Quiz of the week:
The answers are below the questions.
Remember that the black arrows are the wind direction!
1.Is the Green boat overlapped with the Blue boat?
2. Is the Green boat overlapped with the Blue boat?
3. A. Who is the ROW boat?
B. Is the Committee Boat an obstruction?
C. At 45 seconds to the start, is Green entitled to room to pass the committee boat to Starboard with Blue?
4. Two overlapped boats at the “Starting Bell”!
A. Who is the ROW boat?
B. Can Green prevent Red from starting by sailing to the committee boat before starting?
Answers:
1. Yes. Because Red in between and is overlapped both Blue and Green
2. No. Red is overlapped with Green and Red is overlapped with Blue “but not in between them”.
3. Blue
A. Blue, Rule 11, Blue is overlapped with Green to leeward.
B. Yes, if defined as such in the sailing instructions and up until the boats are approaching the starting line to start. Rule 19.1 and the Preamble to Section C rules.
C. Yes, Rule 19, Since, at 45 seconds prior to starting, neither boat is approaching the starting line to START at this time, Section C rules apply. Rule 19.1 states that Rule 19 does not apply to an obstruction that is also a mark that must be passed on the same side. Since the boats are not approaching to start at this time, The committee boat is an obstruction that can be passed on either side and Rule 19.2 provides that the ROW boat can choose which side to pass the obstruction, and that the ROW outside boat must provide room for the inside boat to pass the obstruction on the same side.
4. Green
A. Rule 11, Green is overlapped with Red to leeward. (Downwind start)
B. It depends! If Green established an overlap to leeward of Red within 2 boat lengths, then at the starting bell, Rule 17 requires Green to sail no higher than her Proper Course. Remember Prior to the Starting Bell, Green has no Proper Course and has full luffing rights over Red as the leeward boat. At the Starting Bell, Green’s Proper Course would be to sail as fast as she can to the 1st mark which would also allow Red to start. If the overlap began with Red overlapping Green to windward, then Green would not be restricted by Rule 17 at the starting bell and could continue to luff Red and sail to the end of the starting line before starting and forcing Red to miss the starting mark.
Clear Astern and Clear Ahead; Overlap
One boat is clear astern of another when her hull and equipment in normal position are behind a line abeam from the aftermost point of the other boat’s hull and equipment in normal position. The other boat is clear ahead. They overlap when neither is clear astern. However, they also overlap when a boat between them overlaps both. These terms always apply to boats on the same tack. They do not apply to boats on opposite tacks unless rule 18 applies or both boats are sailing more than ninety degrees from the true wind.
10 ON OPPOSITE TACKS
When boats are on opposite tacks, a port-tack boat shall keep clear of a starboard-tack boat.
11 ON THE SAME TACK, OVERLAPPED
When boats are on the same tack and overlapped, a windward boat shall keep clear of a leeward boat.
18.2 Giving Mark-Room
(a) When boats are overlapped the outside boat shall give the inside boat mark-room, unless rule 18.2(b) applies.
(b) If boats are overlapped when the first of them reaches the zone, the outside boat at that moment shall thereafter give the inside boat mark-room. If a boat is clear ahead when she reaches the zone, the boat clear astern at that moment shall thereafter give her mark-room.
(c) When a boat is required to give mark-room by rule 18.2(b), she shall continue to do so even if later an overlap is broken or a new overlap begins. However, if the boat entitled to mark-room passes head to wind or leaves the zone, rule 18.2(b) ceases to apply.
(d) If there is reasonable doubt that a boat obtained or broke an overlap in time, it shall be presumed that she did not.
(e) If a boat obtained an inside overlap from clear astern and, from the time the overlap began, the outside boat has been unable to give mark-room, she is not required to give it.
19 ROOM TO PASS AN OBSTRUCTION
19.1 When Rule 19 Applies
Rule 19 applies between boats at an obstruction except when it is also a mark the boats are required to leave on the same side. However, at a continuing obstruction, rule 19 always applies and rule 18 does not.
19.2 Giving Room at an Obstruction
(a) A right-of-way boat may choose to pass an obstruction on either side.
(b) When boats are overlapped, the outside boat shall give the inside boat room between her and the obstruction, unless she has been unable to do so from the time the overlap began.
(c) While boats are passing a continuing obstruction, if a boat that was clear astern and required to keep clear becomes overlapped between the other boat and the obstruction and, at the moment the overlap begins, there is not room for her to pass between them, she is not entitled to room under rule 19.2(b). While the boats remain overlapped, she shall keep clear and rules 10 and 11 do not apply.
SECTION C – AT MARKS AND OBSTRUCTIONS Preamble
Section C rules do not apply at a starting mark surrounded by navigable water or at its anchor line from the time boats are approaching them to start until they have passed them. When rule 20 applies, rules 18 and 19 do not.
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.