Forum: The Racing Rules of Sailing

To be a MARK or not to be

Catalan Benaros
Nationality: Argentina
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We have 3 minutes to the starting signal so I'm racing.

If I touch the starting buoy, I violate rule 31.

But  with 3 min to start, that buoy has not a specified side to leave on......so is or not a mark ??

It sounds strange to me.
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Mark:
An object the sailing instructions require a boat to leave on a specified side

31 TOUCHING A MARK
While racing, a boat shall not touch a starting mark before starting

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Cheers !!!
Cata
Created: Yesterday 21:57

Comments

Format:
P
Emmet Dalton
Hi Cata
Think you’re covered by
“44.1Taking a Penalty
A boat may take a Two-Turns Penalty when she may have broken one or more rules of Part 2 in an incident while racing. She may take a One-Turn Penalty when she may have broken rule 31….”
Take a one turn penalty and get back into your starting tactics and enjoy the race. 
Created: Yesterday 22:20
P
John D. Farris
Nationality: United States
In a normal starting sequence, the race committee gives your preparatory signal, and you start racing. At 3 minutes to go, if you touch the starting buoy, you break rule 31 by touching “a starting mark … before starting.” If you touch it before your preparatory signal, you have not started racing yet, so rule 31 does not apply (though your SIs/local rules may still require you to keep clear). Even if the starting buoy has no required side at that moment, it still counts as a mark, because a mark doesn’t always have a required side: “A mark that does not begin, bound, or end the leg the boat is sailing does not have a required side.” 
Created: Yesterday 22:22
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Angelo Guarino
Forum Moderator
Nationality: United States
Deleted and Rephrasing my post ... 

RRS 31 answers the Q directly with its own starting-mark caveat.  That caveat is needed because of 2 ambiguities in the rules ...

  1. Is a boat sailing a leg of the course prior to her staring-signal?
  2. Does the starting-mark have a "required-side" a boat must "leave it" prior to the final approach a boat makes to start?

RRS 31 removes both of those by simply settling it.  If you are racing and touch, a penalty is required unless the boat is exonerated. 

Created: Yesterday 22:46
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John Allan
Nationality: Australia
Yes, a starting mark does have a specified side:  it is the 'inside' side of the starting mark, between that mark and the other starting mark.

The fact that at a particular point in time a boat is not required to round or pass a mark on a specified side does not make it not a mark.  Marks don't blink on and off like traffic lights.
Created: Yesterday 22:46
Mark Townsend
Nationality: United States
Catalan, read rule 31, there are three conditions.

While racing, a boat shall not 
  • touch a starting mark before starting, 
  • a mark that begins, bounds or ends the leg of the course on which she is sailing, or 
  • a finishing mark after finishing.

31 TOUCHING A MARK
While racing, a boat shall not touch a starting mark before starting, a
mark that begins, bounds or ends the leg of the course on which she
is sailing, or a finishing mark after finishing.

Rule 44 requires you take the penalty "as soon after the incident as possible"... in other words before the starting signal. 

Created: Today 00:20
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