We All Know the Rules… Until It Gets Complicated

Let me start with a question.

You are rounding a mark at 2300 in a 25-knot westerly. Fifteen IRC boats are compressing into the same patch of dark water. You are on starboard. A boat that has been coming up from astern is trying to squeeze inside you. Someone shouts for room.

What now?

Do you owe them mark-room?

Are they overtaking?

Can they claim an inside overlap?

Can you luff them?

Are you under the Racing Rules of Sailing, COLREGs, or Appendix RV?

Most crews go quiet at this point.

And that is the problem.

Not because they are stupid. They are not. Many are good sailors. Many are brave, experienced and competent. But offshore racing has a way of exposing the difference between confidence and knowledge.

And at night, that difference can become expensive, dangerous, or both.

The Comfortable Lie We Tell Ourselves

The offshore racing community has told itself a comfortable story for years:

“We know roughly how the rules work. It’s mostly common sense.”

Common sense is not enough.

Common sense produces crews shouting “starboard” at boats that are already committed to a seamanlike avoiding manoeuvre. Common sense produces late dives at marks. Common sense produces aggressive luffs in darkness. Common sense produces people who know their sail crossover chart better than they know the rule that governs whether they are allowed to put the bow there in the first place.

Dinghy sailors often get this better. They grow up inside the rulebook. They learn quickly because the consequences are immediate. If you break Rule 11 in a fleet of RS200s or GP14s, you will probably know about it before the next mark. The culture teaches you.

Walk down the pontoon to the IRC fleet and ask a few questions.

What is the difference between mark-room and room?

When is the zone established?

What changes under Appendix RV?

Can a leeward boat luff above proper course at night?

If you are approaching from clear astern, when do you stop being the overtaking boat?

What must the stand-on vessel do under COLREGs when the give-way vessel is not acting?

You will hear hesitation.

You will hear half-answers.

And worst of all, you will hear confident wrong answers.

Two Rule Systems, One Sea

Let us be precise.

The Racing Rules of Sailing 2025–2028 govern racing between boats that are racing, intending to race, or have been racing. The rules are published by World Sailing and the current edition applies from 2025 to 2028.

The COLREGs, the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, are international collision-prevention rules adopted through the IMO framework. They are not optional. IMO summarises Rule 2 as covering the responsibility of the master, owner and crew to comply with the rules, and Rule 8 as covering action to avoid collision.

The Racing Rules govern the sport.

COLREGs govern collision avoidance at sea.

That distinction matters.

Race rules can decide protests, penalties and scoring. They do not abolish the legal duty to avoid collision.

The Old Simplification Is No Longer Enough

For years, many offshore sailors used a simple phrase:

“After dark, COLREGs replace Part 2.”

Sometimes that is still true — if the Notice of Race or Sailing Instructions say so.But increasingly, modern offshore races may invoke RRS Appendix RV — Reduced Visibility Racing Rules.

World Sailing’s Appendix RV says that when stated in the Notice of Race, the race is sailed under the RRS as changed by that appendix. It also explains that Appendix RV is designed as a replacement for the old practice of using IRPCAS/COLREGs in overnight or long-distance races.

RORC race documents now show Appendix RV being used in offshore events. For example, the 2026 Caribbean 600 Notice of Race states that Appendix RV applies between 1800 and 0500 daily and in reduced visibility.

So the correct statement is not:

“RORC has stopped using COLREGs at night.”

The correct statement is:

Some offshore races now use Appendix RV, which keeps the race under the Racing Rules but modifies them for reduced visibility. COLREGs still remain the legal collision-avoidance backstop.

That is the sentence every offshore skipper should understand.

What Appendix RV Actually Changes

Appendix RV is not a minor footnote. It changes the scale of the game.

Under Appendix RV:

• Keep clear requires the right-of-way boat to be able to sail her course with no need to take avoiding action, and with no less than 40 metres between boats.

• Room also includes space to manoeuvre promptly in a seamanlike way with no less than 40 metres between boats.

• The zone at a mark becomes 200 metres, not the normal three boatlengths.

• A leeward boat within 80 metres of a windward boat shall not sail above her proper course.

• A boat approaching another boat from clear astern is an overtaking boat until she is clear ahead; if there is reasonable doubt, she is presumed to be overtaking.

In plain English:

Appendix RV keeps the racing framework, but removes much of the close-quarter gamesmanship that belongs to daylight inshore racing.

This is not soft racing.

It is serious offshore racing.

Can I Luff a Boat Head to Wind at Night?

In practical terms: no, not as a tactical weapon.

In daylight under the normal RRS, a leeward boat may have right of way over a windward boat. But even then, when she changes course, she must give the other boat room to keep clear.

At night under Appendix RV, the restriction becomes much sharper.

A leeward boat within 80 metres of a windward boat shall not sail above her proper course.

So the classic aggressive luff — the sort of move some people half-remember from dinghy racing or Solent starts — is not something you should be using offshore in darkness under Appendix RV.

You may sail your proper course.

You may avoid collision.

You may protect your lane.

But you do not hunt a boat up into a dark, high-load, close-quarter confrontation and then pretend it is clever racing.

At night the question is not:

“Can I make him go up?”

The question is:

“Am I sailing my proper course, maintaining separation, giving room, and avoiding collision?”

That is a different discipline.

Can I Demand Room at a Mark?

Yes — but not in the last-second, bow-in-the-gap way that causes so many arguments.

Under normal Rule 18, mark-room depends on whether boats are required to leave a mark on the same side, whether they are overlapped, and the position when the first boat reaches the zone. The current RRS govern those mark-room obligations.

But Appendix RV changes the scale.

The zone is 200 metres.

Room includes 40 metres separation.

That means the decision is made much earlier and the room must be much larger.

So yes, if you are entitled to mark-room, the other boat must give it. But no, you cannot arrive late, create a marginal overlap, and expect another yacht to magic up safe room in the dark.

The offshore version is simple:

If the gap was not already safely there, it was not your gap.

What If I Am the Overtaking Boat?

This is one of the biggest traps.

Under Appendix RV, a boat approaching from clear astern is an overtaking boat until she is clear ahead. If there is reasonable doubt whether she is overtaking, she is presumed to be overtaking.

That should change how you approach every night mark rounding.

If you are coming from behind, your first assumption should be:

I am overtaking. I keep clear.

Not:

“I am faster.” “I have an overlap.” “I am inside.” “I am racing.”

Under COLREGs, the overtaking principle is also clear: the overtaking vessel keeps out of the way. IMO’s collision-prevention guidance identifies Rule 13 as the overtaking rule, and COLREG texts make clear that overtaking obligations remain with the overtaking vessel.

So if you are overtaking into a mark rounding at night, you need to be early, clear and seamanlike.

Do not build your tactical plan around a marginal late overlap.

That is not bravery.

That is poor seamanship dressed as racing aggression.

What About Obstructions?

An obstruction might be land, a shallow patch, a TSS boundary, a ship, a moored vessel, or another danger that limits where a boat can safely sail.

The normal RRS contain rules for room to pass an obstruction. But Appendix RV again changes the practical scale because “room” is no longer a few feet of tactical space. It is enough space to manoeuvre promptly in a seamanlike way with at least 40 metres between boats.

So no, you cannot squeeze another boat between yourself and danger.

But equally, you cannot come roaring in from astern, create an impossible overlap beside an obstruction, and then shout “room” as if the other boat must solve your bad decision.

At night, room must be created early.

If it has to be improvised, you are probably already too late.

Right of Way Is Not a Licence to Hit Someone

This is perhaps the most important cultural point.

Racing sailors love “right of way”.

COLREGs use a different language: stand-on and give-way.

That distinction matters.

Under COLREG Rule 17, the stand-on vessel initially keeps course and speed, but she may take action to avoid collision when it becomes apparent that the give-way vessel is not taking appropriate action. IMO summarises Rule 17 in exactly that way.

So even if you are the stand-on vessel, you are not a spectator.

You do not get to watch a collision develop because you were “right”.

You act.

You avoid.

You preserve the boat, the crew and the race.

The sea does not care who would have won the protest.

The Correct Night-Racing Hierarchy

This is the hierarchy every skipper should brief before leaving the dock:

1. Avoid collision

2. Comply with COLREGs

3. Follow the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions

4. Apply the RRS as modified — including Appendix RV if invoked

5. Then think about tactics

Not the other way round.

A tactical gain is never worth creating a collision risk.

A protest win is never worth losing a rig.

The Start Line Problem

The start line remains the place where rules ignorance is most concentrated.

Thirty boats. Five minutes to go. A biased pin. A building south-westerly. Too many helms trying to look calm. Too many crews shouting things they half-understand.

“I had room.”

“We were overlapped.”

“I was on starboard.”

“He had to keep clear.”

Maybe.

Maybe not.

The RRS exist to allow racing situations that COLREGs alone would never comfortably permit: close quarters, converging boats, tactical positioning, mark roundings, overlaps and controlled risk.

But that only works if the competitors know the rules.

The Racing Rules are not there to decorate the entry form. They are the operating system of the sport.

If you do not know them, you are not racing hard. You are guessing.

The Nighttime Problem

Offshore at night, guessing becomes worse.

Darkness removes depth perception. Navigation lights are easy to misread. AIS can create false confidence. Tired crews react slowly. Boats are moving fast, loaded up, and often difficult to manoeuvre cleanly.

Appendix RV exists because normal close-quarter racing assumptions are not good enough in reduced visibility.

Forty metres matters.

Two hundred metres at a mark matters.

The overtaking presumption matters.

The 80-metre proper-course limit matters.

These are not academic details. They are the difference between a controlled offshore rounding and a dark, expensive argument between insurers.

The Self-Policing Fiction

Sailing is a self-policing sport.

That is one of its great strengths.

But self-policing requires self-knowledge.

You cannot take a penalty if you do not know you broke a rule.

You cannot protest properly if you cannot identify the rule.

You cannot defend yourself in a hearing if your understanding comes from a rulebook that changed twenty years ago.

And you cannot lead an offshore crew safely if you do not understand the rules that apply when your boat meets another boat at night.

The mast-abeam rule is gone.

The old pub version of luffing rights is not enough.

“Starboard” is not a magic spell.

“Room” does not mean “I want to go there.”

And “I was racing” is not a defence to poor seamanship.

Who Is Actually Responsible?

World Sailing publishes the rules.

The RYA teaches and explains them.

Race organisers write the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions.

Race officers administer the event.

But the primary responsibility sits with the skipper.

The skipper signs the entry.

The skipper accepts the rules.

The skipper puts the crew on the boat.

The skipper decides whether the crew has been briefed.

If you are taking people offshore at night, you should brief them on the rule environment before the start.

Not vaguely.

Clearly.

Are we under normal RRS?

At what time does Appendix RV apply?

Does the SI replace Part 2 with COLREGs?

What is the required separation?

What is the zone?

What is our policy on overtaking at marks?

What is our minimum CPA with shipping?

Who makes the call when risk of collision develops?

That briefing might take five minutes.

Not giving it is lazy.

The Driving Analogy You Will Hate

You would not get in a car without knowing the Highway Code.

You would not fly with a pilot who only “roughly” understood collision avoidance.

But we routinely put crews on five-tonne racing yachts, at night, in channels, in tide, among commercial traffic, and assume that enthusiasm plus experience equals competence.

It does not.

Experience helps.

But experience without corrected knowledge can simply make bad habits more confident.

What Needs to Happen

The fix is not complicated.

1. Every IRC skipper should read the current RRS.

2. Every offshore skipper should understand COLREGs properly.

3. Every crew should receive a short rules briefing before night racing.

4. Clubs should normalise rules evenings.

5. Protest hearings should be treated as education, not social embarrassment.

6. Race organisers should make Appendix RV / COLREG application impossible to miss in pre-race briefings.

7. Crews should practise the language: keep clear, room, mark-room, obstruction, overtaking, stand-on, give-way.

This is not bureaucracy.

This is seamanship.

A Direct Question to Every Skipper

When did you last read the current Racing Rules of Sailing?

Not the version you learned years ago.

The current 2025–2028 rules.

When did you last read the relevant COLREGs?

When did you last brief your crew on what changes at night?

When did you last explain Appendix RV?

When did you last tell your helm that at night, under Appendix RV, you do not luff a boat above proper course within 80 metres?

When did you last say, clearly, that an overtaking boat stays responsible until clear ahead?

If the answer is “not recently”, you are not alone.

But that does not make it acceptable.

The Confidence Argument

Here is the part people miss.

Knowing the rules does not make racing dull.

It makes racing better.

A crew that knows the rules can sail harder because it knows where the edges are. A helm who understands mark-room can commit earlier. A navigator who understands Appendix RV can call the approach properly. A skipper who understands COLREGs can make calm decisions before the situation becomes theatrical.

The best sailors are not reckless.

They are precise.

They know when to press.

They know when to give room.

They know when to keep clear.

And at night, they know when to stop racing the boat next to them and start managing risk.

The FirstBeat Rule for Night Racing

Here is the rule I would put on every offshore cockpit card:

If the manoeuvre depends on the other boat reacting perfectly, it is wrong at night.

That one sentence would prevent a lot of damage.

Appendix RV does not stop racing.

It stops stupid racing.

COLREGs do not stop racing.

They stop collisions.

The best offshore crews understand both.

And if you want to win offshore — really win, not just survive the protest room — you need that understanding before the start, not afterwards.

Because at 2300, in breeze, with tired people, a mark ahead, a boat on your quarter and another one shouting in the dark, it is too late to start wondering what the rules actually say.

Read them.

Brief them.

Sail by them.

Then go racing properly.