PART 3
The same principle applied in RYA 2008/2, where the course for (apparently) all starts was shown without any class references at the stern of the committee boat, whereas a course intended for a catamaran class start was displayed with the class symbol on the side of the committee boat. Danger Mouse saw the first course and sailed it, did not see the other course intended for her, and was successfully protested by one of the rest of the catamarans that had sailed the course intended for them. Upholding her appeal against disqualification, the RYA said that she had no reason not to believe that the course she saw was not intended for her, and that the display of two equally valid courses was an improper action of the race committee giving rise to entitlement to redress1
.
The sailing instructions must identify the course marks clearly. It breaks no racing rule to leave a permanent navigation buoy on the ‘wrong’ side if there is no reference it in the sailing instructions2
. . Nor does the fact that
after sailing a lap a boat will normally cross the starting line when beginning the next lap mean that boats must pass through that line3
…and finish…after finishing she need not cross the finishing line completely…
Finish A boat finishes when any part of her hull, or crew or equipment in normal position, crosses the finishing line from the course side. However, she has not finished if after crossing the finishing line she (a) (b) (c)
takes a penalty under rule 44.2,
corrects an error under rule 28.2 made at the line, or continues to sail the course.
It follows that it is not necessary to pass through the finishing line to have validly finished, as rule 28.1 confirms: a dinghy that has overstood a windward finishing line may come reaching into it with the crew trapezing, and she will have finished if the crew in this normal position is the first element to cross the finishing line – if so, she can then bear away and will have finished without any part of her hull having cut the line. There are risks in not passing completely through the finishing line. I chaired a protest committee at a national championship where we refused redress to a boat scored DNF that claimed to have overstood on the last windward leg and reached in to the finishing line, clipping the line on port tack, then bearing away to avoid a starboard-tacker. In this case, we were satisfied that she was seen not to finish (as opposed to not being seen to finish4
), and the reason was that
in the few seconds before she cut what she believed to have been the finishing line, another boat had got hitched to the finishing mark and had towed it (and therefore the finishing line) upwind. There was no improper action or omission by the race committee, it being impossible to reclaim it in the brief time available, and so we could not find any justification for giving redress.
1 When, on appeal, redress is found to be due, the RYA normally returns the case to the protest committee to decide appropriate redress based on the full facts in its possession: average points would be suitable in this case. In SC 53, where either of two marks might have been the correct one because of improper inaction of the race committee, the Canadian appeals committee preferred to decide redress for itself, which
was to abandon the race, which seems a little harsh if there were options to readjust the races scores, depending on the courses sailed. 2 US 83 3 RYA 1974/1: if the sailing instructions did require this, the starting line would become a ‘gate’. 4 SC 97 makes clear the significant difference between those concepts, as concerns a recalled boat returning to start.
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 121
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255 |
Page 256
