PART 2
The Basic Principle, Sportsmanship and the Rules told us that a fundamental principle of sportsmanship is that when competitors break rule they will promptly take a penalty. This piece of wishful thinking is honoured more in the breach than the observance, but it bears down hard on boats that break rules because other boats break rules. I am wrongfully (in my opinion) denied mark-room at a mark, and as a result I break rule 31 by touching the mark. I hail ‘Protest’ to the other boat, but the fact remains that I have broken a rule. If I pay heed to the Basic Principle, I should now take a turns penalty, losing many places. If I win my protest against the other boat, I will be exonerated by the protest committee for breaking rule 31, but, in the absence of physical damage or injury, I will not be entitled to any redress. I am much more interested in maintaining my race place than getting the other boat disqualified. Even if the other boat takes a two-turns penalty over our incident, that does not directly and automatically exonerate me – the fact remains that I broke a rule.
Rule 21 seeks to resolve this contradiction by granting immediate exoneration to many unavoidable rule breaches. Formerly, it applied only to breaches of rules when a rule of Section C, at marks and obstructions, applies. When it exonerates for being compelled to touch a mark, as in the above example, that remains a Section C issue. But it can now apply to some unavoidable rule breaches, not only at a mark or obstruction, but now also when such incidents occur in open water.
The rule says that a boat ‘shall be exonerated…’. I believe that this should be read as if it said ‘is exonerated’ or even ‘is immediately exonerated’ – it is in effect an exoneration that a boat awards to herself, so that she need not trouble herself with any thought of taking a penalty. It can also be invoked later by a protest committee in a protest hearing, as will be discussed under rule 64.1.
To apply to a boat, she must first be ‘sailing within the room or mark-room to which she is entitled.’ What are the rules which so entitle a boat? A word-search of the Racing Rules discloses the following:
Section A of Part 2 (rules 10 to 13): there is none.
Section B of Part 2 (rules 14 to 17): • Rule 14, Avoiding Contact: this rule offers its own exoneration to a boat entitled to room or mark-room (as well as to a right-of-way boat) that breaks rule when there is avoidable contact that does not cause damage or in jury. This is a self-contained process unconnected with rule 21, although it offers the same immediate exoneration when it applies.
• Rule 15, Acquiring Right of Way: ‘When a boat acquires right of way, she shall initially give the other boat room to keep clear…’
• Rule 16.1 Changing Course: ‘When a right-of-way boat changes course, she shall give the other boat room to keep clear.’
Section C of Part 2 • Rule 18, Mark-Room: multiple examples of giving mark-room (and one of giving room) in rule 18.2, Giving Room, and one mark-room situation in rule 18.3, Tacking in the Zone.
• Rule 19.2(b), Giving Room at an Obstruction: ‘When boats are overlapped, the outside boat shall give the inside boat room between her and the obstructions…’
• Rule 20.1, Hailing: ‘A boat may hail for room to tack and avoid a boat on the same tack.’ • Rule 20.2, Responding: ‘A hailed boat shall
respond...by...replying ‘You tack’ and then giving the hailing boat room to tack and avoid her.’
When a boat is entitled to room or mark-room in one of these rules, the next requirement is that she is sailing within that room or mark-room. An entitlement to room is, as defined, an entitlement to the space she needs in the existing conditions, including the space to comply with her obligations under the rules of Part 2 and rule 31, while manoeuvring promptly in a seamanlike way. An entitlement to mark-room is defined as room for a boat to leave a mark on the required side. Also, (a) room to sail to the mark when her proper course is to sail close to it, and (b) room to round the mark as necessary to sail the course.
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 107
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