There are 11 sailing events in nine classes of boats - 49er (open), 470 (men and women), Europe (women), Finn (men), Laser (open), Mistral sailboard (men and women), Soling (open), Star (open) and Tornado (open). Europe, Finn and Laser classes are single-handed dinghies, 470 and 49er are double-handed dinghies, the 49er, a high-performance boat, the Tornado is a double-handed catamaran, the Star a two-person keelboat and the Soling a three-person keelboat.

Men and women contest three events each, while the remaining five are open to both sexes. All classes are fleet events, in which all boats race together at once, except Soling, in which the competition starts with fleet races of six boats a time before the best 12 boats enter a match-race elimination where boats race each other in pairs.

The race committee decides the course for each race, based on wind direction. Races may be shortened or abandoned if the committee decides that race conditions have changed enough to warrant such action. Boats are informed by flags and Klaxons.

There are six courses at the Games, four in Sydney Harbour and two offshore, immediately out from the Harbour entrance.

The two types of courses are "windward return" and "trapezoidal". Tornados and 49ers must complete a windward-return course, since they have to sail into the wind one way, and with the wind on the way home. Trapezoidal courses have four legs, with the start and finish in different places.

Races have time limits: Mistrals and 49ers, one hour; Laser, Europe, 470 and Tornado, 90 minutes; Finn, Star and Soling, two hours.

At the start of each race, a first gun or horn sounds six minutes before the off to crews boats to get their boats into position. start as a warning. Further signals are given at race minus five minutes and race minus one minute. Boats that false start are often required to sail once round the starting buoy as a penalty. If more than one boat false starts and the committee cannot tell who was to blame, the whole race starts again.

Boats are awarded points depending on the place in which they finish, with first place getting one point, second two and so forth. Those that fail to finish get one more point than the number of boats in the race.

In team racing, the worst result of five is discarded before a further four races are sailed, after which the worst two results are discarded to give a final points tally. It is therefore possible have a couple of poor performances and still win a title.

In match racing, tactics play a greater part as opponents attempt to manoeuvre their boats into a position that violates the rules.