Candidates for initial appointment by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) as International Judge (IJ) with a United States country designation must be nominated by US SAILING through a recommendation of the Judges Committee. 

Candidates for re-appointment may be reviewed by the Judges Committee at ISAF’s request. 

In order to request a nomination from US SAILING for initial appointment as an International Judge an application must:

1. be a US SAILING Senior Judge;
2. send a copy of their completed International Judge application (PDF) to US SAILING;
3. meet all of the requirements for International Judge as described in the ISAF Regulations (PDF);
4. have at least three favorable references who have served with the candidate on International Juries(*).  The references must meet the following criteria:
   • No current member of the US SAILING Judges Committee or Board of Directors may serve as a reference.
   • At least two must be current ISAF International Judges.
   • At least one must be a US SAILING Senior Judge.
   • At least one must be a non-US International Judge who has worked with the candidate on an International Jury outside of the US in the past four years.
   • At least two must have been the Chief Judge of an International Jury on which the candidate as served in the past four years.
5. have his/her principal place of residence in the United States;
6. do a substantial portion of his/her judging in the United States;
7. accept ISAF "country" listing as the United States for service on an International Jury (see RRS Appendix M, International Juries).

*NOTE: as of 2003, ISAF has added a requirement for confidential reference forms to be reviewed by the ISAF International Judges Sub-Committee.  These ISAF references are separate from the US SAILING references and while US SAILING uses the same reference form and a candidate may use one or more of the same references for ISAF and US SAILING, the ISAF references are separate. 

Lacey Given, is the US SAILING Race Administration Director, and should be used as the lead contact person with US SAILING.

Process for requesting nomination for International Judge

• Applications for ISAF appointments must be sent to US SAILING by June 1 (and preferably earlier) for consideration at that year's November ISAF Annual Meeting.
• Upon receipt of the ISAF IJ Application, US SAILING will forward to the applicant the US SAILING Application for Nomination by US SAILING as an ISAF International Judge"  which the applicant must fill out and promptly return to US SAILING.
• US SAILING will then contact the references named in the Application for Nomination and obtain from them reference forms.  The ISAF IJSC form will be used.  While the references will be strongly encouraged to share their references with the candidates directly, confidential references will be accepted if the reference so requests.
• The applicant has full responsibility to follow-up and ensure that US SAILING receives the completed forms.
• Applications that are completed by July 1 (including all required reference forms) will be reviewed by the Judges Committee in a closed session (this may be a teleconference).
• In addition, the Judges Committee will seek independent confirmation of the candidates capabilities and experience by contacting other judges known to have worked with the candidate.
• The Judges Committee will forward their recommendations to the US SAILING Executive Committee for final approval.
• For candidates receiving a nomination by US SAILING, US SAILING will forward the application to ISAF in accordance with the deadlines stated in the ISAF Regulations.