Sailing Instructions

Version 2023-09-24

Organisation

This event is organised by the Race Committee (RC) of Major League Sailing (MLS).

All Protests, Pen Cancels and Redress Requests will be handled by a Protest Committee (PC).

Official Language

The official language of this event is English.

Bad behaviour

Any rude or demeaning comment or judgement, as well as questioning integrity, rules knowledge or similar, directed at the PC, the RC, or any of their members, will not be tolerated. Such behaviour will result in immediate exclusion from the tournament.

Changes to S.I. and Rules

The S.I. and Rules can be changed at any time during the event.

The amendments will be reported on the "News" page and it is the responsibility of each participant to regularly check the possible registration of amendments.

Occurrences/Situations not listed

Any significant occurrence/situation in this event, not listed in S.I. or other documents, will be managed by the RC in a manner it deems appropriate, considering fair play, sportsmanship and respect for people as stated in the fundamental principles of World Sailing's "Racing Rules of Sailing" (RRS).

In case of a repeatable situation, it may be decided to make a change of S.I. and/or Rules.

Entry to the event and Registration

MLS is an invitational tournament but any skippers can apply for registration of teams and members.

The RC may, at their own discretion, deny or exclude teams and/or specific skippers to participate in the event.

Participants must register by sending in "Application /Registration". (Form to the right on this page).

The "Nickname" used in the event must be the same as the registered "Boat Name" plus some specific identification that shows to which team the boat belongs. Boat Name and Nickname cannot be changed during the event. Any discrepancies must be notified to the RC and corrected before the day preceding the start of the event.

Upon registration it is mandatory to provide the exact name of "Nadeo" account (VSK login). This is the internal reference and recognition data for each activity.

The registration involves the full acceptance of the rules and regulations governing the event as well as World Sailing's: "Racing Rules of Sailing, 2021-2024".

The participants and teams will be published on the "Teams" page.

Teams
A team can register a maximum of 12 members. New team members can be added any time during the event up to and including Race Day 4. To be eligible for a race, registration must have been done at least 24 hours in advance.
Each race day a maximum of 7 team members will be allowed on the server of which 3 participate in each race.
There are no national restrictions or requirement of club membership to form a team.

Planned Program and Scheduling

Ahead of each Season a detailed program will be presented.

Format of Event

MLS is a form of team event where several teams race against each other at the same time. Fleet Race Rules will apply. Or rather, a fleet race event where individual skippers' results gather points to a specific team.

A Season consists of 12 races run 3 at a time, every other Tuesday.*

On each server, 5 to 6 teams with 3 members each will participate in each race. The teams will be divided between two or more servers depending on the number of participating teams. Maximum 18 contestants per server.

Groups formation for 10 teams / 2 servers: Groups for the first 4 race days are generated in advance with the goal to make each team meet all other teams the same number of times. Teams from the same club are combined as few times as possible.

* After the first 4 race days, the teams will be re-ranked and meet in the "Grande Finale" and the final Results List will be established.

Rules

See "Rules" page.

Race disconnected

Action if the host’s server is disconnected during a race:

The results will be established by each boat’s position at the latest mark passed by all boats on the course. That mark has to be at least 2/3 of the course’s whole length. Otherwise the race will be re-run.

Scoring

In each race, "Low Point System" will be used to give each boat's score. DNF, DNS, DNC, RET = Number of boats called to the race +1 p, DSQ, DNE = Number of boats called to the race + 2 p.

A boat given DNE will cause its team a non-discardable last place.

A boat given DNE for breach of rule 2 will get a "Yellow Card". A boat given a total of two or more Yellow Cards will get a "Red Card", which means that the boat is not allowed to race the following race day.

RDG may be given to individual boats. The score may be calculated in different ways using RRS.

The total '"Boat Points" for each team is the sum of its three racing members' individual score.

The team with the lowest Boat Points will be given 1 "Team Point". The team with the second lowest Boat Points will be given 2 Team Points etc. Each team is allowed 1 Team Point discard, which is displayed after Race Day 2.

For the "Grande Finale", the teams will be re-ranked. The teams will start the Finals with new Team Points 0, 3, 5, 7, 9 … etc. based on their positions after the basic 4 race days. If the difference in Team Points between the two best teams after the basic series is 2 points or less, the new Team Points will be set to 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 ... etc. The teams (in ranking order) will meet on 2 or more servers (depending on the number of teams) in 3 decisive races. The teams on each server (group) will remain in that group. I.e. In the final Results list, teams cannot be moved up or down from one group to another. There will be no discards and no "Medal Race".

Ties

Basic Series

• Tie between two or more teams in one race.
  • "Best boat" take precendence. I.e. Teams will be ranked in order by the boat with the lowest points.
• Tie between two or more teams in "Net Total/Total".
  • If there is a series-score tie between two or more teams, each team's race scores shall be listed in order of best to worst, and the first point(s) where there is a difference, the tie shall be broken in favour of the team(s) with the best score(s). No excluded scores shall be used.
  • If a tie remains between two or more teams, they shall be ranked in order of their scores in the last race. Any remaining ties shall be broken by using the tied teams' scores in the next-to last race and so on. All scores, even excluded scores, shall be used.
  • If a tie remains, (because of teams racing on different servers), the total boat points, counting all races and excluded scores, shall be used to rank the order of the teams.
  • In the extreme, but theoretically possible case that there is still a tie, the teams will be given the same position.

Final Series

• If there are no changes of the conditions and requirements for the final races, the whole tournament will be considered as ONE regatta and the tie rules described above shall be used.
• If the conditions for the final races are changed, e.g. old team points are re-calculated, the tournament is considered as split in two parts. This means that results and points in the basic series will NOT be taken into account in a tie situation after the final races. The basic series is "history". The same rules as described above shall be used, but ONLY for the final races.

Boat Classes

The boats used in the tournament will be ACC, AJ42 flt and TP52. The latter boat types will be available for downloading on the Downloads page.

Skins

Boats must use semi transparent sails when playing. Nadeo standard skins will not be accepted.

Within a team, similar skins should be used to make identification easy.

For teams which so wish, MLS can provide some ready-made skins. Each class will have a blue, green, red and yellow version available for booking.

Previous bookings (and use) of MLS skins are no longer valid. New bookings/reservations of MLS skins must be made.

Courses

All Courses (Maps) to be used, will be included in one download pack and presented in due time before the first Race Day starts. The courses to be used for each Race Day, will be announced on the Teams/Schedule and Downloads pages one week ahead of the races.

Chat

The in-game chat should mainly be used only for race-related communication. Except for greetings and general courtesy, remember that English is the official language and should be used in the chat.

Contacts and Information

See "Contact" and "'News" pages respectively.