RYA Case RYA2000-05
Rule 28.2, Sailing the Course
When the sailing instructions state that a mark is to be rounded, boats shall do so, even if the intentions of the race committee were otherwise. However, a boat that did not do so for good safety reasons would be entitled to redress.
The string in rule 28.2 is to be taken to lie, when taut, in navigable water only.
When a mark to be rounded is too close to the rhumb line from the previous mark to the next mark for a boat to be able to decide visually whether it has to be looped, a boat that does not loop it and is successfully protested is entitled to redress.
However, she will not be entitled to redress if the marks are charted and the boat can be expected to carry charts that will show that the mark can be rounded only by looping it.
ASSUMED FACTS
The Club asked questions that arose from a protest where the time limit for any appeal had expired. The sailing instructions required all marks to be rounded. The course set included Rebbecks (S), Oscar (P), Bell (S). The race committee had intended that Oscar was to have been a passing or ‘boundary’ mark, to keep the race away from the starting line being used by other boats.
QUESTION 1
Were boats entitled to interpret the true intentions of the race committee and not loop Oscar?
ANSWER 1
No. The sailing instructions required marks to be rounded, and therefore the only correct course was to loop Oscar. The fact that the intentions of the race committee were to the contrary does not change this.
QUESTION 2
If a boat decided not to loop Oscar and was successfully protested, could she then seek redress?
ANSWER 2
For redress to he granted, there must be some improper act or omission by the Race Committee. Requiring Oscar to be looped was not automatically an improper action of the race committee. If some boats elected not to round Oscar, were successfully protested and then sought redress, then a protest committee might rightly regard the setting of such a course as an improper action if it brought the fleet into conflict with other boats in the vicinity of the starting line. If some boats looped Oscar and others chose not to do so for safety reasons, then it is possible that the only equitable redress might be to abandon the race.
Further questions unrelated to the diagram:
QUESTION 3
Must the string referred to in rule 28.2, when drawn taut, lie in navigable water only?
ANSWER 3
There is no direct guidance in the rule itself or in WS cases. However, it would be curious for a boat’s wake to be regarded as passing over dry land, and the pragmatic interpretation of rule 28.2 is that the string, when drawn taut, lies in navigable waters only, is caught on headlands, passes to one side of non-navigable shallows or prohibited areas, and follows the course of a river.
To decide differently might sometimes mean that a mark identified by the sailing instructions as a rounding mark would otherwise have to be looped, requiring a boat to cross her own wake.
An analogy can be drawn with the separate and different requirement in the definition Finish to cross the finishing line from the course side. This has the effect of prohibiting ‘hook finishes’ in open waters, but where the race is on a river it is quite possible that the course of a river can result in the line being approached in the opposite direction from the rhumb line from the last mark. Here too, it is implicit that the direction of the course is constrained by physical geography.
Similar situations can occur with a sea course that finishes within a harbour.
QUESTION 4
What are the obligations on a boat when a rounding mark is laid close to the rhumb line from the previous mark to the next mark?
ANSWER 4
If, from observations afloat, competitors cannot be expected to be sure on which side of the rhumb line it lies, then a competitor who does not loop it and is protested should be exonerated if in fact it should have been looped.
However, if fixed marks are used and if boats can be expected to have a chart on board, then the charted position will determine whether the mark has to be looped.
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