Facts
L and W, both about 14 feet (4 m) long, were sailing on starboard tack at about 4 knots, approaching a windward mark to be left to starboard. The direction of the course to the next mark was downwind. The boats were overlapped with W, the inside boat, slightly ahead. W requested mark-room and L replied, "Mark-room will be given when needed." Subsequently, when 20 feet (6 m) from the mark, the boats made contact beam to beam. No damage or injury occurred. L protested W, alleging that W broke rule
11.
The protest committee disqualified L for not giving W room to sail to the mark after she asked for it. L appealed.
Decision
Before and at the time of the contact, rule
11 required W to keep clear of L. While W was sailing to the mark, she broke rule
11 by sailing so close to L that there was a need for L to take avoiding action. Under rule
18.2(b) W was entitled to mark-room from L. W's proper course was to sail close to the mark, and so she was entitled to the space she needed in the existing conditions to sail promptly to it in a seamanlike way. The diagram accepted by the protest committee showed that, from the time W reached the zone until contact occurred, L had given W room to sail to the mark, but when W broke rule
11 she was not sailing within that room. For this reason, W is not exonerated under rule
21(a) for breaking rule
11.
Both boats could easily have avoided the contact, and so both broke rule
14. However, the contact caused neither damage nor injury and, because L was the right-of-way boat and W was entitled to mark-room, both boats are exonerated for breaking rule
14 (see rule
14(b)).
L's appeal is upheld. She is reinstated in her finishing place and W is disqualified for breaking rule
11.