PART 2
The hailed boat shall respond even if the hail breaks rule 20.1 (rule 20.2(b)) A hail for room to tack must be responded to in one of the two ways in rule 20.2(c)1
. As the rule used to say, if
the hailed boat believes that the hail is improper, her only remedy, after responding, is to protest. Rule 20 is a safety rule, and the hailing boat may have seen an obstruction – a log in the water, for instance – of which the hailed boat is unaware. It has been seen that there is no right to hail for water at a starting line committee boat when starting, or at any other obstruction-sized mark that the hailed boat can fetch. Nor is one-starboard-tack boat entitled to hail another starboard-tack boat for room to tack when the ‘obstruction’ is a port-tack boat – and therefore, as defined, no obstruction at all2
step is to remove the danger with a hail and one of the two permitted responses. If the hailing boat then takes a two-turns penalty it would still be open to the hailed boat to protest if she believes that, despite her penalty, the hailing boat gained a significant advantage, and if the hailing boat knows at the time that she has gained a significant advantage, she should retire3
.
WS 33 summarises this: the hailing boat must not hail until safety requires her to tack; but if she does hail before that moment, and so for instance is not yet in danger of running aground, the hailed boat must nonetheless respond as soon as possible.
We have seen that in some situations the obstruction could be avoided either by tacking or by bearing away to leeward of it. A boat that hails obviously prefers to tack. The hailed boat might have preferred to pass to leeward of it – indeed she may have called for room to do so. No rule explicitly states which will prevail, but it is implicit in rule 20.2(b) that a hail for room to tack overrides a desire to pass to leeward, since the hailed boat must respond in one of only two ways.
The hailed boat shall respond either by tacking as soon as possible… (rule 20.2(c))
When a hail is properly made, the hailing boat is ‘entitled to expect that the [hailed boat] would respond and give her room to tack’ and is ‘not obliged to anticipate [the hailed boat’s] failure to comply with rule 20.1(b)4
fig 1 .’ The tack must be
started as soon as possible, and finished as soon as possible. A boat that responds to a hail but tacks so slowly that she delays completion of the tack beyond a reasonable time is not responding as soon as possible after the hail.
In RYA 1982/6, the two boats were tacking in a light wind against the current, taking full advantage of the slacker current by the bank. L and W were overlapped on port tack when L neared the bank and hailed for room to tack. There was approximately a one-second delay between the hail and L beginning her manoeuvre. W also began her manoeuvre at the same time. Both boats began tacking, W only slowly, and there was contact between them when L had tacked to a close-hauled course on starboard tack, while W had just passed beyond head to wind.
RYA 1982/6 L4 W4 L3 W3 L2 W2 W1
Water to tack please!
L1 Rule 20 Rules!
. However, these situations are potentially very dangerous, and the first
Room to duck, please!
Room to tack, please!
No!
1 WS 10 2 RYA 1989/12 3 Rule 44.1, Taking a Penalty 4 WS 3
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 103
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