See below for a list of the major changes.

Notices to Competitors / Sailing Instruction Amendments:

• Amendment #1, 2017-06-21: The Warning signal for the NSC Pinhey’s Point Race on Sunday, June 25th, is changed to 1000.

Main changes made to the SIs for 2017:

• The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (IRPCS), also known as the COLREGS, no longer replace the Racing Rules of Sailing after sunset. (That’s a good thing, since very few people really know what’s in the IRPCS.) However, navigation lights are still required after sunset. SI 10.
• All courses now include an offset mark after the windward mark. This will keep boats that have rounded the windward mark away from boats sailing to the windward mark on port tack. SI 11.
• The finish line for a T course is now at the leeward mark (mark #3), instead of below mark #3. This will make it easier to shorten courses, when some boats are sailing a shortened course, and others are not. SI 11.
• For PHRF Division 1 only, the T and TE courses now include one extra “sausage”. SI 11.
• Boats now have the option of taking a post-race penalty, if they decide they may have broken a rule of Part 2. SI 20.6.
• The term “PHRF” has been dropped from the description of the Women’s Racing. Yes, PHRF is still the handicapping system that we use for all of our handicapping racing, and nothing has really changed. See this post for the background. Part B.
• The courses for the Martin 16s, 2.4mRs & 420s (Wednesday nights) now include one less “sausage”. Part D, 2.2.
• Skiffs are now officially included in the Catamaran (& Skiff) fleet; for the Skiffs, their PY (Portsmouth Yardstick) ratings will be converted to SCHRS handicaps by dividing their PY by 675. Part D, 7.2.
• As is customary, the start order of the Sharks and Tanzers switches; in 2017, the Sharks start ahead of the Tanzers. Part E, 1.1.
• The Ottawa River Challenge has been renamed the Jacques Adam River Challenge, in honour of Jacques Adam, who, along with Réjean Tremblay, conceived and championed this event from its outset.
• The calendar has been updated, though there is relatively little shuffling of events this year. The most notable schedule change is that the Lac Deschenes Open PHRF (LDOP) Regatta moves back to the third weekend in September, i.e. Sept 16-17, 2017.

Note: The original version of the SIs, dated 2017-04-21, included an erroneous reference to the 2013-2016 RRS, and contained “2016” in the header of certain pages. These obvious typos have been corrected in the version dated 2017-05-12 (links above). As these typos did not exist in the BYC SIs, these editorial corrections are not considered an “amendment”.

In addition to reading the Sailing Instructions, every racer should obtain and read the 2017-2020 version of the World Sailing Racing Rules of Sailing, and the Sail Canada Prescriptions. These “Rule Books” are available for purchase at the club office.

If you have changes you would like to propose for next year, feel free to discuss these with, or e-mail them to, Hugh Morrin and/or Ross Ernst.

Page updated: 2017-06-21.