In winds of 30 knots, the finishing line was port tack favoured. S, a 35 foot boat, laid the committee boat on port tack, luffed across the finishing line, and tacked onto starboard to avoid the anchor line of the committee boat. S then fell back to the course side of the finishing line and continued on starboard tack. About one minute after she finished, S converged with P who was approaching the finishing line to finish on port tack.

P bore away to pass astern of S, but rounded up in a strong gust and collided with S. Both yachts protested. The protest committee found that S had not broken rule 24.1. The protest committee found that P had not kept clear of S and they disqualified P for breaking rule 10. P appealed.

The preamble to Part 2 provides that the rules of Part 2 apply between boats that are sailing in or near the racing area and intend to race, are racing or have been racing. The rules of Part 2 therefore applied between S and P because, even though S had finished, because she was sailing in the racing area, and had been racing.

The official diagram is also part of the facts found by the protest committee. The diagram shows that, when the two boats came together, S was clear to leeward of the finishing line but had only sailed 2/3 of the length of the finishing line towards the pin. S had therefore not cleared the finishing marks – in this case, the pin – and was still sailing in the racing area. Under the definition of racing, S was therefore still racing.

Since S did not alter course to interfere with P either before or during the incident, S did not break rules 14(a), 16.2 or 24.2, or any other rule of Part 2. The appeal is dismissed. P was correctly disqualified by the protest committee for breaking rules 10 and 14.

See also World Sailing Case 104.