Break a rule and you pay for it on the water, at once and unasked. Which penalty fits which breach, how to take it, and when turns are not enough.
1 · Turns penalties
Which penalty for which breach
How many penalty turns do I owe for a port-starboard foul under rule 44?
Two: breaking a Part 2 rule (rules 10 to 23), such as port tack failing to keep clear, costs a Two-Turns Penalty, taken promptly whether or not anyone protests. Touching a mark costs one turn; both in one incident, two.
Break a rule without being exonerated and you take the penalty promptly, protest or no protest. For a rule of Part 2 (rules 10 to 23) it is a Two-Turns Penalty; for touching a mark (rule 31), a One-Turn Penalty, even if swept there. Both in one incident: two turns.
Two-Turns Penaltyport tack fails to keep clear
One-Turn Penaltyyour boom brushes the mark
Turns pay for these rules only: for rule 42 or 49 you retire, or the protest committee decides. Each incident, and each boat that may have broken a rule, needs its own penalty. If you broke none, a hail of "Protest" obliges you to nothing. Not yet racing, or finished and clear of the line: no turns owed. The sailing instructions may replace the turns with another penalty.
2 · Taking the turns
Clear, prompt, the same way round
How do I do penalty turns correctly, and which way do I turn?
Get well clear of other boats soon after the incident, then turn promptly: each turn has one tack and one gybe, in either order, and both turns go the same way. While turning you keep clear of others.
Sail well clear of other boats as soon after the incident as you can, then turn promptly. Each turn includes one tack and one gybe, in either order; both turns go the same way. Two tacks are not a turn, and turns a leg later do not count.
While turning you keep clear of boats not taking a penalty (rule 21.2). If reasonably possible others must not interfere, but after the start a boat on her proper course need not avoid you (rule 23.2). A mark touched during the turns costs one more turn.
A penalty earned before the start need not wait for the starting signal. At the finish your hull must be completely back on the course side after the turns before you cross the line; likewise after touching a finishing mark.
3 · Retiring
When turns are not enough
When do I have to retire instead of doing penalty turns?
When your breach caused injury or serious damage, or despite the turns gained you a significant advantage in the race or series. Then turns do not pay: you retire, or a hearing disqualifies you.
Turns do not pay if you caused injury or serious damage, or if despite them your breach gained you a significant advantage in the race or series: then you retire.
At the hearing
Decision
Turns taken promptly
No further penalty
No penalty taken
Disqualified (DSQ)
Serious damage, turns taken
DSQ: you had to retire
Deliberate breach, then turns
Rule 2: DSQ, not excludable (DNE)
A retired boat scores boats entered plus one and must not hinder boats still racing. After a restart or resail, breaches in the first attempt go unpenalised, except rules 2, 30.2, 30.4, 69 and rule 14 with injury or serious damage.
4 · Exoneration
A rule broken, no penalty owed
Do I owe penalty turns if another boat forced me to break a rule?
No: under rule 43 you are exonerated when another boat's breach compelled you to break a rule, for example by pushing you onto a mark. An exonerated boat takes no penalty.
Rule 43 exonerates you when another boat's breach compelled you to break a rule; when, sailing within the room or mark-room owed to you, you broke a right-of-way rule or rule 15 or 16 against the boat that owed it, or were forced onto the mark (rule 31); and when, holding right of way, you broke rule 14 but the contact caused no damage or injury.
CompelledBlue pushes you onto the mark
Within mark-roomYellow leaves too little room
An exonerated boat takes no penalty. But the hearing finds the facts: if nobody forced you onto the mark, you are disqualified. And a right-of-way boat that could have avoided a collision with damage has broken rule 14 too.
5 · Scoring Penalty
A yellow flag instead of turns
How does the Scoring Penalty with a yellow flag work under rule 44.3?
Where the notice of race or sailing instructions specify the Scoring Penalty, show a yellow flag at the first reasonable opportunity, keep it up until you finish and tell the race committee. It costs 20% of the DNF score.
Where the notice of race or sailing instructions specify the Scoring Penalty (rule 44.3), it replaces the turns: show a yellow flag at the first reasonable opportunity, keep it up until you finish, then tell the race committee and name the other boat. Otherwise a yellow flag is no penalty.
It costs 20% of the DNF score, rounded to a tenth of a point (or the points stated), never takes you beyond DNF and changes nobody else's score.
49 boats, you finish 7th
Points
DNF score: 49 + 1
50
Penalty: 20% of 50
10
Your score: 7 + 10
17
Where Appendix T applies, you may still take a 30% Post-Race Penalty in writing before the hearing begins. Neither is open to a boat that had to retire. A rule marked [DP] carries a discretionary penalty, possibly less than disqualification.
6 · Starting penalties
Errors that turns cannot fix
Can I take penalty turns if I was over the line at the start?
No: turns do not cure being over the line. You return and start, keeping clear of boats not returning, or are scored OCS; the triangle penalties under flags Z, U and black need no hearing.
Turns do not cure being over the line at the start: you return and start, keeping clear of boats that are not returning, or you are scored OCS. The preparatory flag prices the last minute.
Flag
Caught in the last minute
After a general recall
I
Over the line: round an end
—
Z
In the triangle: 20%
Stays; again, another 20%
U
In the triangle: DSQ
Lifted
Black
In the triangle: DSQ
Stays; no restart for you
The triangle joins the ends of the line and the first mark. These penalties need no hearing. Under Z and black they lapse only if the race is postponed or abandoned before the starting signal, and a black-flagged boat that sails the restart cannot discard her disqualification.
7 · Appendix P
A yellow flag from the jury
What happens if a judge shows me a yellow flag for pumping under Appendix P?
Under Appendix P the first yellow flag means two turns, or DSQ without a hearing; the second, retire, or a DSQ that cannot be excluded; the third, retire and score DNE, or DNE in every race.
Under Appendix P judges afloat penalise rule 42 at once: a sound signal, a yellow flag pointed at you, your sail number hailed.
Time
You must
Otherwise
First
Take two turns
DSQ without a hearing
Second
Retire
DSQ, not excludable
Third
Retire: DNE
DNE in every race
A postponement, general recall or abandonment cancels the penalty, but it still counts towards your total.
Practice questions
Questions from this topic, as the app asks them. Open one to see the answer.
Wednesday evening club race, ILCA 7s. On the first beat you are on port tack and misjudge a cross: Grey, close-hauled on starboard, has to bear away hard to miss your transom. No contact. You know you broke rule 10. What penalty do you take?
A Two-Turns Penalty, as soon as possible after getting well clear of the other boats
No penalty — without contact there is no breach to pay for
Retire — a breach of rule 10 cannot be repaired by turns on the water
A One-Turn Penalty — that is the penalty for forcing a boat to change course without contact
Show the answer
A. A Two-Turns Penalty, as soon as possible after getting well clear of the other boats
Rule 44.1: a boat that may have broken a rule of Part 2 may take a Two-Turns Penalty; rule 44.2 says when and how.
J/70, Lake Garda. After fouling a boat on the run you take your penalty: you luff, tack, bear away, gybe and come back to course — then you do the second turn the other way round, starting with a gybe to the opposite side. Your tactician says the penalty is complete. Is it?
Yes — as long as both turns are finished within two minutes of the incident
Yes — each turn had a tack and a gybe, and the rule does not care about the direction
No — a penalty turn must always begin with a tack, never with a gybe
No — both turns must be made in the same direction; the second turn does not count
Show the answer
D. No — both turns must be made in the same direction; the second turn does not count
Rule 44.2: the required number of turns in the same direction, each including one tack and one gybe.
Palma, 20 knots, a 36-ft cruiser-racer. On port you hit a starboard-tack boat; one of her crew is taken ashore with a broken wrist. You immediately take two turns and carry on. Is that the right penalty?
No — with injury you must take three turns instead of two
Yes — two turns is the penalty for any breach of a Part 2 rule, whatever the consequences
Yes, provided you also display a yellow flag and tell the race committee at the finish
No — because the incident caused injury, your penalty is to retire from the race
Show the answer
D. No — because the incident caused injury, your penalty is to retire from the race
Rule 44.1(b): if the boat caused injury or serious damage, her penalty shall be to retire.
Beat in a J/24 fleet. Red, on port, cannot cross you on starboard. You could have borne away behind her in good time but hold on and hail; the boats collide and Red's gunwale cracks. Red takes two turns. What about you?
Nothing — the right-of-way boat is never penalised in a port–starboard incident
You must retire — any right-of-way boat involved in a collision with damage must retire
Nothing — Red has already taken the penalty for the incident, and one penalty per incident is enough
You too may have broken a rule — rule 14, and with damage you are not exonerated — so you should take a Two-Turns Penalty as well
Show the answer
D. You too may have broken a rule — rule 14, and with damage you are not exonerated — so you should take a Two-Turns Penalty as well
Rule 14: a right-of-way boat must avoid contact once it is clear the other is not keeping clear; rule 43.1(c) exonerates her only if there is no damage.
The sailing instructions of a J/24 championship say that rule 44.3, the Scoring Penalty, applies. Rounding the leeward mark you fail to keep clear of a leeward boat. How do you take your penalty?
Display a yellow flag at the first reasonable opportunity, keep it up until you finish, and draw the race committee's attention to it at the finishing line
Hail "Twenty per cent" to the other boat and continue racing
Display a red flag until you finish and report to the race office
Take two turns anyway — the sailing instructions cannot replace the Two-Turns Penalty
Show the answer
A. Display a yellow flag at the first reasonable opportunity, keep it up until you finish, and draw the race committee's attention to it at the finishing line
Rule 44.3(a) and (b): the Scoring Penalty is taken by displaying a yellow flag promptly, keeping it until finishing and informing the race committee.
National championship, flag Z displayed with the preparatory signal. In the last minute before the start part of your hull is inside the triangle formed by the ends of the line and the first mark. The start is otherwise clean and the committee identifies you. What happens?
You are disqualified without a hearing
You must take a Two-Turns Penalty as soon as you are clear
You get a 20 % Scoring Penalty without a hearing — and it stays even if the race is restarted or resailed
You must sail back round an end of the line before starting
Show the answer
C. You get a 20 % Scoring Penalty without a hearing — and it stays even if the race is restarted or resailed
Rule 30.2: the Z flag rule — a boat identified in the triangle in the last minute gets a 20 % Scoring Penalty without a hearing.
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