Welcome to the Claytor Lake Sailing Association and the 2009 season! Currently we are an informal club formed after inauguration of the Claytor Cup in 1998. We are in the process of becoming a more structured club; in the meantime below are operational guidelines for the 2009 season.

CLSA racing priorities include safety, improving sailing skills and following the rules (see below), in more or less that order, depending on who you talk to.

We hold a skippers' meeting on shore one hour before the day's race(s). At this meeting, skippers register for the race, the race course is explained, and hopefully written instructions provided. This can also be a good time for volunteer crew members to find boats and skippers to find crew.

Serious racers are asked to be aware that some racers are beginners, or just plain less serious about the whole thing. If you are a beginner, and you are hailed on the course by another racer, it is wise to stay out of his/her way until you are comfortable with the rules.

The survival of our racing program depends on the mutual tolerance of sailors with different levels of seriousness and competency.

After the race, there is no formal protest meeting. We prefer to spend that time socializing. If you want to discuss a foul on the course, talk to the skipper or crew of the other boat involved. If questions remain, talk to a more experienced sailor for clarification or to the race committee. As a last resort, the commodore can disqualify a sailor who has committed a foul, but we rarely do that; we simply expect everyone to follow the rules to the best of their understanding, and continue to learn from situations that arise on the course.

See you on the water!

Grant Turnwald

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1. Safety is rule 1.
1. Use your judgment about weather (air/water temperature, wind strength, rain/thunderstorms, etc).
2. Avoid collisions
2. Port keeps clear of starboard
3. Windward keeps clear of leeward when on the same tack
4. The boat astern keeps clear of the boat ahead
5. If you gain right of way or change course, give the other boat time to keep clear
6. The inside boat(s) at three boat lengths from the mark is entitled to room to round the mark
7. If you have violated a rule, take a penalty as soon as you consider it safe to do so (a 360° turn for hitting a mark, a 720° turn for not yielding to a boat who has right of way).
8. A boat crossing the start line early needs to restart (port/starboard etc. rules apply).
9. Avoid the need for protests.
10. Except for a medical emergency, a boat must finish the race with the same number of crew as at the start.

For more on racing rules, see http://www.ussailing.org/rules/