US Sailing releases 2022 safety equipment requirements for Nearshore, Coastal and Ocean Racing
by US Sailing 29 Jan 2022 09:46 PST
Second annual Annapolis Yacht Club Double Handed Distance Race, supporting newest prospective Olympic class for Paris 2024 © US Sailing / Allison Chenard
Each year the US Sailing Safety Equipment Requirements committee, comprising sailors from across the US, considers possible changes to the Requirements and proposes appropriate changes for final approval by the Safety at Sea Committee, the Offshore Committee, and the US Sailing Board of Directors. The 2022 changes are now available to the US Sailing community.
The latest changes include additions to the monohull and multihull categories. The monohull addition includes the requirement to stow a fire blanket adjacent to each stove (in the Ocean category), while the multihull category was updated to include several minor changes to make it consistent with the Monohulls. The full updates are available on the US Sailing Website.
The US Sailing Safety Equipment Requirements (SER) are a set of equipment requirements for larger boats taking part in nearshore, costal and ocean racing compiled to provide race organizing authorities with clear safety equipment requirements guidelines and supply the ability to modify those requirements for their event and venue.
Also new in 2022, US Sailing has uploaded the SER's in two formats for ease of use: Individual PDF files of the requirements for each category (nearshore, coastal and ocean) so that owners and boat captains can more easily see which requirements apply to them and a comprehensive excel spreadsheet of the requirements for each category, the instructions, appendix and history of revisions for Organizing Authorities who may want to modify the requirements for their event.
The SER committee has the objective of meeting the needs of the US Offshore Community and maintaining compatibility with the World Sailing OSRs as far as possible.?It is a goal that US offshore race boats can compete internationally without modification, and that international boats can compete in US events without modification.
US Sailing would like to recognize the contributions of volunteers on numerous committees that make it possible to approve and release new guidelines. This would not be possible without their time and effort.