Foreword
Match Racing has continued to develop as an important part of our sport. It is
conducted extensively from club level through to the highest levels of competition,
including the America’s Cup.
The Call Book has been developed and refined since 1992. The calls have been
developed with the input from sailors and umpires alike with the aim of enabling as
much consistency as possible and resolving any doubt amongst sailors and umpires
about the correct call to be made in situations referred to in the Call Book.
In drafting the calls, care has been exercised to minimise the difference between
fleet, team and match racing in terms of the rules in Part 2 of the racing rules;
however, it is recognized that match racing is a separate discipline and that there are
some differences from the other forms of racing.
The publishing of the Call Book is governed by World Sailing Regulation 28. This
means that it is authoritative for umpired match racing only. It also means that
changes can only be made through the same submission procedures as changes to
the rules themselves.
However, World Sailing Regulation 28 also provides for a system with rapid
response calls. Calls proposed under this system should be presented in a format
similar to existing calls, and sent to the World Sailing office. Any diagrams should
preferably be in ‘Boats’, TSS or ‘Sail Replay’ (all special boat drawing programs.)
A call approved as a rapid response call will be immediately communicated to all
IU's and MNA's. It will also be posted on the World Sailing website
https://www.sailing.org/raceofficials/rapidresponsecalls/index.php.
I would particularly like to thank the Match Racing Rules Working Party for the
substantial work that they have undertaken in producing this edition of the Call
Book.
The Racing Rules Committee trusts that competitors and umpires will continue to
provide input to the Racing Rules Committee for further development of the Call
Book.
John Doerr
Chairman
World Sailing Racing Rules Committee
December 2020