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Update on YRALS Safety Regs for 2020

YRALIS – Position on Safety Equipment

The YRA Safety Committee has reviewed the YRA Regs and those promulgated by US Sailing and has determined that for the 2020 season the YRALIS encourages the use of the US Sailing Safety Equipment Requirements (USSER).  The adoption of the USSER will provide Organizing Authorities (OA) with a much-enhanced ability to customize the safety equipment requirements for each particular racecourse and conditions.  The USSER allows OAs, at their discretion, to add or subtract items based on the unique characteristics of each race/event.  This flexibility will allow OAs to differentiate between two identical courses, for example one sailed in cold spring water with a higher possibility of windy conditions versus the same course sailed in August in warm water and with a higher likelihood of light winds.

The USSER is an easily customizable excel document that can be found on the US Sailing website at:  https://www.ussailing.org/competition/offshore/safety-information/ser-world-sailing-special-regulations/

DISCUSSION

The USSER is a robust document that is specifically designed to meet the needs of the US sailing community, including our WLIS waters, and as far as possible looks to maintain compatibility with the World Sailing OSRs.  The goal is to minimize the variability of requirements and associated modifications for boats that sail in other waters, whether it be just the other end of the Long Island Sound or international waters.

The USSERs are current and relevant, they are updated each year by the US Sailing SER committee, comprised of sailors from across the US.  The SER committee considers possible changes to the SERs and proposes appropriate changes for final approval by the Safety at Sea Committee, the Offshore Committee, and the US Sailing Board of Directors.  WLIS is well represented with three of our local sailors currently sitting on US Sailing’s Safety at Sea Committee.