-----
Original Message -----
From:
Martin242
To:
uncle-al@cogeco.ca
Sent:
Thursday, March 14, 2002 1:49 PM
Subject:
Rules Questions
Hello,
Al,
Firstly,
a GREAT site; it's really helping me understand the rules and the
subtleties
involved (i.e. how to make them work for me...:-)
I have
a question related to Case 63. In Case 63, you make reference to
rule 17 On the Same Tack; Proper Course:
17 On the Same Tack;
Proper Course
If a boat clear
astern
becomes overlapped
within two of her hull lengths to leeward
of a boat on the same tack,
she
shall not sail above her proper
course while they remain on
the same tack and overlapped
within that distance, unless in doing so she promptly sails astern of
the other boat. This rule does not apply if the overlap
begins while the windward
boat is required by rule 13 to keep
clear.
Thus
the key moment in your case was the relative position of the two boats
at the instant leeward established his overlap. If at that moment, he
was
more than two his lengths to leeward of you, then 17 would not apply
and as leeward boat, he would have the right to "luff" you ..."
From
this, I have a hypothetical situation which I am unclear about (I have
used one of your diagrams which ALMOST covers the situations with these
exceptions):
In fairly
light winds (max. 8 knots) 2 boats have been sailing on exactly
PARALLEL
courses on the first third of a downwind leg directly towards the
leeward
mark. However, Pacifier is not clear astern of OD
(there
is a small overlap), BUT she is 3 hull lengths off Organ Donor's
beam, but faster and closing in on Organ Donor, i.e. Pacifier
is NOT within the 2 hull lengths to leeward of OD's beam specified in
Rule
17.
At
this
point, Pacifier decides that she is going to alter her course
(once)
in order to put her in a converging course with OD. She
does
so in such a way that she is not forcing OD to react
immediately,
but, instead, somewhere shortly down the course. Pacifier
rationalized this by deciding, in these light conditions, this is her
proper
course, in order to "hot" her speed up.
As
Pacifier
continues to overhaul and close in to leeward of OD, OD
tells P that she cannot continue on this "luffing course",
and she must
cut behind her transom or to sail a parallel course. Pacifier
responds that her course change was made outside of the 2 length zone
abeam
(quoted in rule 17) therefore it is not "luffing"; further, it is her
proper course and that she intends to maintain this course even after
they
have crossed for some (unstated) distance, before gibing and hotting it
up again on the other tack. OD protests (at least with
Rule
17, perhaps more?). Pacifier tells her she will gladly
meet
her in the protest room and continues her course. OD
avoids,
heading up, allowing Pacifier through (imagining that she
breaks
through). Who is right/wrong and why?
My thoughts
on this are (and I'm a novice!!) that if Pacifier is
able to
justify
to the race committee that she had made her course change outside the 3
boat length zone, even though she was overlapped, and she could justify
her "new" proper course, then she might have a reasonable defence in
the
protest room. If you were on that committee, how would you see it?
Cheers.
Apologies for the convoluted nature of this question!
Paul
Nixon (Nanaimo)
Zoom-Zoom
#260
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