The New Twist on Mark-Room in the 2013 Racing Rules of Sailing
The New Twist on Mark-Room in the 2013 Racing Rules of Sailing
Trying to squeeze inside a right-of-way boat that’s botched their mark rounding can be tricky. A new mark-room rule makes it even riskier.
In the first installment of this series, I discussed what I judge to be the most significant change in the 2013 rules—the change in the definition Mark-Room. This month I explore the impact of a totally new rule within Rule 18, the mark-rounding rule. The new rule is Rule 18.2(c)(2), and the reasons for it are not obvious. I’ll give you some background and then explain how the new rule works.
The first diagram shows a common situation in which the new rule applies. Amy and Ben, sailing with their chutes set, are running toward the leeward mark, which they will leave to port. The next leg is a beat to windward. Amy is clear ahead when she reaches the zone (Position 1). Rule 18.2(b), therefore, requires Ben to give Amy mark-room, and later—at Position 2 when an overlap between them begins—Rule 18.2(c)(1) requires him to continue giving mark-room.
Amy’s crew has difficulties lowering the spinnaker, and at Position 2, a gap opens between Amy and the mark. Ben is tempted to dart through the gap. He thinks there’s no way Amy can get to him if he rounds inside her. For more than 50 years the rules have allowed a boat behind to round inside the boat ahead, provided the boat behind breaks no rule. ISAF Case 63 states that when a boat voluntarily or unintentionally makes space at a mark available to another boat that has no right to that space, the other boat may, at her own risk, take advantage of the space.
The questions that are inevitably asked are: “What course change can Amy make to shut the door on Ben? How do we decide when Ben has broken a rule?”
| Rule 18.2(c)(2): When a boat is required to give mark-room by Rule 18.2(b), if she becomes overlapped inside the boat entitled to mark-room, she shall also give that boat room to sail her proper course while they remain overlapped. |
New rule 18.2(c)(2), shown in the box, must be considered in answering these questions.
At Position 2, Amy has not yet “rounded the mark as necessary to sail the course,” and so Ben is still required to give her mark-room. At Position 2, Ben becomes overlapped inside Amy. Therefore, Rule 18.2(c)(2) applies. It entitles Amy “room to sail her proper course.” Note that this is in addition to the mark-room to which she is entitled under Rules 18.2(b) and 18.2(c)(1). Under these two rules Amy is entitled to room to round up to a close-hauled course (the course change necessary to sail the course). However, Rule 18.2(c)(2) entitles her to sail her proper course—an even stronger right than she gets under Rules 18.2(b) and 18.2(c)(1). Her proper course may well be to luff briefly above close-hauled to enable her to start the beat on a track to weather of any boats ahead or behind, thereby escaping the backwind effect from boats ahead, and maximizing the backwind she creates for boats astern.
So now we’ve answered our first question: Amy can luff, even above close-hauled on port tack, to shut the door on Ben. Note that as she does so, she has right of way under Rule 11 as the leeward boat, and she will be exonerated if, while taking room under Rule 18.2(c)(2) or mark-room under Rules 18.2(b) and 18.2(c)(1), she breaks rule 16.1 (see new Rule 21, Exoneration, which replaces the old exoneration rule, Rule 18.5). So Amy may luff as rapidly as she pleases. The only limitation on her is that she must comply with Rule 14 (Avoiding Contact). However, even if she were to make contact with Ben, she could be exonerated under Rule 14(b) provided there was no damage or injury. Clearly, the rules allow Amy to aggressively shut the door on Ben, and while doing so, if she must curtail her luff in order to avoid contact with Ben, then Ben breaks Rules 11 and 18.2(b). That is the criterion to apply to decide whether Ben breaks a rule while trying to take advantage of space made available while Amy’s crew wrestled with the spinnaker.
