How is a tie broken in a sailing series?

List each tied boat's race scores from best to worst and compare them one position at a time. At the first place where they differ, the boat with the better score wins the tie. This is rule A8.1, and it uses only the scores that count, so excluded scores are left out. If the lists are identical, rule A8.2 breaks the tie on the last race, then the next-to-last, and so on.

Do discarded races count in tie-breaking?

Not at the first step. Rule A8.1 compares each boat's counting scores and ignores any score that was excluded as a discard. Discarded scores only matter at the second step, A8.2, which works backwards from the final race and uses every score, including discards.

What if two sailors have identical race scores?

If the best-to-worst comparison cannot separate them, the tie is broken on the result of the last race. The boat that finished higher in the final race wins. If they tied there too, the next-to-last race is used, and so on back through the series.

Can a tie remain unbroken after all steps?

It is possible in theory but very rare. A8.2 works back through every race using all scores, so it almost always separates the boats. Only if two competitors have identical scores in every race would A8 fail to break the tie, and Appendix A provides no further step, so in that case the boats simply remain tied.

How ties are broken in sailing race scoring

Two or more boats can finish a series on the same number of points. When that happens, the Racing Rules of Sailing settle the placing with a fixed procedure. The rules are A8.1 and A8.2 in Appendix A, and they apply after discards have been taken off each boat's total.

When a tie happens

A tie is a tie in the series total: the points each boat has left after its discards are removed. It happens most often in short series where every boat has sailed the same races.

Step one: compare scores best to worst (A8.1)

Take each tied boat's race scores, the ones that count toward the series, and write them out in order from best to worst. Line the two lists up and compare them position by position. At the first place where the lists differ, the boat with the better score wins the tie.

Worked example, two boats tied on 15 points:

Boat A's counting scores, best to worst: 1, 3, 5, 6
Boat B's counting scores, best to worst: 2, 2, 5, 6

The first entries are 1 and 2, so Boat A wins the tie on its race win. This is not the same as counting who has more first places. It is a direct comparison of the sorted scores, and it stops as soon as one boat is ahead.

A8.1 leaves out discarded scores. Only the scores that count toward the series go into the comparison.

Step two: count back from the last race (A8.2)

If the two lists are identical, A8.1 cannot separate the boats and the tie passes to A8.2. Now the comparison is by race rather than by sorted score. Whoever finished higher in the last race wins. If they are still tied, you compare the next-to-last race, then the one before, working backwards until the tie breaks.

A8.2 uses every score, including any that were discarded. A discard removes a score from your total but does not erase it from the record, so a dropped race can still decide a placing at this step.

Ties within a single race

A separate rule, A7, covers boats that tie in one race, for example when the finish line cannot separate them and the race committee records the same place for both. The boats share the points for their place and the place or places immediately below, split equally. Two boats tied for third take the points for third and fourth, added together and halved, so each scores 3.5. That averaged score then behaves like any other score in the series total and in tie-breaking.

Sailboat Racing applies A8.1 and A8.2 automatically when it ranks a series, so equal totals are separated correctly without hand calculation. See how it works.

Last updated: 2026-06-15