J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum One Design Class Rules 2009 Class Rules Now Available on Class Website

The J/30 Class rules effective 1 April 2009 are now available in final form on the J/30 Class website. From the main menu, look under "Class". You can view them online, or download PDF files for printing.

Please Vote Below on How Rules are Organized

There is discussion among BOG members on whether including the current rule change highlights with the history of class rules changes at the beginning of the rules causes confusion for people. Some feel that conflicting changes over time (e.g. crew weight) could cause some people to interpret what is written in the summary as the rule, rather than reading the actual text of the rules.

The Class Rules are provided as a consolidated document for convenience, and as separate files by section for downloading (Class Rules, Bylaws, Specs & Dwgs). The consolidated and separate documents include discrete page numbering; for the rule change summary & history (pages "i-iii"), By-Laws (page "By-Laws - 1"), Class Rules (pages "Class Rules - 1-16"), and Drawings & Specifications (page "Drawings & Specs - 1-7"). For the Class Rules it means you have to go four pages past the cover before getting to the actual rules.

These current and past "Rule Changes & Interpretations" on pages i-iii are editorial comments not the actual rules as written or approved. The web version has links at the top of the page that take you to the beginning of the applicable section when clicked (bypassing the introduction summary).

Here is your chance to express your opinion in a poll of J/30 Owners. The poll will be active until the end of April 2009. The results may lead to reorganizing, but not changing the rules as written.

If you have strong opinions one way or the other, please express them as a reply to this posting.

J/30 Class Rules Organization single choice

Rules organization and summary of changes as written in 2009 edition is clear - no change required (50%, 2 Votes)

Eliminate all but the change summary since previous edition (25%, 1 Votes)

Include change summary since previous edition in front and create a seperate "History of Changes" section (25%, 1 Votes)

Total Votes: 4 Voting on this poll ends: 04/30/09 04:00 PM

Bill,

I'm posting a copy my email to you. I didn't see that the poll gave an option like my suggestion. At any rate thanks for your work with the rules.

Tom

Bill,
Thank you for your work with the Rules I am very pleased to be able to find them on the Class website. It would be great if there were a link to them under the 'info' tab on the main website page.

I do have a suggestion regarding the organization of the rules. Could you please start with the current language and move all the modifications and modification history to the end of the document? Highlighting the most recent changes in the text is a good idea.

As an attorney I work with laws that seem to change every day. They are continually modified by legislatures changing the wording of statutes, interpretations made by published court decisions and advisories made by attorney generals and other government entities. I can't think of a jurisdiction I've looked at where changes are listed before the applicable statute. In fact judges usually use the current code which is published with only the current language and takes up just two volumes one for civil one for criminal.

You can find all the changes and interpretations in the Annotated Code, which usually takes up several shelves. Annotated Codes will start with the current language, give a legislative history and then list synopsis and citations of case law and other interpretations relevant to that part of the statute. With today's hypertext links current research tools have shorter synopsis than their hard copy counter parts did and substitute links in or behind the text sending you directly to the cited case or other referenced statute.

These tools are all relevant because we're often litigating around the edges of case law arguing that our current circumstance is more like this or that particular relevant case.

With our class rules we are not doing anything of the sort. While the historical information is interesting including it just clutters up the rules and makes them more confusing.

Thanks, Tom