Angelo & Peter,
As someone who has fought hard to track down all the holes in the leaky caldron of some NoRs, I have an addition to what's stated above:
Often the NoR for a significant regatta is published a year or more in advance. This is particularly true of significant races across oceans or massive events where dozens or even hundreds of competitors are expected, and especially for events where owners are considering designing and building a boat that conforms to the exact information in the NoR and, more importantly, the the exact information in the various Rules that are cited or implied in the NoR. For these regattas, the NoR publication can end up serving as the defining document for a large number of things that are buried in other documents whose revisions are made more often than the time between the publication of the NoR and the start of the first race.
The obvious ones include:
- Racing Rules of Sailing, if the NoR publication day is prior to the publication date of a new version of the RRS
- The Equipment Rules of Sailing, ditto
- Any Class Rules cited in the NoR, which can change much more often than every 4 years
- Any Government Regulations provided by the host country
- Any Standing Regulations or Rules provided by the host Organizing Authority cited or implied
There are more, but this illustrates the point. My suggestion is that in all NoRs, the complete title of the document being used, its publication date, and any modification tracking provided be cited in the NoR. Thus (as of this writing):
It can be very onerous to tease out which version of these rules are applicable and which will be made obsolete in the time between the publication of the NoR for a race and the start of the 1st race. Indeed, I've had a fleet hold a meeting at their National Championship and attempt to change the Class Rules to outlaw an innovation that was not predicted by any of the rules. Ever since, the exact version, date of publication, and term of any rules mentioned in the NoR has been appended to the bottom of the NoR and carefully footnoted where first used.
Similarly, I know of one large yacht that was cut in half to modify its length substantially based on the initial NoR for the race and an obvious error in the handicap rule. The owner and his team informed the OA and the Rule vendor of the obvious error in writing and by phone. They were ignored. The error was rediscovered much later by the Rule vendor, and then the OA decided to change the Rule. Given the owner's investment was already well over $2m, lawsuits were threatened, the OA backed off, and the heavily modified boat was allowed to race. Not the outcome anyone wanted.
As a dear friend of mine likes to say: "The starting gun is when the NoR is published. More races are lost by not reading the NoR and Sailing instructions than any other cause."