(pillow)Case of the Week (49) - 63

(This is an instalment in a series of blogposts about the ISAF Call book 2009-2012 with amendments for 2010. All calls are official interpretations by the ISAF committees on how the Racing Rules of Sailing should be used or interpreted. The calls are copied from the Call book, only the comments are written by me.)

Case 64 has been deleted in the Casebook.

CASE 63

Rule 18.2(b), Mark-Room: Giving Mark-Room
Rule 18.5(b), Mark-Room: Exoneration
Definitions, Mark-Room

At a mark, when room is made available to a boat that is not entitled to it, she may, at her own risk, take advantage of the room.

Summary of the Facts


Two boats, A and B, broad reaching and about to round the leeward mark, were overlapped with B outside. C was further astern. A passed the mark about one hull length to leeward, as did B, leaving ample room for C to round the mark inside them. B, because of her position outside A, was unable to deny room to C, and at no time during the incident sailed a course that would have resulted in a collision with C. No contact occurred. B protested C.

The protest committee dismissed B’s protest stating that C did not break any rule when she sailed between B and the mark and C did not cause B to take avoiding action or prevent B from luffing. B appealed on the grounds that C’s action prevented her from executing her intended manoeuvre, which had been to slow down by bearing away and then to harden up across A’s transom, thereby denying room to C to pass inside.


Decision 

B’s appeal is dismissed. When B entered the zone she was clear ahead of C, so rule 18.2(b) required C to give B mark-room. Rule 12 (and later rule 11) also required C to keep clear of B. B was not required to give C mark-room. However, B, because she could not prevent it, allowed C room to sail between her and the mark and the protest committee found that she was not in a position to do otherwise. When C sailed between B and the mark C broke no rule.

When a boat voluntarily or unintentionally makes room at a mark available to another that has no rights to such room, the other boat may take advantage, at her own risk, of the room. The risk she takes is that the boat entitled to mark-room may be able to close the gap between her and the mark while sailing her proper course. In that case, the boat entitled to mark-room will be exonerated if she breaks a rule of Section A or rule 15 or 16 (see rule 18.5(b)), and only rule 14 will inhibit her if she makes a rapid and aggressive attempt to close the gap between herself and the mark.

RYA 1984/1



I wonder how many re- writes this call has gone through since 1984. And now with the latest change in wording with ‘mark-room’, it still works. Shows that not THAT much has changed in the way regatta rules are used on the water.

How’s that saying again: “You Snooze, you Loose”?

And talking about saying:
You have to click over to Tillerman’s post on Paul Elstrøm: What Did Elvstrøm Say?

Perhaps a genuine htg rules-nerd can find the answer…

J.