Race Day Requirements for Competitors

Skippers’ Meeting

Each competing boat is required to send a representative to the pre-race Skippers’ Meeting. (Attendance by the entire crew is encouraged.) Failure to attend the meeting will result in the boat not being scored. The purpose of this Skippers’ Meeting is to accomplish the following tasks:

• Registration of all competitors.
• Crew assignments, if needed.
• Description of the course to be sailed.
• Special race instructions, if any.
• Review of VHF communication procedures.
• Description of the starting sequence, signals used, and start time(s).

Equipment Requirements

All competing boats must satisfy USCG and New York State minimum equipment carriage requirements to compete.

All competing boats must have a working marine VHF radio. All on-the-water communications is done via marine VHF on a channel announced at the pre-race Skippers’ Meeting. The VHF radio is also how competitors notify the Race Committee when they cross the finish line at the end of a race.

It is highly recommended that each competing vessel have a GPS or other timepiece that can be synchronized with the official clock used to record race start and finish times and to help them start each race properly.

General Race Policies

Unless stated otherwise in the Race Instructions, there is a time limit of 60 minutes for a boat reaching the first mark and a limit of 180 minutes to finish the course.  The Race Committee will determine if a race will be abandoned or rescheduled to another date or time.

The Committee boat has the authority for maintaining the flow and safety of the race. The race can be shortened if wind and lake conditions change.

Per US Sailing Racing Rules of Sailing, a race can be shortened, but it cannot be lengthened.

Finishing A Race

Standard racing rules define a boat finishing when any portion of its hull or sails “breaks the plane” of the finish line. FLYC practice, however, is that a boat finishes when its helmsman (or the position where the helmsman would normally be) crosses the finish line. This practice is to accommodate vessels being single-handed when finish times are being self-reported (i.e., when there are no race officials monitoring the finish line).

All start and finish times are recorded to the nearest second for scoring purposes.