PART 3
It appears therefore that rules 28 and 31 apply harmoniously to course marks and finishing marks. If you have to leave the mark on a required side, you must not touch it while doing so. The time during which you must not touch a finishing mark is then extended a little beyond the moment when your rule 28 obligation ends. However, there may be a period before a boat is approaching the line to start when the mark does not have a required side, yet when it must not be touched, and rules 28 and 31 are not completely synchronised.
Touching a mark includes contact by equipment out of position. ‘A boat touches a mark within the meaning of rule 31 when any part of her hull, crew or equipment comes into contact with the mark. The fact that her equipment touches the mark because she has manoeuvring or sail-handling difficulties does not excuse her breach of the rule1
.’ Technically, a crew member that has fallen overboard and swims for support to a nearby committee boat or course mark beginning bounding or ending the leg would appear to break rule 31 for the boat.
When a boat touches a mark in an incident with another boat that has not given her mark-room, rule 21 exonerates her immediately and removes the need to take a penalty turn. However, that can be reversed if, following a protest, it is found that she was not in fact denied mark-room to which she was entitled. If the boat that touches the mark plans to protest the boat that she believes deprived her of mark-room, a penalty turn will insure her against being disqualified in her own protest.
A former Q&A said that touching a flag attached to a buoy that is a mark breaks rule 31, regardless of whether the flag is referred to in the description of the mark in the sailing instructions.
The mark’s anchor line is not part of the mark, and so when a keel or centreboard catches the anchor line, no rule is yet broken, but as US 10 points out, it soon will be if the mark is then drawn onto the hull of the boat. In that case, the line was caught when the boat was five feet away from the mark, but there was current and she had a deep centreboard. In RYA 1989/10, a finishing mark was attached by cordage of a semi-floating variety which was too long when used in shallow areas. The excess was usually tied into a bunch but it became loose. It produced an underwater hazard floating two to three yards to leeward of the mark and, with a flood tide, on the course side of the finishing line. It was not visible to an approaching boat and several boats were caught in this tangle in the act of finishing, were drawn onto the mark and took a one-turn penalty. This affected the finishing position of one of them, Instant Sunshine, which requested redress. The protest committee, refusing redress, stated that the mark and ground tackle were the equipment used regularly as a finishing mark in that area and that the length and type of warp was not unreasonable in the circumstances. Instant Sunshine’s appeal was upheld, and she was re-instated in her position when she first crossed the finishing line.
Redress may be given for a race committee’s failure to provide suitably equipped marks…Marks are laid for the benefit of competing boats and it is important that ground tackle be arranged to minimise the possibility of being fouled by the boats. In cases involving errors by the race committee, it is a good principle that any doubts be resolved in favour of the competitor.
As was seen under rule 28.1, if Instant Sunshine had decided not to take a penalty, it would take a protest to dislodge her from her finishing position. If she were protested, a decision to disqualify her would be accompanied by an immediate reinstatement, as being redress for the improper omission of the race committee that had caused her to break rule 31.
1 WS 77 144 RYA The Racing Rules Explained
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