sailboat racing ufd

Sailing Scoring Notations

This post summarizes the Sailing Scoring Notations / abbreviations that may be found in sailing results and the rules associated with them. Occasionally, you may run across a notation that you don’t remember. We created this summary to help guide you through the notations that you might see.

DNC – Did not compete/start Did not come to the starting area.

Scoring: Scored points for the finishing place one more than the number of boats entered in the series.

DNS – Did not start (other than DNC and OCS)

OCS – Did not start, Violated RRS 29.1 – Individual Recall On the course side of the starting line at her starting signal and failed to start, or broke RRS 30.1.

ZFP – Violated RRS 30.2 – Z Flag Rule RRS 30.2: If flag Z has been displayed, no part of a boat’s hull shall be in the triangle formed by the ends of the starting line and the first mark during the last minute before her starting signal.

Scoring: If a boat breaks this rule and is identified, she shall receive, without a hearing, a 20% Scoring Penalty calculated as stated in RRS 44.3(c). She shall be penalized even if the race is restarted or resailed, but not if it is postponed or abandoned before the starting signal. If she is similarly identified during a subsequent attempt to start the same race, she shall receive an additional 20% Scoring Penalty. RRS 29.1 still applies.

UFD – Violated RRS 30.3 – U Flag Rule Disqualification under RRS 30.3 RRS 30.3: If flag U has been displayed, no part of a boat’s hull shall be in the triangle formed by the ends of the starting line and the first mark during the last minute before her starting signal.

Scoring: If a boat breaks this rule and is identified, she shall be disqualified without a hearing, but not if the race is restarted or resailed.

BFD – Violated RRS 30.4 – Black Flag Rule Disqualification under RRS 30.4 RRS 30.4: If a black flag has been displayed, no part of a boat’s hull shall be in the triangle formed by the ends of the starting line and the first mark during the last minute before her starting signal.

Scoring: If a boat breaks this rule and is identified, she shall be disqualified without a hearing, even if the race is restarted or resailed, but not if it is postponed or abandoned before the starting signal. If a general recall is signalled or the race is abandoned after the starting signal, the race committee shall display her sail number before the next warning signal for that race, and if the race is restarted or resailed she shall not sail in it. If she does so, her disqualification shall not be excluded in calculating her series score.

SCP – Scoring Penalty applied Could be RRS 44.3 , appendix T, appendix V, or something in the Sailing Instructions

NSC – Did not sail the course

DNF – Did not finish

RET – Retired

DSQ – Disqualification

DNE – Disqualification (other than DGM) not excludable under RRS 90.3(b) RRS 90.3 (b): When a scoring system provides for excluding one or more race scores, any score that is a Disqualification Not Excludable (DNE) shall be included in a boat’s series score.

Scoring: Disqualification in a race is not an excludable score.

RDG – Redress given

Scoring: Depends on redress provided by the Race Committee.

DPI – Discretionary penalty imposed RRS 64.6: Discretionary Penalties – When a boat reports within the protest time limit that she has brokena rule subject to a discretionary penalty, the protest committee shall decide the appropriate penalty after taking evidence from the boat and any witnesses it decides are appropriate.

Scoring: The notation ‘[DP]’ in a rule means that the penalty for a breach of the rule may, at the discretion of the protest committee, be less than disqualification.

STP – Standard Penalty A penalty often shown in the Notice of Race (NOR) or Sailing Instructions (SIs) for minor violations. Examples include failing to check in with safety personnel upon return from the race course or to turn in a Race Tracker.

Scoring: As noted in the instructions.

TLE – Time Limit Expired A special penalty that may be specified for those finishing after a specified time “limit” from the start of the race.

Scoring: As noted in the venue/event instructions.

DFL – Dead F…….. Last

Scoring: Compulsion to spend more time on SailZing.com to improve one’s skills.

Select Rules from the Racing Rules of Sailing 2021-2024:

RRS 30 – STARTING PENALTIES RRS 30.1 – I Flag Rule If flag I has been displayed, and any part of a boat’s hull is on the course side of the starting line or one of its extensions during the last minute before her starting signal, she shall sail across an extension so that her hull is completely on the pre-start side before she starts.

RRS 30.2 – Z Flag Rule If flag Z has been displayed, no part of a boat’s hull shall be in the triangle formed by the ends of the starting line and the first mark during the last minute before her starting signal. If a boat breaks this rule and is identified, she shall receive, without a hearing, a 20% Scoring Penalty calculated as stated in RRS 44.3(c). She shall be penalized even if the race is restarted or resailed, but not if it is postponed or abandoned before the starting signal. If she is similarly identified during a subsequent attempt to start the same race, she shall receive an additional 20% Scoring Penalty.

RRS 30.3 U Flag Rule If flag U has been displayed, no part of a boat’s hull shall be in the triangle formed by the ends of the starting line and the first mark during the last minute before her starting signal. If a boat breaks this rule and is identified, she shall be disqualified without a hearing, but not if the race is restarted or resailed.

RRS 30.4 Black Flag Rule If a black flag has been displayed, no part of a boat’s hull shall be in the triangle formed by the ends of the starting line and the first mark during the last minute before her starting signal. If a boat breaks this rule and is identified, she shall be disqualified without a hearing, even if the race is restarted or resailed, but not if it is postponed or abandoned before the starting signal. If a general recall is signalled or the race is abandoned after the starting signal, the race committee shall display her sail number before the next warning signal for that race, and if the race is restarted or resailed she shall not sail in it. If she does so, her disqualification shall not be excluded in calculating her series score.

RRS 44.3(c) The race score for a boat that takes a Scoring Penalty shall be the score she would have received without that penalty, made worse by the number of places stated in the notice of race or sailing instructions. When the number of places is not stated, the penalty shall be 20% of the score for Did Not Finish, rounded to the nearest whole number (0.5 rounded upward). The scores of other boats shall not be changed; therefore, two boats may receive the same score. However, the penalty shall not cause the boat’s score to be worse than the score for Did Not Finish.

RRS Appendix T – ARBITRATION

RRS T1 POST-RACE PENALTIES

(a) Provided that RRS 44.1(b) does not apply, a boat that may have broken one or more rules of Part 2 or RRS 31 in an incident may take a Post-Race Penalty at any time after the race until the beginning of a protest hearing involving the incident.

(b) A Post-Race Penalty is a 30% Scoring Penalty calculated as stated in RRS 44.3(c). However, RRS 44.1(a) applies.

(c) A boat takes a Post-Race Penalty by delivering to the arbitrator or a member of the protest committee a written statement that she accepts the penalty and that identifies the race number and where and when the incident occurred.

NOTE: Refer to the current Racing Rules of Sailing and/or Notice of Race (NOR) and Sailing Instructions (SIs) for updated rules, requirements and penalties.

Thank you to John Porter, Lake Beulah Yacht Club member & certified race official, for input on this list.

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Kanata Sailing Club

How scoring works – appendix a demystified.

The Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) contains a suggested mechanism for scoring at regattas, detailed in Appendix A of the rules.  A regatta doesn’t have to use this mechanism (the Sailing Instructions, or SIs, for the regatta will describe the scoring system) but Appendix A is a popular choice.  This article describes how Appendix A works, and talks about the changes to Appendix A that KSC uses for our weekly race series.

In simple terms, you get one point for being first, two points for being second, etc (Rule A4.1).  At the end of the regatta, the boat with the fewest points wins (like golf) (Rule A2.1).

Sounds simple, right?

The devil is, of course, in the details.  What happens if a boat doesn’t race?  What if a person crews for one boat one race, and a different boat the next?  How do “dropped races” work, that kind of thing.

Breaking the Rules

Generally speaking, a boat that breaks a rule (or doesn’t race) is scored as if it finished “last place plus one”.  If there are 10 boats in the regatta, you’d normally expect the scores to be 1 point (for the first place boat) to 10 points (for the last place boat).  If only 8 of the 10 boats participated in the race, they would score 1 to 8 points, and the two boats who did not race are scored 11 points each.

Boats might not race for a number of reasons — maybe the didn’t show up for the race, they were unable start the race in time, they were over the start line early (and didn’t rectify the issue), they had problems and had to leave the race, etc.  Under Appendix A, these situations are generally treated equally (by awarding “last place plus one”).

The other situation where a boat will be scored as “last place plus one” is if the boat is disqualified.  This typically occurs when a boat breaks a rule (maybe it caused a collision when the other boat had right-of-way).  A boat can exonerate itself by doing penalty turns (usually two 360 degree turns) as soon as it is able to safely do so.  If a boat doesn’t do its turns, it may be disqualified and awarded “last place plus one”.

There are other conditions which could cause a change to a score.  The judge could decide to award someone a score based on where they would have likely finished if a boat were interfered with, or a boat may be penalized a certain number of points for some types of infractions.  Generally speaking these cases are quite rare, but you should know that they do exist.

Some common “scores” which you’ll see on a scoring sheet:

Dropped Scores

Everyone has a bad race now and then.  Furthermore, maybe there was a tough situation and you got disqualified for breaking a rule one race.  This might not make a big difference in a regatta with only a few boats, but in a big regatta with 50+ boats, then having one bad score can completely kill your chances of placing well.

Enter “dropped scores”.  This lets you ignore your worst scores from the regatta.  Appendix A allows you to ignore your worst score in the series (Rule A2.1), although it is more typical for the SIs to specify a number of scores to exclude based on the number of races sailed.  This might be worded something like “excluding her worst score when 5 – 11 races are scored, or her two worst scores when 12 or more races are scored”.

In regattas, one dropped score per five or six races is typical, whereas weekly race series often allow for more dropped scores.

Boats and people

One final thing to note about Appendix A (and the RRS in general) is that they talk about a boat as the entity participating.  In other words, the people on the boat don’t matter, it’s the boat that races.  Let’s say you have an Albacore with sail number 8034.  The Albacore’s place will be scored in each race regardless of who is skipper, who is crew, etc.  At the end of the regatta, it’s the score that “Albacore 8034” has which determines it’s position.  For most regattas, this is fine — the boat will typically be skippered and crewed by the same people for every race.

Kanata Sailing Club Races – Changes from Appendix A

KSC took the Appendix A rules, and makes a few adjustments to suit our needs.  The first big one is that we score people, and not boats.  At KSC race nights, where we have people constantly changing boats from one week to the next, scoring a boat doesn’t really work.  Our solution is to have every sailor pretend to be a boat (as far as scoring is concerned), and we score each sailor as if they finished in the place their boat did.

Let’s say that Alice, Bob, Charlie, and David are racing.  Bob is crewing for Charlie.  In the first race, Alice finishes first, Bob and Charlie second, and David third.  Alice gets one point, Bob and Charlie each get two points, and David gets three.  In the next race, David wins, followed by Alice, and finally Bob/Charlie.  David gets one point, Alice two, Bob/Charlie three.  The total score at the end of the second race is: Alice (3 points), David (4 points), Bob (5 points), Charlie (5 Points).  Scoring can continue from there the next week even if Bob and Charlie sail in different boats, or Alice/David sail together, etc.

The second change we make is that we allow for a lot of dropped scores.  We might be changing the ratio in the future, but as of 2016 we allowed for 1 dropped score for every 4 races scored.  This means that if you miss a week you’re not overly penalized.  But it also means that you do have to show up for a few weeks and score consistently well during those weeks to win the series.

Unlike a regatta, we don’t know how many people will show up over the course of the series.  On a good night we might have 10 boats racing (maybe 3-4 Lasers, 3-4 Albacores, a Byte, maybe a 29er or Hobie Cat, etc).  Basically, we figured that we probably won’t have 15 boats.  We chose the number 15 as a the score for people who don’t show up (“DNC” or “Did not come to starting area”) so people who don’t show up get an automatic “15th place”.

A final change we made is that we thought it would be better to reward those who made an effort to race above those who didn’t show up.  Boats who are disqualified, do not start in time, forced to retire, etc are awarded points better than the 15 points awarded to those who didn’t start. In the following table, the number of points “n” indicates the number of points for the last boat who finished the race normally.  Note that even if we do have an abnormally huge number of boats racing, your score will not be higher than 15.

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Mastering Sailboat Racing Tactics: A Winning Approach

By: Zeke Quezada, ASA Sailing Races

Sailboat racing demands a unique blend of skills and expertise. The dynamic nature of racing, with its ever-changing winds and currents, requires sailors to excel in various aspects to secure victory. One of the biggest challenges is dealing with the fluid playing field upon which we play.  At North U, experts understand that sailboat racing success is built on a pyramid comprising Boat Handling, Boat Speed, and Tactics, with Tactics reigning supreme at the pinnacle.

Building the Foundation: Boat Handling and Boat Speed

Before delving into the intricacies of racing tactics, it’s crucial to lay a solid foundation. Boat Handling forms the base of the pyramid, emphasizing the importance of mastering the art of sailing. Without proficient boat handling skills, even the best tactics would falter. Next in line is Boat Speed, a universal requirement across all forms of racing. Whether it’s bicycles, bobsleds, or sailboats, speed is the essence of victory in any race.

Reaching the Summit: Racing Tactics

Atop the Racing Pyramid stands Tactics, the ultimate decider in the world of sailboat racing. Once you’ve honed your boat handling and achieved exceptional speed, mastering tactics becomes the key to clinching victories. Tactics, in its broadest sense, encompasses Strategy and Tactical execution, each playing a pivotal role in the race.

Understanding Strategy and Tactics

Strategy is the overarching plan that revolves around wind, wind shifts, and current. It is an overall gameplan detailing how a sailor would navigate the course independently while factoring in the complex interplay of natural elements. On the other hand, Tactics involve the practical implementation of the strategy and the adept handling of other boats in the race. Understanding and adhering to Racing Rules are part of Tactics, as the rules dictate your rights and obligations as you deal with other boats.

General Tactical Tips: 

• Craft a Comprehensive Strategy: Formulate a game plan based on your expectations of the wind’s behavior. A well-thought-out strategy provides a roadmap for your race.
• Get a Good Start: While a perfect start is ideal, it’s not mandatory for victory. Focus on launching at full speed from the starting line, ensuring you have clear air near the favored end. A strong start sets the tone for the race.
• Chase the Wind: Seek out areas with more wind and navigate your boat towards these pockets. Sailing in favorable wind conditions gives you a significant advantage over competitors.
• Embrace Speed: Sailing at maximum speed is a game-changer. Position your boat in a way that allows you to maintain top speed throughout the race. Sometimes, the simplest strategy is the most effective.
• Master the Shifts: Tacking and jibing strategically based on wind shifts is crucial. Upwind, tack when you’re headed away from the mark and sail on the lifts that push you towards it. Downwind, jibe when lifted away from the mark and sail on the headers, guiding you in the right direction.

Sailboat racing tactics are the culmination of strategic planning, meticulous execution, and adaptability to the ever-changing elements. By mastering the art of strategy and tactical maneuvers, sailors can elevate their racing performance. 

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