This is the third article in the series on mark-room. In the past two articles all of the boats required to give mark-room were right-of-way boats. This time we will talk about sailing past the mark when the boat who required to give mark-room is not the right-of-way boat.


In the diagram Blue and Yellow are approaching a weather mark. Yellow is approaching on port tack and then tacks beneath Blue about five boat lengths from the mark. In a later article we will look at what happens if Yellow’s tack was inside the zone (three hull lengths from the mark). At position 3, when Yellow enters the zone, she is overlapped inside Blue and Blue is required to give mark-room. Blue is also to windward and required to keep clear of Blue. Blue expects Yellow to bear off as she rounds the mark, but Yellow is not required to. Yellow did not establish her overlap from clear astern to leeward so rule 17 does not apply. Yellow can hold her course well past the mark or even luff Blue. This also would be true if Yellow had been on Starboard tack for long time and Blue established her overlap to windward from astern.



In the second diagram, Red establishes her overlap to leeward of Green from clear astern within two boat lengths of the Green. This means that Red is limited by rule 17 and cannot sail above her proper course. Her proper course is the course that she would sail if Green was not there. A position 2, when Green gets to the zone, Red is overlapped so Red it entitled to mark-room. You can see at position 5 that Red alters course above close-hauled. This is legitimate. Red need to luff to get around the mark whether or not Green is there. This is Red’s proper course. At position 6 she should start to bear away to the course to the next mark. Instead, Red is very high at position 7 and 8. This is almost certainly not Red’s proper course so Red is breaking rule 17. By that time Red is not sailing within the mark-room she is entitled to and she is past the mark. Rule 18 does not protect her.
 

Mark-Room  Room for a boat

(a) to sail to the mark when her proper course is to sail close to it,

(b) to round or pass the mark on the required side, and

(c) to leave it astern.

Proper Course  A course a boat would choose in order to sail the course as quickly as possible in the absence of the other boats referred to in the rule using the term. A boat has no proper course before her starting signal.

Room  The space a boat needs in the existing conditions, including space to comply with her obligations under the rules of Part 2 and rule 31, while manoeuvring promptly in a seamanlike way.

11 ON THE SAME TACK, OVERLAPPED

When boats are on the same tack and overlapped, a windward boat shall keep clear of a leeward boat.

17 ON THE SAME TACK; PROPER COURSE

If a boat clear astern becomes overlapped within two of her hull lengths to leeward of a boat on the same tack, she shall not sail above her proper course while they remain on the same tack and overlapped within that distance, unless in doing so she promptly sails astern of the other boat.

18.2 Giving Mark-Room

(a) When the first of two boats reaches the zone,

(1) if the boats are overlapped, the outside boat at that moment shall give the inside boat mark-room;

(2) if the boats are not overlapped, the boat that has not reached the zone at that moment shall give the other boat mark-room.

When a boat is required to give mark-room by this rule, she shall continue to do so for as long as this rule applies, even if later an overlap is broken or a new overlap begins.

Copies of these rules articles along with animated diagrams can be found at www.rcyc.ca > sailing > racing > know your rules

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