Racing Rules of Sailing 2025-2028: What Changed and Why

Rule 14 – Avoiding Contact

Rule 14 now requires boats not to cause contact, not just to avoid contact with another boat. New 14(c) adds that a boat must also not cause contact between a boat and an object that should be avoided, for example a mark or another obstruction.^[1] The same wording has been used since 2019 in the America’s Cup, since 2020 in the High Speed Rules and since 2021 in Appendix UF, with no negative experiences reported (Submission 012-23).^[7] As Dave Perry puts it, “The rule writers want even less contact!”^[8] The Mark-Room definition also changed: mark-room now lasts until a boat has left the mark astern (behind her), which settles a long debate about when mark-room has been given.^[2]

Read more: Rule 14 and Rule 15 – Avoiding Contact and Acquiring Right of Way

Rule 17 – On the Same Tack; Proper Course

The last sentence of Rule 17 was deleted. In 2021, Rule 17 did not apply if the overlap began while the windward boat was required by Rule 13 to keep clear (while tacking). Now Rule 17 also applies in that case. It still applies only between boats on the same tack. The Proper Course definition was also reworded, most recently by World Sailing’s Changes and Corrections (effective 20 April 2026), to “in order to sail the course as quickly as possible.”^[6]

Read more: Rule 17 – On the Same Tack, Proper Course

Rule 18.1 – When Rule 18 Applies

Rule 18.1 has a new layout, and the point at which Rule 18 stops applying (once mark-room has been given) now has its own rule number, so sailors and race officials can refer to it.^[8] The new Mark-Room definition (“to leave it astern”) settles when mark-room has been given. The Section C preamble now ends “until they have left it astern,” and it covers starting marks differently.

Read more: Rule 18.1 – When Rule 18 (Mark-Room) Applies

Rule 18.2 – Giving Mark-Room

The “snapshot” rule (the moment the first boat reaches the zone, the three-length circle around the mark) now comes first as 18.2(a), because it is the most used part.^[2] It simply asks whether the boats are overlapped or not when the first of them gets to the zone, and that “locks in the rights and obligations of the two boats” at that moment.^[2] Old 18.2(c)(2), which Submission 013-23 called “relatively unknown, complex, not necessary,” was deleted.^[2] New 18.2(b) switches off 18.2(a) when the boat entitled to mark-room passes head to wind or leaves the zone. In the late-overlap case, 18.2(d) now switches off only 18.2(a) and 18.2(c) between those boats.

Read more: Rule 18.2 – Giving Mark-Room

Rules 18.3 and 18.4 – Tacking and Gybing in the Zone

New Rule 18.3 switches 18.2 off between a boat that tacked in the zone and a starboard-tack boat that is fetching the mark (able to reach it without tacking); its two limits apply only if the starboard boat has been on starboard tack since entering the zone. Rule 18.4 got a new title that parallels 18.3, to make the rules easier to read, understand and remember.

Read more: Rules 18.3 and 18.4 – Tacking and Gybing in the Zone

Rule 19 – Room to Pass an Obstruction

Rule 19 now gives way to Rule 18 at a mark only when Rule 18 applies between the two boats. A new sentence in 19.2(a) makes clear that the right-of-way boat may choose which side to pass an obstruction, but if she changes course when choosing, she must give the other boat room to keep clear. This codifies how Rule 19 was already being interpreted (Submission 008-23).^[3]

Read more: Rules 19-20 – Room at Obstructions

Sail the Course and Finish (definitions and Rule 28)

The definition of sailing the course now includes starting and finishing, undoing what US Sailing calls “the unintended consequences” of the 2021 change.^[10] That lets many other rules drop their separate references to starting and finishing: a boat that does not start or finish has not sailed the course.^[9] Under the reworded Finish definition, a boat can finish without having started.

Read more: Conduct of a Race

Rule 44.3 – Scoring Penalty

The Scoring Penalty is now available only “if specified in the notice of race or sailing instructions.” Rule 44.3(c) now adds points rather than places, and the default 20% penalty is rounded to the nearest tenth of a point instead of a whole number.

Read more: Exoneration and Penalties

Part 5 – Protests, Hearings and Redress

Part 5 was rewritten. Over several rule cycles it had become more complicated as changes were made to fix different issues, and the new draft was meant, as far as possible, to keep the same actual consequences (Submission 022-23).^[4]

Read more: Protests, Hearings and Redress

Race Signals – Abandonment Signals

The N, N over H and N over A flags now abandon only races in progress, not races that have already finished. Submission 002-23 (US Sailing) notes that the old “all races” wording could be, and had been, interpreted as abandoning races that had already finished. The new wording makes clear that only races in progress are abandoned.^[5][10]

Read more: Race Signals 2025-2028: Summary and Quiz

Rules A5.2 and A10 – Scoring Notations

SCP now reads “Scoring Penalty imposed” instead of “applied.” NSC (did not sail the course) is now used only when none of DNC, DNS, OCS or DNF fits, and rule A5.2 no longer lists “did not start” or “did not finish”, because the new Sail the Course definition already covers starting and finishing.^[9]

Read more: Sailing Scoring Notations

Related reading: What is Fair Sailing?

If we missed a basic concept, feel free to comment below.