Forum: The Racing Rules of Sailing
When a leeward boat must give mark room, can she go inside from astern?
Diagram attached. This actually never happened, but it came up in discussion several weeks ago.
Rule 18.2(c) provides:
Rule 18.2(c) provides:
When a boat is required to give mark-room by rule 18.2(b),
she shall continue to do so even if later an overlap is broken or a new overlap begins;
if she becomes overlapped inside the boat entitled to mark-room, she shall also give that boat room to sail her proper course while they remain overlapped.
The definition of mark room says:
Mark-Room
Room for a boat to leave a mark on the required side. Also,
(a) room to sail to the mark when her proper course is to sail close to it, and
(b) room to round or pass the mark as necessary to sail the course without touching the mark.
It would seem that L, as the leeward boat, had an obligation to give mark room to W after she establishes an inside overlap as the leeward boat. So did she? L allowed W to sail to the mark, to round the mark, and to continue along her proper course to the next mark. It seems she did all that was required. Some people insist that L was not permitted to go between the mark and W.
Thoughts? Thanks!
Created: 24-Jan-23 19:43
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So if L wasn’t there and the next mark was to the right, would it be a proper course for W to cut the mark close?
If, on the other hand, W is prevented in the slightest from sailing her course, then L has not given her mark-room.
Because W is clear ahead at the zone, she can even head up before turning to round the mark and L must still give her mark-room.
All in all, a very risky move for L.
When a boat voluntarily or unintentionally makes space between herself and a mark available to another that has no right to such space, the other boat may take advantage, at her own risk, of the space. The risk the other boat takes is that the boat entitled to mark-room may be able to close the gap between herself and the mark while sailing her proper course. In that case, the boat entitled to mark-room will be exonerated by rule 43.1(b) if she breaks a rule of Section A or rule 15 or 16, and only rule 14 will limit her course if she makes a rapid and aggressive attempt to close the gap between herself and the mark.
So yes it would be better for W to be able to get right close to the mark, so in absence of another boat she would sail right close to it.
I’m not quite sure what you are saying above.
IMO, Proper Course is probably the most misused and misunderstood term in the RRS, but in this scenario it’s all about def: mark room and room for W to sail her proper course.
Actually, we have 3 proper course use-instances in this one scenario.
Where the next mark is and where the wind is coming from is key and has a large influence on proper course (and this scenario).
For instance, if the next mark was a windward mark off the top of the page and the wind was from the top as well, W’s proper course would not be to sail close to the mark shown because she’s trying to make way to windward while passing this mark on its proper side. In that case, neither W’s MR nor W’s 18.2(c)(2) room would include room to sail down toward the mark (thus closing out L).
In this alternate scenario, if W fell off from close-hauled … forcing L to leeward and squeezed L to miss the mark, W would have broken rule 11 and not been exonerated by rule 43.1(b), as she was sailing outside the MR she was entitled to.
I.e., the proper course for one class is not necessarily the proper course for another class, and the proper course for one technician is not necessarily the proper course for another.
I was trying to highlight that proper course is not necessarily a straight line or shortest route between points a and b as as it is often interpreted. There is no doubt that in the given scenario, the proper course was to sail close to the mark.
This brings up another idea about proper course. When I quote it I usually bold the “a”.
PC is “a course” … not “the course”. I see “a course” as painting a set of reasonable possibilities, where “the course” would point to a singular solution. I think maybe this touches on your point?