34. Facts found:  Gutbucket was approaching a buoys-to-port windward mark on the port tack layline. He reached the zone ahead of Tally-Ho who was coming in on starboard as shown at left. When Gutbucket completed his tack, Tally-Ho was less than one boatlength directly astern of Gutbucket's transom. However, Gutbucket's crew was slow to bring the jib over and Gutbucket stalled at the mark. 

Tally-Ho did not immediately see that Gutbucket had virtually stopped. At the last second, she violently luffed head to wind and barely avoided a collision with  Gutbucket's transom. Tally-Ho filed a valid protest -  under rule 18.3.

.....
Ruling:  When Gutbucket completed her tack with any part of her inside the zone, she became subject to rule 18.3 because Tally-Ho was laying the mark. Since Tally-Ho was forced "to sail above close-hauled" to avoid a collision with  Gutbucket, the latter broke rule 18.3 and is DSQ.

.....
Case #34A
return to Quiz Index