PART 3 The String Test at Starting Limit Marks


The term Starting Limit Mark is not to be found in the Racing Rules of Sailing, whether in a rule or in a suggested sailing instruction in Appendix L. There are two main uses for such marks when called up in the sailing instructions. When the line is a shore-based transit, a limit mark at the outer end of the line can curtail the (otherwise infinite) length of the line. When one end of the starting line is a committee boat, a limit mark may seek to create a no-go zone next to her to protect her from competitors.


A starting limit mark for the outer end of the starting line which is laid on the pre-course side of the starting line is problematical, both for competitors and for the race committee that wishes to limit the line’s length. Consider a normal windward start. If the limit mark is left on the required side by boat that is approaching the starting line, she may then be able to continue past the limit mark on the pre-start side for some distance, yet comply with the string test, as long as she also continues to approach the starting line.


If, however, having passed the limit mark, she mistimes her approach to start, and needs to bear away to a course away from the starting line, can she be said to be still approaching the start line to start? If not, she must return to the limit mark for fresh approach. However, the implication of match racing call C1 is that she is approaching the starting line when she is approaching any part of it. So the longer the line projects past the limit mark, the more she would have had to have borne away before she can no longer be said to be approaching some part of it.


Problems like this are avoided if the limit mark is laid on, or on the course side, of the starting line. The String Test at Course Marks


The string must touch each rounding mark. What is a rounding mark? Firstly, in a truly circular argument, it is a mark that a string will touch. Consider the usual dinghy course, whether windward-leeward, trapezoidal or ‘sausage1


RYA 2000/5 Starting area


and triangle’. Normally, there is no need to specify that the marks are rounding marks, because they are made to be such by the string test (apart from the unused mark of a gate), and there is no possibility of cutting a corner without breaking rule 28.22


.


Secondly, it is a mark that the sailing instructions identify as a rounding mark. Sometimes, this label is unnecessary, as with the dinghy courses referred to above. Sometimes, there are unintended consequences, as in RYA 2000/5 (fig 2).


fig 2


Oscar Rebbecks


Brownsea Island


Bell


The course set in Poole Harbour included Rebbecks (S), Oscar (P), Bell (S). The race committee had intended that Oscar was to have been a passing or ‘boundary’ mark, to keep the race away from the starting line being used by other boats, but the sailing instructions also said that all marks were rounding marks, which had the effect opposite to that which was intended.


1 In France, a ‘sausage’ (windward and leeward legs) is, curiously, called a ‘banane’, reinforcing the British prejudice that continental Europeans


want standards under which bananas must be straight. 2 Sometimes, such courses specify that, when a committee vessel is stationed at a mark to signal a changed next leg after a windshift, boats shall pass between the mark and the vessel. One reason for this is if there is a very large windshift requiring the next leg and the rest of the course to be reset by up to 180°. Under certain configurations this would allow boats further down the fleet to avoid having to go anywhere near the mark where the leg change is being signalled, and to cut the corner to the subsequent relocated mark. The sailing instruction makes all boats take the same route. See L12.2.


126 RYA The Racing Rules Explained


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