CASE 62        

Rule 18.2(c), Rounding and Passing Marks and Obstructions: Giving Room; Keeping Clear: Not Overlapped at the Zone

One boat is obligated to keep clear of another under rule 18.2(c) until both have passed the mark or obstruction.

Summary of the Facts
Two offshore boats, A and B, rounded the windward mark, a large navigational buoy, to port with A clear ahead of B. The wind was very light, and there was a 1.5-knot current against the wind. After rounding, A gybed onto port tack, set her spinnaker, and sailed downwind more than two hull lengths from the mark. B kept clear of A while A rounded, rounded herself, gybed and set her spinnaker, but the wind lightened and she did not clear the mark, the wind and current offsetting each other. As a result of the lightening wind and B’s blanketing her, A began to drift backwards towards the mark and eventually there was minor contact causing no damage or injury.

A protested under rules 18.2(c) and 11; B protested under rule 18.2(a). The protest committee dismissed A’s protest, upheld B’s, and disqualified A for failing to give room to round the mark. A appealed.

Decision
Appeal upheld; A is reinstated and B is disqualified.

The boats were not overlapped at the time A reached the two-length zone, and so B was required by rule 18.2(c) to keep clear of A until both boats had passed the mark. When contact occurred, B was not past the mark. Hence, she is disqualified for breaking rule 18.2(c).

USSA 1983/256