PART 2
A former Q&A asked when the hailing boat’s tack must begin in order to count as being ‘as soon as possible’. The answer was that she must do so once it is clear that the hailed boat is responding to the hail and it will be possible for the hailed boat to complete her tack: the conditions and the physical characteristics of the boats involved are a factor; for a keelboat in normal conditions this would in most circumstances be when the hailed boat luffs to tack.
From the time a boat hails until she has tacked and avoided the hailed boat, rule 18.2 does not apply between them (rule 20.2(e))
This rule resolves a conflict which is not immediately obvious from the words. Consider the situation where, in the zone of a port-hand windward mark, two close-hauled overlapped port-tack boats, L and W are approaching a starboard tack boat S on the layline. L elects to hail W for room to tack to leeward of S. They tack in turn, and W (now the leeward of the three boats) cannot fetch the mark.
In the absence of S, W had been entitled to mark-room from L under rule 18.2. L’s obliging W to tack has denied W of that mark-room. This rule makes clear that, in these circumstances, rule 18.2 is switched off until the tacks and avoidance are complete, at which point rule 18.2(a) now applies between L and W, as does rule 11. The boat, previously W and now L, cannot complain if she cannot fetch the mark.
Note that L’s tack also brings her within the scope of rule 18.3, Tacking in the Zone with respect to S. That means that S does not have to give mark-room to the tacked L (since rule 18.3 switches off rule 18.2), but she does have to keep clear of her – and if in so doing S has to sail above close-hauled, L breaks rule 18.3.
Rule 20.3, Passing on a Hail to an Additional Boat
This puts into a rule what had been long custom and practice when more than two boats approach an obstruction. New rule 20.3, Passing on a Hail to an Additional Boat, now makes the second boat’s hail valid, even if it would have been premature in the absence of the first boat. All the ‘responding’ requirements of rule 20.2 apply between the second and third boats. The same will apply between further boats also approaching the obstruction in close company. Rule 20.3 applies only if the second boat intends to respond to the first boat’s hail by tacking. If the second boat chooses the ‘you tack’ option, she does not have to pass on the hail, since the rule says that it applies only when the second boat intends to respond by tacking. This could result in the first boat, having tacked as required, then finding herself under the bows of the unhailed third boat, a situation that the rule does not appear to have contemplated.
Nevertheless, as already seen under rule 20.2(c), a third boat that does hear the first boat’s hail must respond to it, and not wait for it to be passed to her by the second boat1
.
Section D – Other Rules Preamble
Rule 21
When rule 22 or 23 applies between two boats, Section A rules do not. EXONERATION
When a boat is sailing within the room or mark-room to which she is entitled, she shall be exonerated if, in an incident with a boat required to give her that room or mark-room,
(a) she breaks a rule of Section A, rule 15 or rule 16, or (b) she is compelled to break rule 31.
1 WS 113 106 RYA The Racing Rules Explained
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