Race Packet Terms & Skipper's Acknowledgement
1. What you are buying
A Race Operations Packet is a print-ready written briefing prepared for a specific boat and a specific race: an executive summary, a run sheet, a waypoint ETA chain, handicap targets, current and tide analysis, a bail-out plan, a paper backup, and a float plan, in the configuration described at the time of sale. It is a document, prepared before your race from official published sources. It is not software, not a subscription, not equipment, and not a service performed aboard your boat.
Content varies with the venue. The actual contents and depth of a packet depend on the race location and on the official data sources that exist for it — current-prediction stations, live buoys, rating lists, and local harbor information are not equally available everywhere. Where a source does not exist for your race area, the packet says so and scopes that section honestly rather than guessing. We confirm what your packet will cover during scope confirmation, before payment.
By ordering a packet, paying for one, or using one aboard, you agree to these Terms, including the Skipper's Acknowledgement in §2.
2. The Skipper's Acknowledgement
Every order requires the skipper's explicit agreement to the following, recorded with the order. It is repeated here in full because it is the heart of these Terms.
Sailing is dangerous. It exposes the boat and everyone aboard to risks including drowning, injury, collision, grounding, weather, and equipment failure. No document reduces those risks. Only preparation, seamanship, and judgment do.
The packet is data points, not decisions. A Race Operations Packet is decision support: analysis of official published sources, prepared before the race, that can be wrong, incomplete, or out of date by the time you read it. It is to be weighed alongside your own observations, your instruments, official race documents, and current conditions — never relied on as the sole basis for any decision.
The packet replaces nothing. It does not replace, reduce, or share in the responsibilities of the skipper or crew for the vessel's preparation, equipment, crew selection and briefing, weather judgment, navigation, and seamanship — before leaving the dock, while underway, and after returning. The decision to leave the dock, to start, to continue, to retire, and to divert rests with the skipper alone, based on the conditions actually present.
The skipper remains in command. Nothing in a packet overrides the Racing Rules of Sailing, the sailing instructions, COLREGS, U.S. Coast Guard regulations, the organizing authority's requirements, or the skipper's own judgment. World Sailing's fundamental rule applies: the responsibility for a boat's decision to participate in a race or to continue racing is hers alone.
The acknowledgement is recorded with the order (version number and date). If a crew member other than the skipper places the order, they confirm they do so with the skipper's authority and will put this acknowledgement in front of the skipper before race day.
3. Not a navigation product. Not a safety device.
A packet is not:
- A navigation product. Waypoints, coordinates, and the GPX file are planning references derived from race documents and charts; verify them against official sources and your own navigation before use. Do not navigate by the packet.
- A weather service. Weather and current content is our reading of forecasts and predictions published by NOAA and the National Weather Service at the time of preparation. Forecasts change and predictions differ from what the water actually does.
- A safety device, an emergency tool, or a substitute for required safety equipment, safety briefings, or float-plan filing with your own shore contact.
- A guarantee of results. Past race results described in our marketing are history, not a promise.
In an emergency: VHF Channel 16, 911 where there is cellular coverage, and your boat's installed safety equipment. A packet plays no role in an emergency beyond any phone numbers printed on its bail-out page, which you must verify before relying on.
4. Your responsibilities
- Verify. Check the packet's facts against the current Notice of Race, sailing instructions, amendments, and the official notice board. If the packet and an official document disagree, the official document governs. Tell us and we will correct the packet if time allows.
- Rules compliance is the boat's. We prepare packets to be usable as pre-race paper under RRS 41 as written, and we flag event-specific outside-help or routing clauses we find in your sailing instructions. The boat remains responsible for its own compliance with the rules of its race, including any class rules and event-specific restrictions.
- Ratings. Handicap targets are computed from ratings and scoring formulas as published by your rating authority and race documents at preparation time. Verify your rating, your rivals' ratings, and the scoring method actually elected by the race committee.
- Seamanship. The vessel's condition, equipment, crew preparation, and every decision of seamanship remain yours, per §2.
5. Ordering, payment, and delivery
Intake first. The order form composes an email from you to us; nothing is stored on this website. We reply to confirm scope — the race, the boat, the deliverables, and the price. Payment is only collected after we confirm we can cover your race, via a one-time payment link from our Merchant of Record, Polar Software Inc., whose terms govern the payment transaction itself.
Delivery. The packet is delivered by email as a PDF (and PPTX on request) no later than 48 hours before your first warning signal, with a race-morning refresh when conditions warrant and time allows. The race-morning refresh is delivered before your boat is racing; we do not transmit packet content to a boat while she is racing.
Our inputs depend on yours. Delivery timelines assume you provide the intake information (race documents or enough to find them, rating certificate, polars or class data) promptly after scope confirmation. Late inputs can shorten or forfeit the 48-hour target.
6. Refunds
- We miss delivery: if a confirmed, paid packet does not reach your inbox 48 hours before the warning signal (and the delay is not caused by late inputs under §5), full refund.
- Race cancelled or postponed before delivery: your choice of a full refund or credit toward the rescheduled or another race.
- After delivery: the packet is a custom-prepared document and is non-refundable once delivered, except where required by law. If we got something materially wrong, tell us — we would rather fix it and make it right than argue.
- Season packages: unused races in a season package are refundable pro rata until the first packet of the package is delivered; thereafter credit toward future races.
7. License and sharing
The packet is licensed to the ordering boat for the ordered race. Print it, mark it up, share it with your crew, keep it in the boat's records. Do not resell it, republish it, or provide it to another boat's program as their race preparation. The formats, templates, calculation methods, and tooling behind the packet remain the property of Proteus.
8. Disclaimers
Packets are provided "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We verify our work carefully — that is the product — but we do not warrant that any packet is free of errors, that forecasts or predictions will match conditions, that ETAs will match your finish, or that using a packet will improve your result. We do not warrant that official data sources exist, are complete, or are current for every venue; per §1, packet content varies with the race location and the sources available for it, and sample packets illustrate a specific race, not the exact contents of yours.
9. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law: Proteus and its officers, members, employees, contractors, and affiliates are not liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages arising out of or relating to a packet — and, having read §2 and §3, you agree that decisions made aboard are the skipper's, so Proteus is not liable for loss, damage, injury, or death arising from the operation of the vessel. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total cumulative liability for any and all claims relating to a packet is the amount you paid for that packet.
These limitations do not apply to liability that cannot be limited as a matter of law. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions; there, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted.
10. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Disputes not resolved informally will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Maryland. Before filing any action, contact legal@proteus-marine-intelligence.com and give us 30 days to resolve the dispute informally. To the extent permitted by law, disputes are resolved on an individual basis only.
11. Changes and contact
We may update these Terms; the version and effective date above change when we do, and material changes are communicated to packet customers. The version in effect when you order governs that order.
Proteus Marine Intelligence Systems, LLC
Solomons, Maryland, USA
Email: legal@proteus-marine-intelligence.com
Phone: +1 (410) 571-4932