Page 20 - Case Book 2017 - 2020 April 18

RYA 2003/5 CASE 13
Rule 21 offers no exoneration for breaking rule 14. In Before her starting signal, a leeward boat does not
order to avoid penalization when damage results from break a rule by sailing a course higher than the
a collision, a right-of-way boat rounding a mark may windward boat’s course.
need to delay her normal change of course, or indeed
change course in the other direction in order to CASE 14
comply with the requirement to avoid contact if When, owing to a difference of opinion about a leeward
boat’s proper course, two boats on the same tack
reasonably possible.
converge, the windward boat must keep clear. Two
boats on the same leg sailing near one another may
RYA 2003/7 have different proper courses.
An inside overlapped boat that obtains right of way
inside the zone is entitled to sail to windward of the CASE 46
room to sail to the mark to which she is entitled, but A leeward boat is entitled to luff to her proper course,
even when she has established a leeward overlap from
only if in the process she complies with rule 18.4, and
with rules 15 and 16.1 with respect to the outside boat. clear astern and within two of her hull lengths of the
windward boat.
RYA 2008/6
When a boat acquires right of way or when a right-of- CASE 134
A boat’s proper course at any moment depends on the
way boat alters course, she is required to give room for
the other boat to keep clear. The other boat must existing conditions. Some of those conditions are the
wind strength and direction, the pattern of gusts and
promptly manoeuvre in a way which offers a reasonable
expectation that she will keep clear. If she fails to keep lulls in the wind, the waves, the current and the physical
characteristics of the boat’s hull and equipment,
clear she will break the relevant right-of-way rule
unless she was not given room for that manoeuvre. including the sails she is using.
RYA 1975/6
Rule 16.2, Changing Course When a boat tacks, the question of whether an overlap
is created is decided at the moment she passes head to
CASE 6 wind, but rule 17 will never apply to the leeward boat if
A starboard-tack boat that tacks after a port-tack boat the overlap is created while the windward boat is still
has borne away to go astern of her does not necessarily subject to rule 13.
break a rule.
A boat that luffs above close-hauled to pass to windward
CASE 92 of a mark is not sailing above a proper course.
When a right-of-way boat changes course, the keep-
clear boat is required to act only in response to what RYA 2008/7
the right-of-way boat is doing at the time, not what the When a leeward boat is limited by rule 17, rule 11
applies to the windward boat even if the leeward boat
right-of-way boat might do subsequently.
sails above a proper course, and the windward boat is
RYA 1967/5 not to be exonerated if she failed to keep clear after
Rule 16.2 does not apply before the starting signal, nor having been given room to do so.
when a port-tack boat is keeping clear by sailing to pass When two boats sailing more than ninety degrees from
ahead of, or, when reaching, to windward of a the true wind are overlapped on the same tack and one
starboard-tack boat. of them gybes, they may remain overlapped. However, if
A hail of ‘Hold your course!’ places no obligation on rule 17 had placed a proper course limitation on one of
the hailed boat. them when the overlap began, that limitation ended
when either of them gybed to the other tack, and it does
RYA 1975/5 not begin to apply again to either boat when a further
S’s response to a wind shift must not deprive P of room gybe instantly results in them becoming overlapped on
to keep clear, or, after the starting signal, oblige P (if the same tack again.
sailing a course to keep clear by passing astern of S) to
change course immediately to continue keeping clear.
Section C – At Marks and Obstructions
Rule 17, On the Same Tack; Proper
Course Rule 18.1, Mark-Room: When Rule 18
Applies
CASE 7
When, after having been clear astern, a boat becomes CASE 9
overlapped to leeward within two of her hull lengths of When a starboard-tack boat chooses to sail past a
the other boat, the windward boat must keep clear, but windward mark, a port-tack boat must keep clear. There
the leeward boat must initially give the windward boat is no rule that requires a boat to sail a proper course.
room to keep clear and must not sail above her proper CASE 12
course. The proper course of the windward boat is not In determining the right of an inside boat to mark-room
relevant. 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.

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