Last month, I discussed a situation that I had been asked about where one boat was approaching a leeward gate and another was approaching a separate finishing line. This month, I want to carry on to a related situation. This time, the finishing line and the mark are together.
First, let’s look at a common situation.
(click on the diagram to see a larger cleaner version)
In the diagram, Red and Green are approaching a leeward mark that both of them are going to leave to Port. Green is sailing on a reach on starboard tack. Red is on a run on port tack and sailing much more slowly. They are overlapped at position 1 and continue overlapped until position 6. Green is entitled to mark-room in accordance with rule 18.2(b). Green is also the right-of-way boat since she is on starboard tack. Rule 18.4 says that until she gybes she cannot sail further from the mark than her proper course, so essentially. she has to gybe at the mark. Red just has to give her room and follow her around the mark. This is a fairly common situation and does not seem to cause too much trouble. Now let’s look at a very similar situation.
18.2 Giving Mark-Room
(a) When boats are overlapped the outside boat shall give the inside boat mark-room, unless rule 18.2(b) applies.
(b) If boats are overlapped when the first of them reaches the zone, the outside boat at that moment shall thereafter give the inside boat mark-room. If a boat is clear ahead when she reaches the zone, the boat clear astern at that moment shall thereafter give her mark-room.
18.4 Gybing
When an inside overlapped right-of-way boat must gybe at a mark to sail her proper course, until she gybes she shall sail no farther from the mark than needed to sail that course. Rule 18.4 does not apply at a gate mark.
24 INTERFERING WITH ANOTHER BOAT
24.1 If reasonably possible, a boat not racing shall not interfere with a boat that is racing.
Racing A boat is racing from her preparatory signal until she finishes and clears the finishing line and marks or retires, or until the race committee signals a general recall, postponement or abandonment.
(click on the diagram to see a larger cleaner version)
This diagram starts exactly the same way, but this time White is approaching her finish. Blue still has another lap to go. The first part of rule 18.4 says, “must gybe at a mark to sail her proper course”. White’s proper course has nothing to do with rounding the mark or gybing, so rule 18.4 doesn’t apply. White is the right-of-way boat and has no reason to stay close the mark. Blue is trapped. She has to gybe to avoid White and even then, she is the windward boat. At position 4 and 5, she is sailing away from the mark that she is trying to round. She only gets some relief from the rules at position 5 when White has not only finished (position 4), but cleared the line and therefore according the definitions, stopped racing. At that time, rule 24 requires that White “if reasonably possible” shall not interfere with Blue. This is far too late for Blue.
In situations like this, boats such as Blue would be well advised to keep an early eye on the inside of the course and maybe even slow down to take White’s stern.
© Copyright 2013 Andrew Alberti