DEFINITIONS
Definitions, Clear Astern and Clear Ahead; Overlap
CASE 12
In determining the right of an inside boat to mark-room under rule 18.2(b),
it is irrelevant that boats are on widely differing courses, provided that an
overlap exists when the first of them reaches the zone.
CASE 23
On a run, rule 19 does not apply to a starboard-tack boat that passes between
two port-tack boats ahead of her. Rule 10 requires both port-tack boats to keep
clear.
CASE 33
A boat that hails for room to tack before safety requires her to tack is entitled
to receive room under rule 20.1(b), but by hailing at that time she breaks rule
20.3. An inside overlapped boat is entitled to room between the outside boat
and an obstruction under rule 19.2(b) even though she has tacked into the inside
overlapping position.
CASE 43
A close-hauled port-tack boat that is sailing parallel and close to an obstruction
must keep clear of a boat that has completed her tack to starboard and is approaching
on a collision course.
CASE 91
A boat required to keep clear must keep clear of another boat’s equipment
out of its normal position when the equipment has been out of its normal position
long enough for the equipment to have been seen and avoided.
Definitions, Finish
CASE 45
When a boat fails to finish correctly because of a race committee error, but
none of the boats racing gains or loses as a result, an appropriate and fair
form of redress is to score all the boats in the order they crossed the finishing
line.
CASE 58
If a buoy or other object specified in the sailing instructions as a finishing-
line limit mark is on the post-finish side of the finishing line, it is not
a mark.
CASE 82
When a finishing line is laid so nearly in line with the last leg that it cannot
be determined which is the correct way to cross it in order to finish according
to the definition, a boat may cross the line in either direction and her finish
is to be recorded accordingly.
CASE 112
If one boat makes an error in sailing the course, a second boat may notify the
first that she intends to protest when the error is made, or at the first reasonable
opportunity after the first boat finishes, or at any time in-between.
Definitions, Keep Clear
CASE 30
A boat clear astern that is required to keep clear but collides with the boat
clear ahead breaks the right-of-way rule that was applicable before the collision
occurred. A boat that loses right of way by unintentionally changing tack is
nevertheless required to keep clear.
CASE 50
When a protest committee finds that in a port-starboard incident S did not change
course and that there was not a genuine and reasonable apprehension of collision
on the part of S, it should dismiss her protest. When the committee finds that
S did change course and that there was reasonable doubt that P could have crossed
ahead of S if S had not changed course, then P should be disqualified.
CASE 60
When a right-of-way boat changes course in such a way that a keep-clear boat,
despite having taken avoiding action promptly, cannot keep clear in a seamanlike
way, the right-of-way boat breaks rule 16.1.
CASE 77
Contact with a mark by a boat’s equipment constitutes touching it. A boat
obligated to keep clear does not break a rule when touched by a right-of-way
boat’s equipment that moves unexpectedly out of normal position.
CASE 87
A right-of-way boat need not act to avoid contact until it is clear that the
other boat is not keeping clear.
CASE 88
A boat may avoid contact and yet fail to keep clear.
CASE 91
A boat required to keep clear must keep clear of another boat’s equipment
out of its normal position when the equipment has been out of its normal position
long enough for the equipment to have been seen and avoided.
Definitions, Mark
CASE 58
If a buoy or other object specified in the sailing instructions as a finishing-
line limit mark is on the post-finish side of the finishing line, it is not
a mark.
Definitions, Mark-Room
CASE 15
In tacking to round a mark, a boat clear ahead must comply with rule 13; a boat
clear astern is entitled to hold her course and thereby prevent the other from
tacking.
CASE 21
The amount of space that a right-of-way boat obligated to give mark-room to
an inside overlapped boat must give at the mark depends on the inside boat’s
proper course in the existing conditions.
CASE 63
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.
CASE 70
An inside overlapped windward boat that is entitled to and is receiving mark-room
from the outside boat must keep clear of the outside boat.
CASE 114
When a boat is entitled to room, the space she is entitled to includes space
for her to keep clear of or give room to other boats when required to do so
by the rules.
Definitions, Obstruction
CASE 10
When two boats are involved in an incident and one of them breaks a rule, she
shall be exonerated when a third boat that also broke a rule caused the incident.
CASE 23
On a run, rule 19 does not apply to a starboard-tack boat that passes between
two port-tack boats ahead of her. Rule 10 requires both port-tack boats to keep
clear.
CASE 29
A leeward boat is an obstruction to an overlapped windward boat and a third
boat clear astern. The boat clear astern may sail between the two overlapped
boats and be entitled to room from the windward boat to pass between her and
the leeward boat, provided that the windward boat has been able to give that
room from the time the overlap began.
CASE 41
If an obstruction can be passed on either side by two overlapped boats, the
right-of-way boat, if she chooses to pass it to leeward, must give room to the
other. If the right-of-way boat chooses to pass it to windward, she is entitled
to room to do so, and the other boat must keep clear. There is no obligation
to hail for room at an obstruction.
Definitions, Party
CASE 55
A boat cannot protest the race committee or the protest committee. However,
she may request redress or, if she is a party to a hearing, request that it
be reopened. A boat has no right of appeal from a redress decision when she
was not a party to the hearing. When she believes that her score has been made
significantly worse by the arrangement reached in that decision she must herself
request redress. She may then appeal the decision of that hearing.
Definitions, Proper Course
CASE 9
When a starboard-tack boat chooses to sail past a windward mark, a port-tack
boat must keep clear. There is no rule that requires a boat to sail a proper
course.
CASE 13
Before her starting signal, a leeward boat does not break a rule by sailing
a course higher than the windward boat’s course.
CASE 14
When, owing to a difference of opinion about a leeward boat’s proper course,
two boats on the same tack converge, the windward boat must keep clear. Two
boats on the same leg sailing near one another may have different proper courses.
CASE 21
The amount of space that a right-of-way boat obligated to give mark-room to
an inside overlapped boat must give at the mark depends on the inside boat’s
proper course in the existing conditions.
CASE 46
A leeward boat is entitled to sail up to her proper course, even when she has
established a leeward overlap from clear astern and within two of her hull lengths
of the windward boat.
Definitions, Racing
CASE 68
The failure of a race committee to discover that a rating certificate is invalid
does not entitle a boat to redress. A boat that may have broken a rule and that
continues to race retains her rights under the racing rules, including her rights
under the rules of Part 2 and her rights to protest and appeal, even if she
is later disqualified.
Definitions, Room
CASE 21
The amount of space that a right-of-way boat obligated to give mark-room to
an inside overlapped boat must give at the mark depends on the inside boat’s
proper course in the existing conditions.
CASE 60
When a right-of-way boat changes course in such a way that a keep-clear boat,
despite having taken avoiding action promptly, cannot keep clear in a seamanlike
way, the right-of-way boat breaks rule 16.1.
CASE 93
If a boat luffs immediately after she becomes overlapped to leeward of another
boat and there is no seamanlike action that would enable the other boat to keep
clear, the boat that luffed breaks rules 15 and 16.1. The other boat breaks
rule 11, but is exonerated under rule 64.1(c).
CASE 103
The phrase ‘seamanlike way’ in the definition Room refers to boat-handling
that can reasonably be expected from a competent, but not expert, crew of the
appropriate number for the boat.
CASE 114
When a boat is entitled to room, the space she is entitled to includes space
for her to keep clear of or give room to other boats when required to do so
by the rules.
Definitions, Rule
CASE 85
If a racing rule is not one of the rules listed in rule 86.1(c), class rules
are not permitted to change it. If a class rule attempts to change such a rule,
that class rule is not valid and does not apply.
CASE 98
The rules listed in the definition Rule apply to races governed by The Racing
Rules of Sailing whether or not the notice of race or sailing instructions explicitly
state that they apply. A sailing instruction, provided it is consistent with
any prescription to rule 88.2, may change some or all of the prescriptions of
the national authority. Generally, neither the notice of race nor the sailing
instructions may change a class rule. When a boat races under a handicapping
or rating system, the rules of that system apply, and some or all of her class
rules may apply as well. When the notice of race conflicts with the sailing
instructions, neither takes precedence.