• 49.2 on boats with no lifelines
  8 Comments
  Stephen Jones Yesterday 16:32
• 2025-2028 US Sailing Prescriptions Updated
  3 Comments
  Angelo Guarino Yesterday 01:07
• Team scoring under a fleet racing format
  14 Comments
  Matthew Blake Tue 04:14
• Two port boats duck a starboard boat
  8 Comments
  Ken Jarrad 26-Jan-25 20:51
• Time limit in Handicap Racing
  26 Comments
  Martin Fraser 26-Jan-19 20:47

• Mark-Room and Room to Pass an Obstruction who wins.
  Jim mentioned my "bleak" assessment of the situation and John pointed to the road rules.
  
  Sure, there are many more road rules and related laws than we have rules in the RRS. But the truth is that all of the road rules can be complied with at the same time because there is no conflict between them [correct me if I am wrong!]. Unfortunately, this appears to not be true for the RRS :-(
  
  My so-called 'bleak' assessment of the RRS arises from the unresolved conflict between rules #18 & #19. Ultimately, 'The Rules' should be deterministic! That is, it should be possible to clearly determine who is in the right/wrong in any situation under the RRS. ... but no :-(
  
  And then ... Jim's double-obstruction scenario is interesting and one I have considered in relation to our conundrum. Both boats are 'inside' in relation to one obstruction and 'outside' in relation to the other. Then if ROW calls for "room to tack" the other must respond by tacking. So, what if (a) ROW doesn't tack or (b) ROW tacks (through head-to-wind) and immeediately tacks back? Surely such silliness should not be required to achieve a fair outcome!
  
  John mentions that our scenario is an "edge case" and suggests the capsized boat scenario. Remember that I mentioned this in my 26-Jan post [https://www.racingrulesofsailing.org/posts/4944-mark-room-and-room-to-pass-an-obstruction-who-wins#comment_20259]. This is NOT an "edge scenario" as suggested. It happens all the time and we need a deterministic conclusion under the rules!
  
  And finally, there is the question of 'fairness'. Why should the rules be 'fair'? Fairness comess in to play because racing is a 'game' and the rules of a game need to be fundamentally fair or most will eventually choose not to play!
  
  BTW(1), Rules like port-starboard / windward-leeward / etc are not about 'fairness'. They may be arbitrary yet they are absolutely necessary to create a workable set of rules :-)
  
  BTW(2): The COLREGs appear to be self-consistent whereas our RRS seem to be not :-( Corner-cases (or edge-cases in John's idiom) will always exist and should be used to test and validate our rules in the RRS.
  David Taylor Today 05:41
• 49.2 on boats with no lifelines
  Right. .. I see it now.  It was one of those old/young woman's face thing for me.
  
  

  

  Angelo Guarino Today 01:40
• 2025-2028 US Sailing Prescriptions Updated
  Al ... when you are in the rules section of the site, if you choose Rx: USA, the prescriptions will show-up embedded in the RRS's.
  
  For Appx's R, U and V,  the entire Appx is replaced/inserted with the US Prescription.
  
  
  

  

  Angelo Guarino Yesterday 03:25
• Why is the "red flag" needed?
  I'm a month late to the party but wanted to add my own endorsement of this idea, for whatever that might be worth. 
  
  I agree with the numerous posters that have opined that the current ruleset and culture of strict validity requirements is harmful to the sport. I'm also aware that I am - and presumably many participants in this forum are - radically pro-protest in comparison to the average racer. There is a pervasive attitude amongst racers that protesting is itself unsportsmanlike. The strict validity requirements are often interpreted as intended specifically to reduce the number of "full" protest hearings, which just feeds into the anti-protest mentality. 
  
  I'm absolutely in favor of reducing the validity requirements in situations where it should be clear to the protestee that either (a) they are being protested, or (b) a rule was broken (e.x. contact occurred) and they may be at fault. 
  Matt Johns Wed 20:14
• Team scoring under a fleet racing format
  I want to thank everyone for the comments and suggestions.  For anyone faced with a similar situation, please note John Allan's reply (buried in the middle of the thread) with suggested SI language for this format that hopefully will minimize competitor confusion regarding the meaning and applicability of case 78, RRS 2, and RRS 41 in this format. 
  Matthew Blake Wed 16:06

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