Section B
EQUIPMENT-RELATED REQUIREMENTS
48. LIMITATIONS ON EQUIPMENT AND CREW
48.1.
A boat shall use only the equipment on board at her preparatory signal.
48.2.
No person on board shall intentionally leave, except when ill or injured, or to help a person or vessel in danger, or to swim. A person leaving the boat by accident or to swim shall be back in contact with the boat before the crew resumes sailing the boat to the next mark
49. CREW POSITION; LIFELINES
  
49.1.
Competitors shall use no device designed to position their bodies outboard, other than hiking straps and stiffeners worn under the thighs.
  
49.2.
When lifelines are required by the class rules or any other rule, competitors shall not position any part of their torsos outside them, except briefly to perform a necessary task. On boats equipped with upper and lower lifelines, a competitor sitting facing outboard with his waist inside the lower lifeline may have the upper part of his body outside the upper lifeline. Unless a class rule or any other rule specifies a maximum deflection, lifelines shall be taut. If the class rules do not specify the material or minimum diameter of lifelines, they shall comply with the corresponding specifications in the World Sailing Offshore Special Regulations.  
Note: Those regulations are available at the World Sailing website.
50. COMPETITOR CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT
50.1.
  1. Competitors shall not wear or carry clothing or equipment for the purpose of increasing their weight.
  2. Furthermore, a competitor’s clothing and equipment shall not weigh more than 8 kilograms, excluding a hiking or trapeze harness and clothing (including footwear) worn only below the knee. Class rules or the notice of race may specify a lower weight or a higher weight up to 10 kilograms. Class rules may include footwear and other clothing worn below the knee within that weight. A hiking or trapeze harness shall have positive buoyancy and shall not weigh more than 2 kilograms, except that class rules may specify a higher weight up to 4 kilograms. Weights shall be determined as required by Appendix H.
  3. A trapeze harness worn by a competitor which may be used to support the competitor on a trapeze shall be of the quick release variety complying with ISO 10862 which allows the competitor to detach from the hook or other method of attachment at any time. A class rule may change this rule to permit trapeze  harnesses that are not of the quick release variety, but a class rule may not change the requirement that a quick release harness
    comply with ISO 10862.
           Note: Rule 50.1(c) does not take effect until 1 January 2023.
 
50.2.
Rules 50.1(b) and (c) do not apply to boats required to be equipped with lifelines.
51. MOVABLE BALLAST
All movable ballast, including sails that are not set, shall be properly stowed. Water, dead weight or ballast shall not be moved for the purpose of changing trim or stability. Floorboards, bulkheads, doors, stairs and water tanks shall be left in place and all cabin fixtures kept on board. However, bilge water may be bailed out. 

52. MANUAL POWER
A boat’s standing rigging, running rigging, spars and movable hull appendages shall be adjusted and operated only by the power provided by the crew.
53. SKIN FRICTION
A boat shall not eject or release a substance, such as a polymer, or have specially textured surfaces that could improve the character of the flow of water inside the boundary layer.
54. FORESTAYS AND HEADSAIL TACKS
Forestays and headsail tacks, except those of spinnaker staysails when the boat is not close-hauled, shall be attached approximately on a boat’s centreline.
55. SETTING AND SHEETING SAILS
Note: The Equipment Rules of Sailing are available at the World Sailing website.
55.1. Changing Sails
When headsails or spinnakers are being changed, a replacing sail may be fully set and trimmed before the replaced sail is lowered. However, only one mainsail and, except when changing, only one spinnaker shall be carried set at a time.
55.2. Spinnaker Poles; Whisker Poles
Only one spinnaker pole or whisker pole shall be used at a time except when gybing. When in use, it shall be attached to the foremost mast.  
55.3. Sheetiing Sails
No sail shall be sheeted over or through any device that exerts outward pressure on a sheet or clew of a sail at a point from which, with the boat upright, a vertical line would fall outside the hull or deck, except:
  1. a headsail clew may be connected (as defined in The Equipment Rules of Sailing) to a whisker pole, provided that a spinnaker is not set;
  2. any sail may be sheeted to or led above a boom that is regularly used for a sail and is permanently attached to the mast from which the head of the sail is set;
  3. a headsail may be sheeted to its own boom that requires no adjustment when tacking; and
  4. the boom of a sail may be sheeted to a bumkin.
55.4. Headsails and Spinnakers
For the purposes of rules 54 and 55 and Appendix G, the definitions of ‘headsail’ and ‘spinnaker’ in The Equipment Rules of Sailing shall be used.
 
56. FOG SIGNALS AND LIGHTS; TRAFFIC SEPARATION SCHEMES
  
56.1.
When so equipped, a boat shall sound fog signals and show lights as required by the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (IRPCAS) or applicable government rules.  
56.2.
A boat shall comply with rule 10, Traffic Separation Schemes, of the IRPCAS.

Note: Appendix TS, Traffic Separation Schemes, is available at the World Sailing website. The notice of race may change rule 56.2 by stating that Section A, Section B or Section C of Appendix TS applies.
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