Last summer I observed several boats getting confused about where to finish. I am going to illustrate some of the scenarios. The rules are actually quite simple, but the application can sometimes confuse sailors.
During my summer judging, I have heard some strange things about the hails people expect to hear. Last issue I discussed the three hails, “room to tack”, “you tack” and “protest” that are required in the Racing Rules of Sailing. This issue I will continue with other hails that are not required.
During my summer judging, I have heard some strange things about the hails people expect to hear. I thought that I should look at the rulebook, and see which hails are required.
The rules of the game are pretty clear, if you break a rule, you need to take the appropriate penalty. This is listed very early in the rule book before any of the numbered rules under the title “Basic Principles – Sportsmanship and the Rules”.
I have now written three articles about mark-room at a gybe mark. Last time, we talked about situations when you were allowed room to gybe. I finished off showing a case where you are required to gybe.
Read more: The Rules Guy: Mark Room – When Do You Have to...
I have now written two articles about mark-room at a gybe mark. In both cases, the mark denotes a point at which boats would clearly need to assume a different tack to sail to the next mark. We typically call these marks gybe marks.
Last time, I started a discussion of mark-room at a gybe mark. I presented some fairly common scenarios that appear when two boats approach a gybe mark and round together. I am going to continue that discussion this month with some slightly more complicated situations.
This discussion is based on a situation that took place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (held in the summer of 2021) and some local youth regattas. When I first started to race, if you broke a rule, your only option was to drop out (or be protested out) of the race. This was a severe penalty for a simple incident.
Read more: The Rules Guy: Penalties – When and How to Take...
Mark rounding is a lot like the weather. It is genuinely complex, and it causes no end of trouble, particularly for those not paying attention. Rule 18, “Mark-Room”, takes as much space in the rulebook as Rules 10 to 17. There are a few slightly more complicated situations that I would like to discuss, but this month we will start with some of the basics.
This month, we continue our exploration of changes included in the 2021-2024 edition of the Racing Rules of Sailing. This edition brings a lot of changes, but few affect the way we sail on the course.
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