#isaf – Race officials in charge of yacht races can be Facebook 'friends' with competitors but not 'fans' of their teams or organisations, that's the advice given in new guidelines issuedto race officers by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). The new guidelines are downloadable below.

Race officials also must be aware that information they put on their profile during an event must not give competitors who are Facebook friends an advantage or access to information which others do not have.

With the increasing use of new communication tools on the web such as blogs, social networks, call and text message services, it is necessary for ISAF Race Officials to consider how their own use of such tools interacts with their role as an official, according to the new guidelines.

Restricting the use of social media is not designed to inhibit freedom of speech or rights to privacy, but it is inevitable that appointment as a race official means the official must limit their use of such tools in order to comply with the ir duties as an official.

ISAF's goal is to provide guidelines to help ra ce officials balance these concepts in order to avoid potentially embarrassing situations for the race official and for ISAF.