When it would be clear to a competent, but not necessarily expert, sailor at the helm of a starboard-tack boat that there is substantial risk of contact with a port-tack boat, the starboard-tack boat breaks rule 14 if contact occurs and there was still time for her to change course sufficiently to avoid the contact.
At any point in time while two boats are approaching an obstruction, the right-of-way boat at that moment may choose to pass the obstruction on either side provided that she can then comply with the applicable rules.
When an outside overlapped boat is required to give room to one or more inside boats to pass an obstruction, the space she gives must be sufficient to permit all the inside boats to comply with their obligations under the rules of Part 2.
For the purpose of determining whether rule 24.2 applies to an incident, a boat is sailing on the leg which is consistent with her course immediately before the incident and her reasons for sailing that course.
A boat clears the finishing line and marks when no part of her hull, crew or equipment is on the line, and no mark is influencing her choice of course.
If the race committee observes a boat make an error under rule 28.1 in sailing the course and fail to correct that error, it is required to score her NSC. If it observes a boat touch a mark as she finishes, it must score in her finishing position and it may protest her for breaking rule 31.
When the course is shortened at a rounding mark, the mark becomes a finishing mark. Rule 32.2(a) permits the race committee to position the vessel displaying flag S at either end of the finishing line. A boat must cross the line in accordance with the definition Finish, even if in so doing she leaves that mark on the side opposite the side on which she would have been required to leave it if the course had not been shortened.