PART 2 – WHEN BOATS MEET
Part 2 Preamble
CASE 67
When a boat is racing and meets a vessel that is not, both are bound by the
government right-of-way rules. When, under those rules, the boat racing is required
to keep clear but intentionally hits the other boat, she may be penalized for
gross misconduct.
CASE 109
The IRPCAS or government right-of-way rules apply between boats that are racing
only if the sailing instructions say so, and in that case all of the Part 2
rules are replaced. An IRPCAS or government rule may be made to apply by including
it in the sailing instructions or in another document governing the event.
Section A – Right of Way
Rule 10, On Opposite Tacks
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 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 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 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 75
When rule 18 applies, the rules of Sections A and B apply as well. When an inside
overlapped right-of-way boat must gybe at a mark, she is entitled to sail her
proper course until she gybes. A starboard-tack boat that changes course does
not break rule 16.1 if she gives a port-tack boat adequate space to keep clear
and the port-tack boat fails to take advantage of it promptly.
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 99
The fact that a boat required to keep clear is out of control does not entitle
her to exoneration for breaking a rule of Part 2. When a right-of-way boat becomes
obliged by rule 14 to ‘avoid contact . . . if reasonably possible’
and the only way to do so is to crash-gybe, she does not break the rule if she
does not crash-gybe. When a boat’s penalty under rule 44.1(b) is to retire,
and she does so (whether because of choice or necessity), she cannot then be
disqualified.
CASE 105
When two boats are running on opposite tacks, the starboard-tack boat may change
course provided she gives the port-tack boat room to keep clear.
Rule 11, On the Same Tack, Overlapped
CASE 7
When, after having been clear astern, a boat becomes overlapped to leeward within
two of her hull lengths of the other boat, the windward boat must keep clear,
but the leeward boat must initially give the windward boat room to keep clear
and must not sail above her proper course.
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 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. Tw boats
on the same leg sailing near one another may have different proper courses.
CASE 24
When a boat becomes overlapped to leeward from clear astern, the other boat
must act promptly to keep clear. When she cannot do so in a seamanlike way,
she has not been given sufficient room. If she takes unnecessary action that
causes contact, she fails to keep clear as required.
CASE 25
When an inside overlapped windward boat that is entitled to mark-room sails
below her proper course while at the mark, she must keep clear of the outside
leeward boat, and the outside boat may luff provided that she gives the inside
boat room to keep clear.
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.
CASE 51
A protest committee must exonerate boats when, as a result of another boat’s
breach of a rule, they are all compelled to break a rule.
CASE 53
A boat clear ahead need not take any action to keep clear before being overlapped
to leeward from clear astern.
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 73
When, by deliberate action, L’s crew reaches out and touches W, which
action could have no other intention than to cause W to break rule 11, then
L breaks rule 2.
CASE 74
There is no rule that dictates how the helmsman or crew of a leeward boat must
sit; contact with a windward boat does not break rule 2 unless the helmsman’s
or crew’s position is deliberately misused.
Rule 12, On the Same Tack, Not Overlapped
CASE 2
If the first of two boats to reach the zone is clear astern when she reaches
it and if later the boats are overlapped when the other boat reaches the zone,
rule 18.2(a), and not rule 18.2(b), applies. Rule 18.2(a) applies only while
boats are overlapped and at least one of them is in the zone.
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 24
When a boat becomes overlapped to leeward from clear astern, the other boat
must act promptly to keep clear. When she cannot do so in a seamanlike way,
she has not been given sufficient room. If she takes unnecessary action that
causes contact, she fails to keep clear as required.
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.
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 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.
Rule 13, While Tacking
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 17
A boat is no longer subject to rule 13 when she is on a close-hauled course,
regardless of her movement through the water or the sheeting of her sails.