What can sailing learn from motorsports

The first edition of the Racing Rules of Sailing was established in 1907, and as the sport became more competitive, the rules became more comprehensive. While great for the elite level, what about everyone else? Mike Zani considered another approach to the rules in An experiment to reimagine racing, and returns with this latest report:

Sailboat racing has a rules problem. Not because the Racing Rules of Sailing are wrong—they’re remarkably thorough—but because they are optimized for correctness, not accessibility. The result is a sport that can intimidate newcomers, burden organizers, and too often rely on protest committees to resolve what should be simple on-the-water conflicts.

At the same time, other forms of “big and expensive” racing—most notably motorsports—have evolved in the opposite direction. Formula 1 and NASCAR operate with comparatively simple racing rules, no fault-based damage reimbursement, and little post-race litigation between competitors. If you’re hit, you fix your own car. Accountability comes through penalties, reputation, and incentives—not insurance claims.

That contrast raises an interesting question:

What would sailing look like if it leaned less on adjudication and more on incentives?

I started exploring that question while helping run a radio-controlled sailing club called the Wicked Tired Thumbs.

Protest committees enable parties to explore nuance and subtleties. Yet the concept of “onus” often predicts the outcome of hearings. In competitive team racing in the 1990s, we developed three-minute justice.

That system was faster and easier to implement, but if each party has only a minute to describe the situation and the jury has only a minute to decide (hence the three minutes), there is little time for nuance—the party that had the “onus” typically lost.

In our local RC sailing club, we went a step further. We removed onus entirely and made the rules deterministic. I’ll explain.

A Small Experiment
RC sailboat racing turns out to be an ideal test bed. The boats are inexpensive, plastic, and durable. There’s no risk of personal injury (unless there’s a fight on the dock). Collisions happen, lessons are immediate, and behavior adapts quickly.

In that environment, we’ve been experimenting with a deliberately low-rules format—not “anything goes,” but a few rules with clear defaults.

Here’s the entire rule set.

Low-Rules RC Sailboat Racing

Rules:
• Sail the course (start behind the line and round the marks)
• Port / Starboard — port is always wrong
• Inside / Outside — outside is always wrong
• Windward / Leeward (pre-start only) — windward is always wrong
• If aggrieved, simply say: “X protests Y.” No personal comments (e.g., “Yo, 14—WTF”).

Note: We chose to apply the Windward / Leeward rule only before the start, since that is when a windward boat can do the most damage—for example, a boat about to be over early taking out boats to leeward for personal benefit.

Culture:
• No jerks
• Communicate early and often (e.g., “Starboard #14”)

That’s it!

No mark-room definitions. No proper-course arguments. No overtaking. No post-race rooms full of diagrams. Key interactions have a clear loser. Some interactions simply don’t matter.

Few Rules, Strong Incentives
What’s happening here isn’t the removal of structure—it’s the removal of ambiguity. Instead of nuanced right-of-way interpretations, the system uses strict defaults. If you choose to sail on port, outside, or to windward before the start, you’re accepting risk. If there’s contact, you internalize the cost. The “penalty” is simple: a 360 after a hail of “protest.”

Culture Does the Heavy Lifting
Low-rules racing only works when culture is explicit.

“No jerks” isn’t a slogan—it replaces much of what protest committees normally enforce. Communication becomes essential. Reputation matters. Repeat offenders are quickly identified, and social pressure corrects behavior faster than any hearing.

This isn’t theoretical. The same dynamic exists in foiling classes, motorsports, and even professional cycling. Where culture is strong, rules can be light. Where culture is weak, no rulebook is thick enough.

Where This Could—and Could Not—Scale
This isn’t a replacement for the Racing Rules of Sailing, nor should it be. But it could work in one-design fleets, durable boats, club and beer-can racing, and adult learn-to-race programs. It won’t (yet) work in large mixed fleets, youth racing, or high-value boats with real entanglement risk.

That distinction matters. Not every fleet needs the same legal infrastructure.

The Real Question
This experiment raises a broader issue for the sport:

What are racing rules for? Are we trying to eliminate collisions—or eliminate responsibility?

RC sailing suggests that when sailors internalize risk and cost, behavior adapts quickly. Racing becomes simpler, cleaner, and—perhaps counterintuitively—more welcoming.

Motorsports figured this out decades ago. Sailing doesn’t need to copy car racing—but it might benefit from understanding why it works.

At the very least, RC boats give us a low-risk place to ask the question.