Who'd be an Umpire?

You get cold, wet, few breaks ashore, precisely 50% of the competitors think you make terrible calls (and they say so. The other 50% keep quiet) and infrequently fed with cold leftovers. Despite this, it's great fun and it helps the sport.
Remember when a 12 minute race meant 20 minutes in the protest room?

Talk to those who've tried it, and if you think you would like to 'give it a go', come and talk to us on the day.

We'll do our best to fit you in, either during lay races or if you get knocked out of the later stages of an event.

Apart from 2 more layers of clothing, what do you need?

You must be a past or current Secretary General of the UN. Here's why…
Any call to an umpire means both boats are convinced they are right. Otherwise one would have already taken the lesser single turn penalty[1]. Yet you'll soon realise that both of them only saw about 70% of the whole, and that what each saw was the 70% which favoured their particular role in the disputed manoeuvre. You have to tell one of them they got it wrong[2]. And do so in a way that helps them.
In the real world, you'll do just fine if you are most of:-

• A current or past team racer
• Have a very high level of concentration.
• Have good anticipation, both in rule application and boat positioning. (Of the umpire boat and all 6 competitors boats)
• Are able to drive a powerboat.
• Are willing to admit what you did not see, notably in observed (now called 'limited umpiring') races.

continued /…

• Are approachable. Are able to discuss incidents with competitors, and admit mistakes. Take the initiative in explaining calls.
• Make decisions immediately. The umpire must concentrate on the rules before the incident, and the 'due process' afterwards. There is little time for afterthought and no time to take your eyes off the race - you may miss the next incident.
  In other words, learn how to make the calls 'just ahead of the incident'.
• Correctly observe and react to the whole 'make decision - decide what is a reasonable time - get flag ready but out of sight - watch for hail and flag - see if a boat is admitting fault - watch & wait for call to umpire - make sound and flag signals - record incident' sequence
• Have a sound knowledge of the rules and current interpretations.
  Rules knowledge is placed last, not because it's unimportant but because most team racers already have sufficient rules knowledge to make good umpires

There are several routes to qualifying as an umpire, of which the RYA scheme is perhaps suited to those who have hung up their protest flags [3]. The informal 'Just Do It' (JDI) route requires all the same qualities but attracts 'sailor / umpires'. [4]
The JDI route works fine for those who "sail when they can, umpire when they can't."

There's no effective difference between RYA and JDI Umpires. They have all the same attributes. A red flag is no less red if it's flown by Joe Soap or God.

There are many ways of getting started, and you'll get all the help you want or need just by asking. The RYA run team race umpire training weekends, leading to formal qualifications.