A competitive sailing; a regatta discipline. Much racing is done around buoys or similar marks in protected waters, while some longer offshore races cross open water. All kinds of boats are used for racing, including small dinghies, catamarans, boats designed primarily for cruising, and purpose-built raceboats.

* single handed transatlantic race - the first and most famous; began in the early 1960s with now famous people such as Sir Francis Chichester; there is some controversy about the legality of sailing single-handed over long distances, as the Navigation Rules require "that every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper lookout..."'

* offshore racing -involves a fleet of yachts racing over a course that takes them away from the coast and across blue water for considerable distances, even around the world;

* harbour or buoy races - much shorter than offshore races, usually taking anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours; all sorts of sailing craft are used for these races, including keelboats of all sizes, as well as dinghies, catamarans, skiffs, sailboards, and other small craft.

Many design factors have a large impact on the speed at which a boat can complete a course, including the size of a boat's sails, its length, and the weight and shape of its hull. Because of these differences, it can be difficult to compare the skills of the sailors in a race if they are sailing very different boats. For most forms of yacht racing, one of two solutions to this problem are used; either all boats are required to be identical (a one-design class), or a handicapping system is used.

In one-design race all boats must conform to the same standard, called class rules. In this way the boats are as identical as they can be manufactured, thus emphasizing the skill of the skipper and crew. Examples of popular classes include Etchells, Snipe, Star, Thistle, Lightning, Laser, and J/24. Each class has a detailed set of specifications that must be met for the boat to be considered a member of that class. At important regattas the boats are measured prior to the event to ensure that they do conform.

When all the yachts in a race are not members of the same class, then a handicap is used to adjust the times of boats. The handicap attempts to specify a "normal" speed for each boat, usually based either on measurements taken of the boat, or on the past record of that kind of boat. Each boat is timed over the specified course. After it has finished, the handicap is added to each boat's finishing time. The results are based on this sum.

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