Page 8 - Case Book 2017 - 2020 April 18

protested and the protest committee decides that she CASE 135
broke the rule. If a boat breaks a rule of Part 2 by failing to keep clear,
the right-of-way boat, or a third boat, may be entitled to
CASE 129 redress if she is physically damaged, even if the damage
When the course is shortened at a rounding mark, the is not caused directly by a collision with the boat that
mark becomes a finishing mark. Rule 32.2(a) permits was required to keep clear.
the race committee to position the vessel displaying flag
S at either end of the finishing line. A boat must cross RYA 1986/1
the line in accordance with the definition Finish, even if When a port-tack boat is required to keep clear of a
in so doing she leaves that mark on the side opposite the starboard-tack boat, she must act clearly and early
side on which she would have been required to leave it enough to ensure that other boat is in no doubt that the
if the course had not been shortened.
port-tack boat will fulfil her obligation.
RYA 1980/2 RYA 1986/3
A hook-round finish is contrary to the definition Finish, A keep-clear boat cannot be said to have done so when,
and sailing instructions are not permitted to alter a although there was no contact, there is firm evidence
definition.
that contact would have occurred had not the right-of-
RYA 1985/4 way boat altered course to comply with rule 14.
A race committee is not entitled to score a boat DNF
because it believes she did not correctly sail the course; RYA 1999/5
When a give-way boat is already breaking a rule of
instead it must protest her under rule 28.
Section A of Part 2 by not keeping clear, deliberate
contact does not necessarily break rule 2.
Definitions, Keep Clear
RYA 2001/5
CASE 30 When a right-of-way boat changes course and deprives
A boat clear astern that is required to keep clear but a give-way boat of room to keep clear, she will have
collides with the boat clear ahead breaks the right-of-way complied with rule 16.1 by making a further change to a
rule that was applicable before the collision occurred. A course that will give the other boat room to keep clear.
boat that loses right of way by unintentionally changing
tack is nevertheless required to keep clear. RYA 2002/11
A boat that takes action to keep clear or avoid contact
CASE 50 and elects to pass very close astern of a boat crossing
When a protest committee finds that in a port-starboard ahead of her does so at her own risk if she was able to
incident S did not change course and that there was not a pass further away, and there is contact resulting in
genuine and reasonable apprehension of collision on the serious damage.
part of S, it should dismiss her protest. When the committee
finds that S did change course and that there was RYA 2003/8
reasonable doubt that P could have crossed ahead of S if S When boats are overlapped on the same tack on
had not changed course, then P should be disqualified. converging courses, the moment when the windward
boat has failed to keep clear is, by definition, also the
CASE 77 moment when the right-of-way boat must take avoiding
Contact with a mark by a boat’s equipment constitutes action if she is to avoid penalization under rule 14,
touching it. A boat obligated to keep clear does not should contact causing damage then occur.
break a rule when touched by a right-of-way boat’s
equipment that moves unexpectedly out of normal RYA 2006/7
position. Keep Clear is a defined term that includes precise tests,
and keeping clear is usually more than just avoiding
CASE 87 contact.
A right-of-way boat need not act to avoid contact until it
is clear that the other boat is not keeping clear. RYA2008/4
When there is contact shortly after a boat gains right of
CASE 88 way, it is for her to show that she gave the other boat
A boat may avoid contact and yet fail to keep clear. room to keep clear.
CASE 91 RYA 2012/2
A boat required to keep clear must keep clear of A right-of-way boat risks penalization if she does not
another boat’s equipment out of its normal position act to avoid contact involving damage immediately it is
when the equipment has been out of its normal position evident that the other boat is not keeping clear.
long enough for the equipment to have been seen and
avoided. Definitions, Mark

CASE 58
If a buoy or other object specified in the sailing
instructions as a finishing-line limit mark is on the post-
finish side of the finishing line, a boat may leave it on
either side.

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