ISAF OFFSHORE SPECIAL REGULATIONS, arrrrgggg

Javelin

Javelin

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www.southwoldboatyard.co.uk
I've started to work my way through the "Race Category 3 Monohulls" gear requirements and whilst I have a lot of the gear it just does not meet the standards.

6 x Lifejackets - 150n, with integral harness, not cheap though I think I can get some for around £80 ea
Life lines were a little harder as they state that 30% of the crew ?? must be using lines of a max of 1m.
Trouble is most lines for sale are 2m.
So your essentially forced to get the three hook lines, which I guess is not such a bad idea.

Bit of a shocker on the cost of a Cat 3, 6 man life raft. £1400 +
Looks like I'll be hiring for each event which is a bit of a pain.

do love this regulation,
3.18 Toilet
3.18.2 A toilet, permanently installed or fitted bucket

What is a fitted bucket ??

Radar reflector.
Even if you have a very good and effective "Sea-me" for Rorc you must also use a 10m metal jobby.
I hate these things with a passion.
The Echomax230, which comply to the regs and to my mind are the least offensive, are still huge and ungainly and must be placed at least 13' above water level.
Spend all that money on sails and go faster gear and then stick a plastic dustbin up the mast.

My white storm sails are now useless as they need to be dayglo pink, orange or yellow.
I wonder if I could get away with spraying them with Car paint ?

Interesting process to go through whether you intend to race or not though.
 
Javelin said:
do love this regulation,
3.18 Toilet
3.18.2 A toilet, permanently installed or fitted bucket

What is a fitted bucket ??
Click to expand...

Fitted to the boat, not fitted to yer bum :D

The Pardeys used a bucket for all their famous voyages, mounted in a sort of cabinet with a lift up lid. The point is you can't just point to any old bucket in a cockpit locker and say "there's me mandatory toilet" - imagine trying to take a **** in the thing as it skidded around the cabin sole!

Javelin said:
My white storm sails are now useless as they need to be dayglo pink, orange or yellow.
I wonder if I could get away with spraying them with Car paint ?
Click to expand...

Don't see why not. Rules say they must be pink or orange - sprayed with paint they are certainly pink or orange. It doesn't have to look neat, just as long as it doesn't all flake straight off (which I doubt) there will be a big visible blob which is the aim.

Pete
 
Some boats in global ocean race painted the head of the main. Looked ok.

Seeme will not work well when batteries are knackered. 10 m aluminum and seeme do not work well.when you drop the mast.

It is an interesting exercise to go through. And debate the need for each item.
 
There's one heck of a lot of sea-experience, from a lot of hugely competent skippers, goes into the committee debates about each and every one of those requirements. Sure, many won't quite suit your ( my? ) particular boat/sailing, but there's a great deal to be gleaned from thinking about their thinking.

As for 'fitted bucket', one well-known French maxi-multihull racing skipper had a varnished wooden bog-seat secured into a suitable 'ole in his trampoline netting. As I recall, he insisted it 'faced aft' for reasons that would soon have become apparent....
 
Last edited:
oldbilbo said:
As for 'fitted bucket', one well-known French maxi-multihull racing skipper had a varnished wooden bog-seat secured into a suitable 'ole in his trampoline netting. As I recall, he insisted it 'faced aft' for reasons that would soon have become apparent....
Click to expand...

Surely without a cistern in the way, one could sit on it either way round? :)

Pete
 
Your lifejackets will also all need crutch straps, compliant water activated light, to be marked with the wearer name or the boat name and sprayhoods are now in the recommended category. Harness I don't think 'has' to be built in but much easier if it is.

All tethers (they seem to call lifelines the bits that are fitted to the boat) must also have overload indicators built in.

You can buy the 1m tethers (with overload indicator) here at £25.75 each. http://www.crew-safe.co.uk/acatalog/baltic-safety-line-2-hook.html

Existing storm sails can be marked with a day glo patch either stuck or sewn on perhaps. You might worry about dyes leaking onto the deck in the rain and paints just peeling off.

Will you also need to comply with RORC prescriptions in your racing? These could add to the list things like a searchlight that must be powered by the ship's batteries.
 
Javelin said:
I've started to work my way through the "Race Category 3 Monohulls" gear requirements and whilst I have a lot of the gear it just does not meet the standards.

6 x Lifejackets - 150n, with integral harness, not cheap though I think I can get some for around £80 ea
Life lines were a little harder as they state that 30% of the crew ?? must be using lines of a max of 1m.
Trouble is most lines for sale are 2m.
So your essentially forced to get the three hook lines, which I guess is not such a bad idea.

Bit of a shocker on the cost of a Cat 3, 6 man life raft. £1400 +
Looks like I'll be hiring for each event which is a bit of a pain.

do love this regulation,
3.18 Toilet
3.18.2 A toilet, permanently installed or fitted bucket

What is a fitted bucket ??

Radar reflector.
Even if you have a very good and effective "Sea-me" for Rorc you must also use a 10m metal jobby.
I hate these things with a passion.
The Echomax230, which comply to the regs and to my mind are the least offensive, are still huge and ungainly and must be placed at least 13' above water level.
Spend all that money on sails and go faster gear and then stick a plastic dustbin up the mast.

My white storm sails are now useless as they need to be dayglo pink, orange or yellow.
I wonder if I could get away with spraying them with Car paint ?

Interesting process to go through whether you intend to race or not though.
Click to expand...

I was looking through this list earlier, it does make of putting reading. I have a strong racing background and would like to interest SWMBO in it to... Also my daughter and SWMBO Nephew, the problem is cost and commitment.

Last year we entered a local series (local handicap system but means a very small fleet (3 of us) spread over the year we managed one race! She enjoyed her race but after one race (understandably) was not addicted enough to start arranging shifts family friends etc and suchlike around a race calendar. Particularly when we never know when I will be able to race..

This year I managed to get insurance extended for club & Single Handed racing,and SWMBO is game.

Yet to enter the other races we need to get the boat rated for IRC $130. The first race that comes up is $130 for entrance fee, then there is the additional cost of equipment.

L/Jackets, tethers, tweaking the hatch boards, First Aid Manual and First Aid Kit, Safety Equipment Location Chart (little cost just agro), flares, storm sails other odds and sods... Probably approaching 2k.

We have most of the gear of various ages, just not quite right...

Its very hard to justify trying to get the family racing having fun, when the costs are such. Its frustrating when you know you will be a fair weather racer, if you have a crew age range starting at 6 you know your never going to win. I grew up taking part as we got older the family started working are way up the fleet, it was allot of fun.

Sadly I think it will be a little whilst, before we can take part :(

($= Pound dam keyboard)
 
Most, if not all of the Special Regulations have been gleaned from the hard won experience of others. If you sail offshore it is very hard to argue against their thoroughly seamanlike requirements.

I keep my cruising boat to a Cat 2 standard. Indeed, in a shytefight I'd rather be in a racing boat with the knowledge that all the safety and emergency gear is onboard and in working order, than the average skimpily equipped cruising boat. Irrespective of it's construction, weight, keel profile, etc, etc.
 
Javelin said:
Radar reflector.
Even if you have a very good and effective "Sea-me" for Rorc you must also use a 10m metal jobby.
I hate these things with a passion.
Click to expand...

You have to have one on board, you don't necessarily have to fit it permanently in the rigging. I have a dual-band RTE but to comply with the racing regs I carry one of the fold up octahedral jobbies. If we did lose power I would be pleased to have it on board.
 
michael_w said:
Most, if not all of the Special Regulations have been gleaned from the hard won experience of others. If you sail offshore it is very hard to argue against their thoroughly seamanlike requirements.



That may be true for most boats but if you own a multihull the Special Regs are just a lightly modified version of the monohull regs and unfit for purpose, they include such gems, as in 3.01...Yachts shall be strongly built, watertight and, particularly with regard to hulls, decks and cabin trunks capable of withstanding solid water and knockdowns. I am aware of one multihull in the last 50 years that would meet this requirement. This doesn't stop the national association insisting that they must be met, despite the racing fleet being very selective in following them. The Emperor's New Clothes springs to mind.

Peter.
Click to expand...
 
Special Reg 3.01 means the structure of the boat will withstand solid water and knockdowns, ie: the structure must not fail. it does not imply self righting.

I'm sure there are a fair number of multi hull sailors who have blessed the provision of an escape hatch in the event of capsize.
 
michael_w said:
Most, if not all of the Special Regulations have been gleaned from the hard won experience of others. If you sail offshore it is very hard to argue against their thoroughly seamanlike requirements.

Indeed, in a shytefight I'd rather be in a racing boat with the knowledge that all the safety and emergency gear is onboard and in working order, than the average skimpily equipped cruising boat. Irrespective of it's construction, weight, keel profile, etc, etc.
Click to expand...

+1

We do the same. We keep Temptress to a Cat 2 standard. Though given our plans this year we have just spent some time upgrading our boat to meet CAT 1. If you do a lot of offshore sailing the regs are good practice for safety gear. Most of the items in the regs were introduced as the result of people losing their lives - so makes sense to follow them.

You have the choice to follow or not.
 
prv said:
Surely without a cistern in the way, one could sit on it either way round? :)
Click to expand...

I guess from that, Pete, that you have never sailed on a big racing multihull doing in excess of 20 knots. Let me put it this way.... sitting on the netting, you wouldn't need toilet paper.
 
oldbilbo said:
I guess from that, Pete, that you have never sailed on a big racing multihull doing in excess of 20 knots. Let me put it this way.... sitting on the netting, you wouldn't need toilet paper.
Click to expand...

Is this why the English, with their aversion to bidets, are NOT very active in big racing multi hulls, whereas the French are??
 
michael_w said:
Special Reg 3.01 means the structure of the boat will withstand solid water and knockdowns, ie: the structure must not fail. it does not imply self righting.

I'm sure there are a fair number of multi hull sailors who have blessed the provision of an escape hatch in the event of capsize.
Click to expand...



Can you explain why a boat needs to be prepared for a situation that it cannot attain? Who is to say whether the boat failed due to the knockdown, the capsize or the righting attempts. I have escape hatches and they are vital in my opinion, and your point is? Escape hatches are just that, if used they reduce the buoyancy of the upturned multi reducing its freeboard and decreasing its stability. The contents of the boat are at best difficult to access and likely to be sucked out, safety gear should be accessible to crew on the upturned bridgedeck or better still on their person. Not well addressed in the Special Regs.

Peter.
 
I'm receptive to Adonnante's points. The requirement for 'escape hatches' is a vexed one, for AFAIK no hatch manufacturer markets a hatch 'designed for escape' when inverted, which they are willing to describe as such. This became evident during the negotiations for the original RCD, when that point was made by me, on behalf of MOCRA, to the head of the UK's negotiating team. It was also shown, from reliable statistics, that no-one had been entrapped in an large ( say > 12m ) inverted multihull, but plenty had been under <10m boats, and some had died - so the demonstrated need was for the smaller craft to have this 'viable means of escape from entrapment' together with the larger ones. Although the logic was accepted, it was vetoed by the French and Italian reps on instructions from their commercial builders. Reportedly, the large French catamarans - designed for the charter market - already had such features, so no expensive changes to moulds would be required by such an inclusion. Smaller craft - despite a string of deaths and serious incidents of inverted entrapment - would require expensive changes to moulds.

As for the habit of the multihull racing bunch living to 'Don't do what I do, do what I say you do', that is a tradition many years in the making. I've watched one prominent multihull racer - who was the appointed scrutineer for the multis - contentedly swop a liferaft around with his mates, together with other mandated stuff, immediately prior to a Fastnet Race. Others, not among the in-crowd, were required to buy/rent and carry ALL the kit. I watched as the same fellow, rated for a propellor re the mandatory engine, drop his prop off before the race and make no mention of this in his Declaration. Although I'd sailed with the guy quite often, over several years, that was repeated and wilful cheating in my book and I raised it with him. He was outraged that I should impugn his integrity.

Speaking of the same fellow, he had his deck hatches open when his big catamaran found itself 'base over apex' near the Azores one sunny summer's day. The crew were in shorts and T-shirts, apparently, and most of the clothing, personal gear and useful stuff went slithering away into the deep ocean through these inconvenient holes within a few minutes of them finding that the autopilot wasn't up to the job of keeping a good watch, alone, under spinnaker.

That's not the first multihull he'd inverted. He kept quiet about the others, too.
 
Adonnante, I must be a thicko as I don't understand your beef with the Special Regs. As far as I see, 3.01 is to stop people racing in boats made of cardboard with a canvas superstructure, and other inadequate materials. Or, taking part in an open boat.
 
michael_w said:
Adonnante, I must be a thicko as I don't understand your beef with the Special Regs. As far as I see, 3.01 is to stop people racing in boats made of cardboard with a canvas superstructure, and other inadequate materials. Or, taking part in an open boat.[/QU

I am also having difficulty with understanding why my boat needs to survive a knockdown when it would result in a capsize and major damage probably costing more than the value of the boat whilst adding nothing to the safety of the vessel. I'm not aware of anyone making a mulihull out of cardboard or canvas, open boats aren't allowed to race under the special regs. If strength is the issue whats wrong with a straightforward structural assessment by a multihull surveyor. I would complain of this imposition due to cost given that multihull accidents in the UK have produced no evidence of weaknesses in the structure of the craft. The main weaknesses appears to be down to the skippers and crews!

Peter.
Click to expand...
 
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