Page 95 - Case Book 2017 - 2020 April 18

charts that will show that the mark can be rounded only caught on headlands, passes to one side of non-
by looping it. navigable shallows or prohibited areas, and follows the
course of a river.
Starting area To decide differently might sometimes mean that a
mark identified by the sailing instructions as a rounding
mark would otherwise have to be looped, requiring a
boat to cross her own wake.
Oscar
An analogy can be drawn with the separate and
different requirement in the definition Finish to cross
the finishing line from the course side. This has the
Rebbecks effect of prohibiting ‘hook finishes’ in open waters, but
Brownsea Bell where the race is on a river it is quite possible that the
Island
course of a river can result in the line being approached
in the opposite direction from the rhumb line from the
last mark. Here too, it is implicit that the direction of the
course is constrained by physical geography.
ASSUMED FACTS Similar situations can occur with a sea course that
The Club asked questions that arose from a protest finishes within a harbour.
where the time limit for any appeal had expired. The
sailing instructions required all marks to be rounded. QUESTION 4
The course set included Rebbecks (S), Oscar (P), Bell What are the obligations on a boat when a rounding
(S). The race committee had intended that Oscar was to mark is laid close to the rhumb line from the previous
have been a passing or ‘boundary’ mark, to keep the mark to the next mark?
race away from the starting line being used by other ANSWER 4
boats. If, from observations afloat, competitors cannot be
QUESTION 1 expected to be sure on which side of the rhumb line it
Were boats entitled to interpret the true intentions of the lies, then a competitor who does not loop it and is
race committee and not loop Oscar? protested should be exonerated if in fact it should have
been looped.
ANSWER 1
No. The sailing instructions required marks to be However, if fixed marks are used and if boats can be
rounded, and therefore the only correct course was to expected to have a chart on board, then the charted
loop Oscar. The fact that the intentions of the race position will determine whether the mark has to be
committee were to the contrary does not change this. looped.
QUESTION 2 Questions from Parkstone YC
If a boat decided not to loop Oscar and was successfully
protested, could she then seek redress? RYA 2001/1
Rule 28.1, Sailing the Course
ANSWER 2 Rule 28.2, Sailing the Course
For redress to he granted, there must be some improper
act or omission by the Race Committee. Requiring A leg of a course does not end until the mark ending it
Oscar to be looped was not automatically an improper has been left on the required side. When a boat leaves a
action of the race committee. If some boats elected not mark on her wrong side, it is only at that mark that she
to round Oscar, were successfully protested and then must unwind and round to correct her course. Her
sought redress, then a protest committee might rightly course around any subsequent marks, between making
regard the setting of such a course as an improper action her mistake and correcting it, is not relevant to the
if it brought the fleet into conflict with other boats in the ‘string test’.
vicinity of the starting line. If some boats looped Oscar ASSUMED FACTS
and others chose not to do so for safety reasons, then it A boat leaves a mark on her wrong side. She rounds one
is possible that the only equitable redress might be to or more further marks correctly. She then realises her
abandon the race. error.
Further questions unrelated to the diagram: QUESTION
May she return directly to the mark concerned, there to
QUESTION 3
Must the string referred to in rule 28.2, when drawn correct her mistake? Or must she first retrace her course
taut, lie in navigable water only? via the other marks to unwind her string?

ANSWER 3 ANSWER
There is no direct guidance in the rule itself or in WS She may return directly to the mark concerned.
cases. However, it would be curious for a boat’s wake A leg has not been completed until the mark ending it
to be regarded as passing over dry land, and the has been left on the required side. A boat that makes an
pragmatic interpretation of rule 28.2 is that the string, error by leaving a mark on the wrong side will fail the
when drawn taut, lies in navigable waters only, is string test described in rule 28.2 unless she returns to
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