Team racing rewards combinations of places, not the first boat home. With boats from two teams scored by finishing place, the team with the lower total wins; on equal totals, the team without first place wins. Combinations like 1-2-6 against 3-4-5 decide races.
Key points
D1 Rule changes
The zone is two hull lengths; a boat that passes head to wind and is then clear astern of a boat in the zone must give her mark-room; rule 18.4 is deleted. A Part 2 breach between teammates without contact carries no penalty. Teammates may help each other (no electronic communication), a finished boat must not act to interfere with an unfinished one, and boats in different races must only change course to comply with a rule or to win their own race. The on-the-water penalty is a One-Turn Penalty, which also covers rules 31 and 42.
D2 Umpired races
Races identified in the notice of race or sailing instructions, or by flag J at or before the warning signal, are umpired. A boat protests by hailing and showing a red flag, the umpires decide on the water, and there is no hearing for those incidents.
D3 Scoring a race
Points equal finishing place. Non-finishers score the number of boats entitled to race. An OCS boat that neither returns nor retires gets 10 points added; a boat that finishes without sailing the course gets 6 added. Penalties for rule 1, 2, damage under rule 14 or breaches when not racing may cost the team race wins.
D4 Scoring an event
Round-robin groups ranked by race wins (or win percentage if teams have sailed different numbers of races); terminated round robins below 80% complete are dropped. Ties go to head-to-head win percentage, then average points between the tied teams, then the last race between two teams, then results against common opponents, then a sail-off or game of chance. Knockout matches go to the first team to the stated number of wins.
D5 Breakdowns
When the organizers supply the boats, a team whose boat breaks down may get redress, usually by resailing or adjusting points.