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Part 4 — When Boats Meet

Section B — General Limitations

55

SETTING AND SHEETING SAILS

55.1: Changing Sails

When headsails or spinnakers are being changed, a replacing sail may be fully set and trimmed before the replaced sail is lowered. However, only one mainsail and, except when changing, only one spinnaker shall be carried set at a time.

55.2: Spinnaker Poles; Whisker Poles

Only one spinnaker pole or whisker pole shall be used at a time except when gybing. When in use, it shall be attached to the foremost mast spar (as defined in The Equipment Rules of Sailing).

55.3: Sheeting Sails

No sail shall be sheeted over or through any device that exerts outward pressure on a sheet or clew of a sail at a point from which, with the boat upright, a vertical line would fall outside the hull or deck, except: (a) a headsail clew may be connected (as defined in The Equipment Rules of Sailing) to a whisker pole, provided that a spinnaker is not set; (b) any sail may be sheeted to or led above a boom that is regularly used for a sail and is permanently attached to the mast from which the head of the sail is set; (c) a headsail may be sheeted to its own boom that requires no adjustment when tacking; and (d) the boom of a sail may be sheeted to a bumkin.

55.4: Headsails and Spinnakers

For the purposes of rules 54 and 55 and Appendix G, the definitions of ‘headsail’ and ‘spinnaker’ in The Equipment Rules of Sailing shall be used.

Definitions in Context

Rule
  • (a) The rules in this book, including the Definitions, Race Signals, Introduction, preambles and the rules of relevant appendices, but not the Basic Principles or titles;
  • (b) World Sailing Regulations that have been designated by World Sailing as having the status of a rule and are published on the World Sailing website;
  • (c) the prescriptions of the national authority, unless they are changed by the notice of race or sailing instructions in compliance with the national authority’s prescription, if any, to rule 88.2;
  • (d) the class rules (for a boat racing under a handicap or rating system, the rules of that system are ‘class rules’);
  • (e) the notice of race;
  • (f) the sailing instructions; and
  • (g) any other documents that govern the event.

Rule 54

Forestays and headsail tacks, except those of spinnaker staysails when the boat is not close-hauled, shall be attached approximately on a boat’s centreline.

Rule 56

When so equipped, a boat shall sound fog signals and show lights as required by the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (IRPCAS) or appli...

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