Before the starting signal, two boats were reaching on starboard tack toward the committee vessel at the end of the starting line. L established her leeward overlap when there was room for W to keep clear. W made no attempt to keep clear. L’s crew leaned out and touched an item of W’s equipment which was in its normal position. L protested W. L’s evidence was that her crew had touched W to prove that W was too close to be described as keeping clear.

The protest committee found that W had broken rule 11 and disqualified her. It also found that L had broken rule 2 by making deliberate contact with W, citing WS Case 73. W appealed.

W’s appeal is dismissed: however, L is to be reinstated.

In WS Case 73, W was keeping clear, so that L’s action in deliberately touching her could have had no other intention than to cause W to break rule 11. In the present case, the protest committee was satisfied that W was already not keeping clear, as defined, before contact occurred (even though there was no contact between the hulls or equipment of the boats) and so W was already breaking rule 11 when contact was made by the crew member of the right-of-way boat; thus rule 2 was not broken.

The contact was an infringement of rule 14, but rule 14(b) explicitly prohibits the right-of-way boat being penalized under this rule when the contact does not cause injury or damage.