In sailing we have a number of rules which are designed to make races (and general sailing) safer and easier to manage. Our sport is what we call “self-governed” which means that if we break one of those rules, we are supposed to carry out the penalty on our own, without it being enforced by a jury.
The most common penalty we have to take is a penalty turn. The number you’re expected to take varies depending on which rule you infringed upon.
If you hit one of the course marks, you have to do a 360° turn (one tack, one gybe). If it’s another competitor you hit, it’s a 720° (two tacks, two gybes).
In some cases though, it is not always as easy to tell when to take a penalty turn. For example, if a competitor is jabbing their rudder from side to side in order to move turn their boat faster, this technically breaks Rule 42 which bans all illegal propulsion.
If a sailor does not take their penalty turn, a jury boat will usually come and tell them to. We call this yellow flagging because the jury comes over, waves their wee flag at whistles at you to do a 720.
I’ve only ever been yellow flagged once, and to be honest I’m still annoyed about it.
What had happened was another competitor had come to close to me at a mark and knocked into me. I called protest on them but it was too late and they pushed my boat into someone else and then also into one of the course markers.
As a result, I had to do not just a 360 but also a 720 on top of it. It was a super light-wind day and so three turns was going to cause me to slip right down in the rankings.
I got pretty annoyed and slammed the rudder round to get through my turns as quickly as possible because like I say, it’s a self-governing sport and no matter how mad you get, you still have to take the penalty where it’s due.
Unbeknownst to me however, the Jury was sitting right behind me in a rib as I jabbed the steering over and over.
As soon as I finished my three turns I started to head on my way, but was only sailing for about 3 seconds before I heard the whistle and turned around to see that yellow flag flapping around in my direction.
Consequently I ended up doing a total of 5 turns which landed me nicely at the very back of the fleet.
If you don’t take the time to do a penalty on the water though, you end up having to explain the situation in a protest hearing which (trust me) is far worse than just doing it during the race.
Team GBRn't 