Official's Duties
While these are the individual roles required for a large event, for training purposes they are often combined.
Race Officer - Unlike fleet racing, team racing is usually organised as close to shore as possible to make changeovers quicker and easier. This makes it a great spectator sport. It also involves shorter courses with fewer boats and often the race officer will be shore based.
Duties of a race officer include controlling the schedule of races, ensuring results are up to date, processing protests as the event progresses and overseeing tie breaks.
Starter – Controls committee boat, start sequence and boat recalls /ocs.
Course Manager – sets and maintains course due to wind shifts
Umpires - Umpires follow boats on the water and may award penalties to anyone that breaks the rules. If you do break a rule, you can take a voluntary 360 degree penalty turn as soon an possible after the incident. However failure to take a spin, may result in an appeal from your opponent using a protest flag. Umpires may then enforce two penalty turns. Umpires carry 3 flags. Green means sail on, Red enforces 720 degree penalty turns and a black flag means that the umpire has seen something which may result in further action ashore.
Changeover Boat Drivers – Only required if the boats cannot sail back to pontoons.
Team racing, race officers & officials should study appendix D – Team Racing Rules.