Forum: The Racing Rules of Sailing
luff after the leeward mark
Vincent Harris
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
- Judge In Training
1
This is basically the classic “you can’t go in there!!” situation at a leeward mark, taken to an extreme.
Yellow and Red are two 16.5 foot non-planing dinghies sailing in approximately 8 knots of breeze initially toward a leeward mark.
When yellow enters the zone around the leeward mark, she has right-of-way as clear ahead boat, and is entitled to mark-room for the same reason.
By position 3, she is passing the mark, approximately one boatlength to leeward of the mark, and Red has complied with Yellow’s right to mark-room.
Red sails close to the mark as Yellow’s transom is passing the mark, and luffs to a close-hauled course. Boats become overlapped between positions 3 and 4, and Yellow has right-of-way under 11. Yellow luffs rapidly and at position 4 both boats are past close-hauled, with Red responding to the luff and keeping clear. By position 4, rule 18 is no longer in effect, as Yellow has been given mark-room.
Yellow continues to luff with red keeping clear, and shortly before position 5 both boats become head-to-wind with approximately one foot separation. Red wishes to tack, but can’t without soon causing contact with Yellow. See question 1 below.
At position 5, Yellow, nearly stopped, passes HTW and begins to fall off on starboard tack, Red follows, and contact occurs. I believe that Yellow breaks rule 13 and also breaks 14 because she causes contact when she could have avoided it.
Neither boat touched the mark. The entire event took approximately 12-15 seconds from when Yellow came abreast of the mark until contact.
No protest was filed. Red performed a two-turns penalty, thinking that they may have broken the last part of rule 13.
No protest was filed. Red performed a two-turns penalty, thinking that they may have broken the last part of rule 13.
Q1: Were any rules broken up to the point between positions 4 and 5 when the boats are head-to-wind? Red has so far responded to the luff and kept clear, but has now just about run out of room to do so further. Yellow is still defined as leeward boat when they’re head-to-wind. I had thought that Yellow had broken 16.1, but perhaps not if she is HTW and Red is still clear. True?
Q2: Did Red also break 13, because she fell off on starboard after being luffed past head-to-wind (and was to port of Yellow)? Maybe, but I believe she would have been exonerated. Correct?
Q3: Are there any faults in my analysis? I’ve made rules conclusions and you folks can correct me. I’m biased, as I was crew on the Red boat.
Rule 11 and 16.1: I have some confusion between 11’s requirement to keep clear vs. 16.1’s requirement to provide room to keep clear. I think one or another of these requirements was not met when contact occurred. As crew on the Red boat, I can say that we absolutely were “maneuvering promptly in a seamanlike way” (from the definition of room). There was no dilly-dallying; we rapidly steered a smooth course keeping clear and were willing to tack, but we didn’t have room to do so and were unable to continue to keep clear. Boats were moving forward, but still, they’ll pivot about their centers to some degree, causing the distance to close as they rotate into the wind and beyond.
Thank you for your thoughts and comments.
Thank you for your thoughts and comments.
Comments
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Mark Room definition at the bottom has a caveat, "mark-room does not include room to tack.....except, which doesn't apply here.
Rule 11 applied right up to Yellow passing head to wind at which time Rule 13 turned on.
Rule 13 Applies, While Tacking. Yellow after passing head to wind shall keep clear of other boats until she is on a close hauled course. "Old school, you can't tack into someone's water"
Red did the right thing in keeping clear, right up until she too was Tacking, then the last part of rule 13 applies. "If two boats are subject to this rule at the same time, the one on the other's port side (Red)... shall keep clear.
12-15 seconds gives an indication that general limitations Rule 15&16 complied with other than rule 14.
Here, Red is not entitled to mark room, but space is made available to her by Yellow. After position 4 RRS 18 does not apply any more, since both boats have rounded the mark.
At position 5, Yellow infringes RRS 13 (and RRS 14). Yellow is DSQ. Red did not infringe a rule.
-V