PART 2
ROOM TO TACK AT AN OBSTRUCTION Let us take the rule, clause by clause.
A boat may hail for room to tack and avoid another boat on the same tack. The other boat will be either astern of her and on a more windward course, or overlapped to windward of her. This broad entitlement is limited not only by what follows in rule 20, but also by the preamble to Section C, which says that Section C rules (of which rule 20 is one) do not apply at a starting mark surrounded by navigable water or at its anchor line from the time boats are approaching them to start until they have passed them.
Rule 20 does not apply to boats on opposite tacks, as was pointed out to the port-tack boat in both WS 43 and RYA 1984/11. So P in those cases was not entitled to hail S for room to tack. Instead, P was required to alter course to keep clear of S by passing away astern of her.
No particular words for the hail are specified in the rule. It must convey a need for room to tack. ‘Room to tack’ is clearly compliant, while ‘Water, please’ is sanctified by long use. It must loud enough to be heard, it should be repeated if there is no sign of a response by the hailed boat, and, if conditions are such that it cannot be heard, it can be amplified by hand gestures or a radio message1
. P4
The room that is hailed for is room to tack, and also room to avoid the hailed boat. When the obstruction is the shore or shallows, this is primarily a ‘left bank’ situation, since the hailing boat will be tacking from starboard onto port, under the bows of the other starboard tack boat unless she is made to respond. At the ‘right bank’, it will often be the case that the boat needing to tack will be able to do so without needing to hail, since she will come out of her tack on starboard, requiring the other boat, still on port tack, to take the avoiding action.
Gull Island P3 P2 P1
RYA 1984/11 P5 S5 S4 S3
fig 1
Nevertheless hailing for room to tack when the obstruction is a close-hauled starboard tack boat is in effect a ‘right bank situation’, but hailing even when it is technically not necessary to do so is in harmony with the safety ethos of the rule, particularly if the hailed boat’s view of the hailing boat and the obstruction boat may be obscured by her own sails.
However, she shall not hail unless (a) she is approaching an obstruction and will soon need to make a substantial course change to avoid it safely. What may be an obstruction, as defined, is discussed under rule 19. Note that under rule 19, the need to make a substantial course change may be theoretical, as a test of whether there is in fact any obstruction. However, in rule 20, the obstruction, and the need for a substantial course change, are actual. A hail for room to tack at an obstruction that could be passed to leeward without any course change breaks this rule2
to leeward with only a small course change3
. So will a hail by a boat clear ahead of the boat she might hail, if she could pass the obstruction . Logically, a static obstruction that could be passed to windward with
a brief ‘shoot’ above close-hauled would not justify a hail for room to tack either. On the other hand, when the obstruction is a right-of-way boat (or presumably a moored boat) that could also be passed to leeward, but also with a substantial course change, it is for the boat nearer the obstruction to decide which to choose4
.
1 RYA 2016/2 2 WS 11 3 US 15, US 2 4 RYA 1974/5
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 99
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