World Team Racing Championship
February –March 2008
Organizing Authority: ITBYC www.itbyc.org
Host: VSK Italia www.vskitalia.com
Co-producers : www.vsksailing.it , www.lupidimare.org , www.ripex.net

SAILING INSTRUCTIONS

version 1.1 - 25.02.2008 - red colored the changes from previous version 1.0

1 RULES
1.1 The regatta will be governed by:
1.1.1 the ‘rules’ as defined in the RRS, including Appendix D.
1.1.2 the VSK5 regatta simulator software (format and umpire decisions), combined with the VSK5 Adopted RRS (SI Appendix A).
1.2 No national authority prescriptions will apply.
1.3 If there is a conflict between languages, the English text will take precedence.

2 IDENTIFICATION
2.1 While racing in WTRC2008, all skippers shall use the boat names as listed in the official entry list.
2.2 All skippers shall use the team skins identified in the official entry list. Teams without a personalised skin or where there may be confusion during racing due to team skin colour, may use the VSKItalia WTRC08 Red/Blue skins.

3 NOTICES TO COMPETITORS
3.1 Notices to competitors will be posted on the front page of WTRC2008, in the WTRC2008 forum, or by e-mail. It is the responsibility of the participants to track these sources for information, in addition to the SI.

4 CHANGES TO SAILING INSTRUCTIONS
4.1 The sailing instructions of the WTRC2008 may be changed anytime without prior notice. A change log can be found at the VSKItalia and WTRC 2008 website for all changes made following the commencement of RR flight #1.

5 FORMAT OF RACING
5.1 The regatta will consist of an initial round robin, followed by knockout rounds to culminate in a finals round for positions 1 to 4 (final 5A for 1st and 2nd, consolation final 5B for 3rd and 4th).

6   SCHEDULE OF RACES
6.1   Dates of Racing:

6.2 Number of races (Round Robin): each flight for the Round Robin shall consist of 3 races.
6.3 Number of races (Knockout Rounds - 2, 3 & 4): The Knockout rounds and quarter finals shall consist of a “best of three” series.
6.4 Number of races (Finals - Round 5): The Semi Finals and Finals shall consist of a “best of five” series.
6.5 Individual race scheduling shall be agreed between each team and posted in the WTRC 2007 forum boards for the round.
6.6 In the event of one team being short handed at an agreed race appointment, representatives of each team shall resolve the appointment in the following order of precedence:
6.6.1 teams agree to sailing at the appointed time using one or more reserve members in accordance with NOR 3;
6.6.2 teams agree to re-schedule their appointment to a new agreed time;
6.6.3 teams agree to sail "2 vs 2", except in Round Robin (not acceptable due to points system for ranking);
6.6.4 teams agree to start the appointment "short handed", with the short handed team scoring their missing skipper as an automatic 6th place (as per VSK5 scoring);
6.6.5 a walkover to be scored against the short handed team if a resolution is not met in any of the previous points. Please note the Race Committee will require notification from BOTH TEAMS on this instance to confirm that the walkover has been agreed by both teams.
6.6.6 In case of an unsailed flight by both teams :
a) No agreements are shown in the appropriate forum. Result will be scored 0-0
b) The last appointment ( documented in the appropriate forum ) was failed by a team. This team will be scored according with rule A4.3. If there were previous partial results , those will be considered in the final score.
c)Only in Round Robin Pool ( cause Easter presence and to give a little help to friends of different continents ) it will not bestrictly required to respect the dates for each round; we suggest to respect this timetable , but teams will be allowed to advance or postpone meetings. The deadline for RRP is confirmed as in 6.1].

7   THE COURSES
7.1 In WTRC 2008 home page , a link to the whole wtrc08 courses pack is available in download ( VSKITALIA download area).
7.2 Organisation Committee will show in the calendar , the name of the location where teams must sail its flight. ( La Trinitè , Napoli , Porto Cervo , QingDao , Trapani I , Trapani II , Trapani III ) ; the team “A” will choose the wind for the races 1-3-5 , the team “B” will choose the wind for the races 2-4 for each round. Teams may not choose a wind that is used before in the flight, except in series of 5 races, where the 5th race will have a wind already used.

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SECTION B (RACE RULES, PROTEST MODE AND REFERENCES TO THE COMMITTEE)

8] RACE RULES
All ISAF rules are applied, except rule 14 (avoiding contacts) due to the penalty infliction modality performed by the virtual judge, appendix D (team fleet race) included.

9] UMPIRE OF RACE
Races are to be performed in compliance with the automatic penalty infliction modality by the virtual judge VSK5. Penalties can be managed according to the following criteria (chapter 10)

10] PROTEST MODALITY DURING RACE

10.1] The infliction of a penalty by the virtual judge VSK5 means that there may be one or more than one boat who have broken the rules. However, the “non-infliction” of a penalty does not necessarily means that all rules have been respected.
10.2] The following interpretations of rules 15 and 16.1 are applied
- If VSK5 gives a penalty, the right-of-way boat broke rule 15 if she acquired right of way due to her own actions only, and the give-way boat immediately after did her best to keep clear.
-If VSK5 gives a penalty, the right-of-way boat broke rule 16.1 if she changed course, and the give-way boat immediately did her best to keep clear.

10.3] If a skipper considers that the virtual judge VSK5 didn't correctly interpreted a situation according to ISAF rules he has the possibility to protest during the race. All racers must understand and respect in the best way as possible all ISAF rules in order to avoid the intervention of the virtual judge. Any actions showing the non-fulfilment of this request, can be considered by the Committee as infringement of the general knowledge of the ISAF rules.

10.4] Any boat contact leads to a penalty (CONTACT=PENALTY).
The following situations as described under groups (A-B-C-D-E-F-G):

10.5] Penalties assigned by VSK which a participant considers incorrect, do not have to be taken. Such penalties should be requested to be cancelled. Absolutely all penalties that are requested to be cancelled, should be cancelled (approved). Even for pens the receiver of the request believes are correct. If a participant refuses to cancel a penalty after a request, he will be charged with 6 penalty points if protested at the end of the race for this reason. Any protest hail not based on a rule violation may cause a charge of 1 point to the final score in the race (see Art. 12.4).

A) AMONG OPPONENT BOATS: the virtual umpire assigns penalty(ies)

10.6] A request for a penalty cancellation is considered as a valid hail for protest against the skipper of the boat that "gave the penalty" only typing “P” or “protest” in the race chat together with the cancel request.

Please note that if there has been contact between two boats, then at least one of the boats involved in the situation has broken a rule. If there has been contact, and the protest committee is in doubt of which boat was responsible, the boat that initially got the penalty by the VSK umpire will be considered as the one breaking the rules.

A competitor receiving a request for penalty cancellation + “P” may:
a) agree with the hail and do “one turn penalty” after having approved the cancellation + protest request;
b) do not agree, and answer “P” after cancelling the request and simply go on with the race, with the possibility of submitting a protest a the end of the race.
c) agree with the “cancellation request” but not with protest hail (i.e. no contact), cancelling the penalty assigned and typing in the race chat “C”.

10.7]A competitor asking for a penalty cancellation + “P” (ref. Art. 10.6) may protest at the end of the race if the opponent didn’t solve a “penalty turn” after the penalty cancellation was approved.

10.8] If the VSK5 virtual umpire assigns a penalty and no boat is breaking rules in that moment, the boat that “received a penalty” is entitled for asking a cancellation.
The skipper who was requested to cancel a pen for “no pen” as described at Art 10.8 may disagree with that request, then he have to accept the “cancel request” and type “P” or “protest”, and is entitled to submit a protest to the committee at the end of the race. Please see also Art. 14.5 of this rules set.

B) AMONG OPPONENT BOATS: the virtual umpire doesn’t assigns a penalty(ies)

10.9] It’s possible to hail a protest by typing “P + boat name” or “protest + boat name” in the race chat  against the skipper of the boat that broke a rule;

The protested skipper can:
-agree with the hail and answer “ok” in the race chat and do “one turn penalty” or
-disagree by answering “no” and proceed racing; In this case the protesting skipper is entitled to submit protest to the committee.

This procedure it’s eligible for any other case where a skipper wants to hail even in the absence of a contact, with the consciousness of Art 12.4 of these Sailing Instruction

C) AMONG TEAMS’ BOAT: the server assigns penalty(ies)

10.10] Penalties in case of contact among members of the same team must be always solved as they can’t be cancelled upon request. These penalties can be protested only if they are the result of a 3rd boat action that is breaking rules in that situation. Damaged team can claim on the water by typing “P” in the race chat, and is entitled to submit a protest to the committee. There is no way for the protested boat to repair in the race, but an agreement can be found in compliance with the point 11 of this rules set.

D) HITTING MARKS

10.11] Penalties assigned by the VSK Virtual umpire after hitting a mark must be solved as soon as possible. Such penalties can be protested if they where caused by the action of a 2nd or 3rd boat breaking rules in that moment. There is no way for the protested boat to repair in the race, but an agreement can be found in compliance with the point 11 of this rules set.

APPLICATION OF OTHERS ISAF RULES

E)  10.12]RULE 19 ISAF:
Rule ISAF 19 is fully applied. The request for room must be performed during the race by writing “RTT” in chat. The request for room MUST me performed in a reasonable time so that the competitor can promptly react. A protest in compliance with the rule ISAF 19.1 may be considered better by the committee only if a screenshot makes clear the request in chat is available or in the presence of a video showing what happened.

F) 10.13]  BLACK FLAG
see RRS D3.1.c.1

G) 10.14] CROSSING THE FINISH LINE
A skipper that is crossing, or has already passed, or is going to pass the finish line , must do it in compliance with ISAF Regulation. If at this particular moment the skipper breaks a rule, he cannot solve the penalty after he has arrived or make repairs because the simulator removes from the race all boats that have already crossed the finish line. If the skipper will be protested the protest will be considered by the race committee and he may be disqualified in accordance with the procedure provided by the Art. 11.3. However, the protested boat is allowed to recognize and to repair the protest in the race, accepting the last position in the race.

11] SOLVING A PROTEST AT THE END OF THE RACE
At the end of a race, or of a series of races, in case of not solved protests in races , teams or their captains must watch the replay together and analyze the happened episodes , in order to determine responsibility and infringements according to the art. 8, 10 and 12 of this regulation, and reach the consequent adjustment of the race final boats positions (ref. Art. 14.4).
If a discussion it’s not possible at the end of races and/or teams wants to debate before officialising a result or a protest, a new topic in the proper forum can be opened so that the Protest Committee can evaluate if the teams are doing a good effort solving the case on their own before involving the protest committee.

12] APPEAL TO THE PROTEST COMMITTEE
The appeal to committee is to be considered as the last resource due to the fact tit was impossible to find an agreement that is acceptable for both teams. In any case, an appeal may be considered by the committee only if the whole procedure described in paragraph 10 and 11 of this rules set have been  fulfilled.

12.1] To send a correct protest to the Committee , the captain or the vice-captain must :
*produce the replay of the race and a brief report of events
* Nickname(s) of skipper(s) protested
* Exact timing of presumed fault(s) in the replay
The protest must be submitted via e-mail to the committee (protests_wtrc08@vskitalia.com), by 24 hours the receiving of the first email with the results of the race under protest (ref. Art. 15.2), placing in cc the address of captain of the opponent team involved in the protest ; announce in the appropriate forum that the protest has been forwarded to the protest committee is necessary.

12.2]It’s compulsory sending screenshots showing the repair requests along the race.
12.3] If the Committee will recognize the right of a protest, the faulty skipper will be charged of 6 penalty points in addition to his score in the race (ISAF Procedure, D313b).
12.4] 1 (one) penalty point will be added to the position score for any protest hail that is not based on a rules violation. The protest Committee will evaluate this solution when it may change the winner of a race; In case of draw after adding this (these) point(s) the winner will be the team with less “extra points” (or no point) added.
12.5] The Committee takes the commitment to formalize the outcome of a protest in a time not exceeding 5 days from the date of its receiving (the official time and date of the protest are those recorded in the email).

13] PENALTIES
13.1] Penalties must be solved at the first reasonable opportunity without causing obstruction or penalty to the opponents before and during the “360 °”;
13.2] After the start, opponents should not change their course to intentionally inflict further penalty to skippers are solving it in a clear zone, unless it is "PROPER COURSE ."
13.3] During the pre-start, skipper charged by a penalty must solve it as soon as reasonably possible in a zone where he can’t create make troubles to any opponent, and all opponents should not deliberately interfere with a boat solving a pen, unless they are in proper course for starting or they are searching the best position near to the start line.
13.4] If a boat with penalties pending broke rule 13.1 of this rule sets , opponent team can elevate protest. If the virtual judge assigns additional penalty because the boat with penalty pending didn't solve the pen within allowed time ( 60 seconds) this new penalty will can’t be protested to the Committee.
13.5] Even where not explicitly specified any penalty solving must be done under conditions of Art. 13.1 of this rules set

14] THE ISAF COMMITTEE
14.1] The Committee will accept only protests that fully respect the Arts 10 and 11this rules set.
14.2] There is no appeal option to the Protest Committee decisions.
14.3] The Committee subsequently to the judgment and after the approval of result will be available to explain to the team captains concerned the reasons have carried out its judgment.
14.4] It is shown that in some cases (very rare) a different delay time (lag) between PCs of racer can lead to different viewing situations. If , after a protest in water not solved in the race, the committee should identify, during the viewing and the processing of the replays , a real “synchrony difference” that could made impossible the reaching of a judgment, the Committee could consider the possibility of repeating the race.
14.5] In some cases, although the contact among the boats doesn't occur, the VSK5 virtual umpire assigns a penalty considering the contact not avoidable (i.e. in a striking cross between boats on different courses). The committee may consider the possibility to validate these penalties, withstanding to the content of Art. 10.3 / B;
14.6] Any case that this rules set has not taken into account will be solved by the committee with more impartial way as possible in terms of common sense, and all teams are required to respect the delicate job and the decisions of the committee.
14.7]For technical reasons related to the simulator used in this tournament (VSK5), which records only the last 2 minute in pre-start , you can not make use of the committee for events occurred before 1:45 minutes from the start signal.

15] RESULTS SENDING AT THE END OF THE RACE
15.1]At the end of disputed races , both teams must send results by e-mail to the Organizing Committee (committee_wtrc08@vskitalia.com) . It is possible that under agreement between the teams at the end of the race results will be sent by only one team, but with opponent team in C.C.
15.2] Results are to be reported in the body of the message as follows:
GROUP X (If GROUP is present)
TEAM A vs TEAM B
Flight1: Points TEAM A – Points TEAM B
Flight2: Points TEAM A – Points TEAM B
Flight3: Points TEAM A – Points TEAM B
Final Summary: Flights won by the TEAM A - Flights won by TEAM B
NOTES: any notes (protests and comments)
15.3] Arrivals screenshots and races replays must be always attached to the message.
15.4] In case of a protest solved at the end of a match , and then in case of an upgrade of final results respect the screeshots , simply fill the body of the message with new resulting points and the redefined standings , and a note describing the causes of change.

SI APPENDIX A – VSK5 Adopted RRS Appendix “D” TEAM RACING RULES
Team races shall be sailed under The Racing Rules of Sailing as changed by this appendix.
A1 CHANGES TO THE RACING RULES
(a) The right-of-way boat does not have to follow ISAF rule 14 (avoiding contact).
(d) The sails,  boom and bow spirit of the boats should not be taken into account with regards to issues about keeping clear, overlap etc.

A3 SCORING A RACE
A3.1
(a) Each boat finishing a race, whether or not rule 28.1 has been complied with, shall be scored points equal to its finishing place. All other boats shall be scored points equal to the number of boats entitled to race.
(b) The team with the lower total points wins the race. If the totals are equal, the team that did not have the first-place boat wins.
A3.2 When all boats on one team have finished, retired or failed to start, the race may be stopped. The other team’s boats racing at that time shall be scored the points they would have received had they finished in that order. However screenshot is needed.

A4 SCORING ROUNDS
A4.1 Round Robin 
In the Round Robin, race wins are used to rank teams. Where teams are equal in race wins, the tie will be broken by the following in order:
(a) the number of races won when the tied teams met;
(b) accrued points from finish places in whole Round Robin (lower score is better);
(c) the team with most 6 pt wins, then 7pt wins etc.;
(d) if sailed, the last race between them;
(e) a sail-off consisting of 1 race.
A4.2 Knock Out Rounds
The first team to win more than 50% of the races in each flight will be the winner. No further races need to be sailed after this occurs.
A4.3 Walkovers
Round Robin: In the case of a walkover, the flight will be scored as 3-0 and average points (8-13) assigned to each race.
Rounds 2-4: The flight will be scored 2-0
Round 5: The flight will be scored 3-0

A5 CHAMPIONSHIP STRUCTURE: 
A5.1 Round Robin

A5.1 Knock Out Rounds 

A6 DISCONNECTIONS
Prestart is a delicate and important race phase. Committee wants all skippers ( host too ) keep care in prestart , so wants to relieve the host by wollows rules & starting procedures..
A6.1 A test prestart ( strongly recommended ) to check connections and lag presences; the host will write in game chat “test start”.
A6.2 Every skipper disconnected before the third minute before the start has the right to a restart. 5 minutes is the time available for the skipper to re-join the race.
A6.3 No restart are allowed for the second disconnection of the same skipper. He can try to re-join the race in the time allowed by the game.
A6.4 The host ( only the host ) can decide to ask however a restart ( “RST?” ), but the skippers in water have the veto right (“NO” in chat of the game ). A veto is sufficient to prevent the restart. NO RESTARTS ARE ALLOWED ANYWAY IN THE LAST MINUTE OF PRESTART.

A7 TEAM ALLOCATION
Teams listed first in the schedule shall be RED team during that flight.

SI Appendix B:

SI Appendix C: GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL SKIPPERS
C1. Try to use locator files for skins, to reduce bandwidth lag to a minimum.
Ref: The loc-file guide made by Sandy/Camster.
However in the WTRC 2008 home page are linked the downloads for personal team skins and for the standard RED and BLUE skins.
C2. All participants should save replays of all races. The RC or PC may request a copy to resolve any incidents from each team member.
C3. It should be better each team have the ability to host a race, including a backup.
C4. Verify that the results published for a completed flight are correct.
C5: Hosting instructions
C5.1 Game Setup
• Game name: WTRC08 <flight>
• Password: wtrc08
• Password for spectator: pippo
• Max Players: 6 (note: this is the same as the number of spawn points designed in the courses)
• Max Spectators: 6+6 (Allows for one “spare” team member to view the race, who will have priority. Use the ban button if necessary.)
• Rules: Team Race
• Game Type: Tactical
• Ladder mode: No Ladder
• Allow race download: Yes
• Course selection: In accordance with SI7. Leave all settings to default.
• Penalty mode : complete , automatic

LOG :

7.2] Added : " Teams may not choose a wind that is used before in the flight, except in series of 5 races, where the 5th race will have a wind already used."
6.1] Completed timetable.
6.3] Added : "...and quarter finals...".
6.4] Added : "The Semi Finals and .."
6.6.6-c] Added whole paragraph.
10.2] Added the words "give-way"
10.5] Added penalty for breaking point 10.5 of the SI
10.6/c] Has been changed "NO P" into "C"
10.8] Not need any more to type "C" before the cancel request, simply submit request.
10.12] Removed and changed into
10.13]  BLACK FLAG see RRS D3.1.c.112.1] Changed the time limit for the submission of a protest
14.7] added new chapter, concerning appeal to the committee during prestarts