PART 3
Note that in that example the boat will have ‘crossed the finishing line in the direction of the course from the last mark’, even though her recent course may have little connection with the location of the last mark. The criterion of the right direction is in effect the string test – the tautened string of her course from the last mark to the finishing line. If in crossing the finishing line the string first hooks round one finishing mark rather than passing between the finishing marks, the line will have been crossed in the wrong direction, but that allows approaches from a wide range of directions to be valid. ‘The ‘direction of the course’ does not refer to a rhumb line from any mark, and its only purpose is to allow a DNF score to be given to a boat that hooks round a finishing line mark and then crosses the finishing line from the wrong direction without then unwinding and finishing as required1
.’
Issues concerning badly-laid finishing lines are to be resolved in favour of the competitor. ‘When a finishing line is laid so nearly in line with the last leg that it cannot be determined which is the correct way to cross it in order to finish according to the definition, a boat may cross the line in either direction and her finish is to be recorded accordingly2
.’
Even a clearly non-compliant finish may count when it is induced by an improper sailing instruction, as in WS 45, where the race committee, with the best of intentions, specified a hook finish (contrary to the non-changeable definition Finish) that was complied with by Daffodil (and others) resulting finishing positions; but not by Iris (with others). Iris was scored DNF, and asked for redress, which was granted in the form of a score for all the boats in the order the finishing line had been crossed, regardless of in which direction. Iris felt that this did not go far enough, since Daffodil had retained a finishing position despite having finished contrary to the definition. Her appeal was dismissed, since Daffodil was the victim of an improper sailing instruction that was in conflict with the definition Finish3
, and, since no boat gained or lost compared with all having crossed the line in the same direction, it was as fair an arrangement as possible, as required by rule 64.2.
In order for such redress to be given, there must be a non-resolvable contradiction between a sailing instruction and the definition, and a misinterpretation of the definition by the race committee is not sufficient. Thus, in RYA 1980/2 (fig 1), mark D was to be rounded to port after rounding mark A, after which it was a mark of the finishing line when it would be left to port when approached in the direction of the course from mark C, the last mark.
The race was shortened to a line to mark D, which happened to be the full-course finishing line4
, when
boats were approaching D from A. Wings and others crossed the finishing line directly from A, and were scored DNF, Wispozora and others hooked round D and received finishing positions. The decision to dismiss protests and requests for redress by Wings and others was overturned on appeal. ‘When D became [a] mark of the finishing line, it ceased to be a rounding mark and became [a] mark to be passed in accordance with the definition Finish. Consequently, only the boats that finished by crossing the line in the direction of the course from A, leaving mark D to starboard, finished correctly…When the course is shortened and a course mark becomes a finishing line mark, its required side may change…The protestors are reinstated and the protestees are disqualified.’
RYA 1980/2
Course: A, D, A, B, C, D, two rounds, then: A, D, A, B, C, finish: round all marks to port.
B C D (OLM) Finishing line A
fig 1
1 Words that used to appear in RYA 1985/4, presumably because they were too obvious – but (I believe) remain correct. 2 WS 82 3 Both rank as rules, as defined, but a sailing instruction cannot change a definition, see rules 86.1(a) and (b). 4 It was not the fact that this was the designated finishing line that permitted the course to be shortened to it, as this is not one of the lines
permitted for shortening in rule 32.2, nor were boats required to cross that line at the end of each round even if doing so was unavoidable (rule 32.2(b)); but because D was the next rounding mark (rule 32.2(a)), requiring flag S to be displayed from the shore post.
122 RYA The Racing Rules Explained
Course of protestees
Course of protestors
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