Racing Rules

The number of races scheduled and the number required to be completed to constitute a series shall be stated in the sailing instructions.

Each boat’s series score shall be the total of her race scores excluding her worst score. (The sailing instructions may make a different arrangement by providing, for example, that no score will be excluded, that two or more scores will be excluded, or that a specified number of scores will be excluded if a specified number of races are completed. A race is completed if scored; see rule 89.3(a).) If a boat has two or more equal worst scores, the score(s) for the race(s) sailed earliest in the series shall be excluded. The boat with the lowest series score wins and others shall be ranked accordingly.

The time of a boat’s starting signal shall be her starting time, and the order in which boats finish a race shall determine their finishing places. However, when a handicap system is used a boat’s elapsed time, corrected to the nearest second, shall determine her finishing place.

Most series are scored using either the Low Point System or the Bonus Point System. The Low Point System uses a boat’s finishing place as her race score. The Bonus Point System benefits the first six finishers because of the greater difficulty in advancing from fourth place to third, for example, than from fourteenth place to thirteenth. The system chosen may be made to apply by stating in the sailing instructions that, for example, ‘The series will be scored as provided in Appendix A of the racing rules using the [Low] [Bonus] Point System.’