Page 10 - Case Book 2017 - 2020 April 18

Definitions, Party lulls in the wind, the waves, the current and the physical
characteristics of the boat’s hull and equipment,
CASE 55 including the sails she is using.
A boat cannot protest the race committee. However, she
may request redress or, if she is a party to a hearing, RYA 1975/6
request that it be reopened. A boat that was not a party A boat that luffs above close-hauled to pass to
to a hearing does not have the right to appeal. When windward of a mark is not sailing above a proper
she believes that her score has been made significantly course.
worse by an improper action or omission of the race A right-of-way boat is exonerated if she breaks rule
committee, her only remedy is to request redress. She 16.1 while sailing a proper course at a mark and taking
may then appeal the decision of the redress hearing. mark-room to which she is entitled.
RYA 1995/3 RYA 1988/8
A boat whose score or place in a race or series may A boat's course as used in the definition Proper Course
have been made significantly worse as a result of is her course made good over the ground, not the
redress sought by and given to other boats is not a party direction in which she is pointing.
to the hearing, and so does not have the right to appeal
against the decision: her remedy is first to seek redress Definitions, Racing
herself.
CASE 5
RYA 2004/1 A boat that is anchored while racing is still racing. A
Only the protestor and protestee are parties to a protest
hearing. No other boat, even if present at a protest boat does not break rule 42.1 or rule 45 if, while pulling
in her anchor line to recover the anchor, she returns to
hearing, can be penalized at that hearing, and the
national authority has no power to confirm or re- her position at the time the anchor was lowered.
However, if pulling in the anchor line clearly propels
impose the penalty: indeed, it will reverse any such
penalization on appeal, even if it is not that boat which her to a different position, she breaks those rules.
appealed. CASE 68
The failure of a race committee to discover that a rating
Definitions, Proper Course certificate is invalid does not entitle a boat to redress. A
boat that may have broken a rule and that continues to
CASE 9 race retains her rights under the racing rules, including
When a starboard-tack boat chooses to sail past a her rights under the rules of Part 2 and her rights to
windward mark, a port-tack boat must keep clear. There protest and appeal, even if she is later disqualified.
is no rule that requires a boat to sail a proper course.
CASE 127
CASE 13 A boat clears the finishing line and marks when no part
Before her starting signal, a leeward boat does not of her hull, crew or equipment is on the line, and no
break a rule by sailing a course higher than the mark is influencing her choice of course.
windward boat’s course.
CASE 14 Definitions, Room
When, owing to a difference of opinion about a leeward
boat’s proper course, two boats on the same tack CASE 21
When a right-of-way boat is obligated to give mark-
converge, the windward boat must keep clear. Two
boats on the same leg sailing near one another may room to a boat overlapped inside her, there is no
maximum or minimum amount of space that she must
have different proper courses.
give. The amount of space that she must give depends
CASE 46 significantly on the existing conditions including wind
A leeward boat is entitled to luff to her proper course, and sea conditions, the speed of the inside boat, the
even when she has established a leeward overlap from sails she has set and her design characteristics.
clear astern and within two of her hull lengths of the
windward boat. CASE 24
When a boat becomes overlapped to leeward from clear
CASE 75 astern, the other boat must act promptly to keep clear.
When rule 18 applies, the rules of Sections A and B When she cannot do so in a seamanlike way, she has not
apply as well. When an inside overlapped right-of-way been given room as required by rule 15.
boat must gybe at a mark, she is entitled to sail her CASE 93
proper course until she gybes. A starboard-tack boat
that changes course does not break rule 16.1 if she If a boat luffs immediately after she becomes overlapped
gives a port-tack boat adequate space to keep clear and to leeward of another boat and there is no seamanlike
action that would enable the other boat to keep clear, the
the port-tack boat fails to take advantage of it promptly. boat that luffed breaks rules 15 and 16.1. The other boat
breaks rule 11, but is exonerated.
CASE 134
A boat’s proper course at any moment depends on the CASE 95
existing conditions. Some of those conditions are the If two overlapped boats on the same tack are on a beat
wind strength and direction, the pattern of gusts and to windward and are subject to rule 18.2(b), rule 18

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