What are the steering and lane rules during a race?

• You steer. Crews are responsible for their own steering (Rule 5.8.2). The umpire won't give steering instructions except to avoid an accident or stop a crew being impeded by an opponent.
• Stay in your lane. Each crew has its own lane and must stay completely inside it, including the oars or sculls, for the whole race.
• Leaving your lane is allowed at your own risk, as long as you don't impede an opponent or gain an unfair advantage. Outside your lane you lose the umpire's protection.
• Interference means your boat or blades come into another crew's lane and disadvantage them by contact, wash or distraction. If that affects their finishing position, your crew is excluded. After a collision, the umpire can exclude the crew at fault even without a warning.
• Warnings: if you're drifting towards another crew, the umpire raises a white flag, calls your crew and lowers the flag to show which way to move. Correct straight away.
• Unbuoyed courses: where the course isn't fully buoyed, the umpire judges whether your course is correct.
• Head races: if you're being caught by a crew that started behind you, move out of your odd-numbered lane into the next higher lane, let them pass, then move back.

Before and after your race: don't cross the finish line while another race is finishing, stop when racing crews approach, and don't follow a race when you're not in it.