PART 3 Rule 35 TIME LIMIT AND SCORES
If one boat sails the course as required by rule 28 and finishes within the time limit, if any, all boats that finish shall be scored according to their finishing places unless the race is abandoned. If no boat finishes within the time limit, the race committee shall abandon the race.
When I am asked to check an event’s sailing instructions, the first instruction I usually turn to is one that describes the time limit. This is because the provision in the rule (that one boat finishing within the time limit makes the race valid for all competitors) is usually negated, but, contrary to rule 86.1(b), the sailing instruction often fails to say that rule 35 is changed. So in RYA 1998/2, the bad news for a slow boat appealing against being timed out in a handicap race was that the race officer was not improper in not shortening. The good news, however, was that the time limit sailing instruction made no mention of rule 35 being changed, and as at least one boat had finished within the time limit, the race was valid for all finishers. L15.2 of the Sailing Instructions Guide suggests wording for when the time limit is intended to apply to all boats. Sailing instructions for time limits are sometimes a mixture of the two principles, setting a time limit for the first boat, with the time limit for the other boats being the later of the time limit for the first boat and so many minutes after the finishing time of the first boat.
The rule does not cover all the bases. If no boat finishes within the time limit, the race is clearly abandoned. If one boat sails the course and finishes within the time limit, the race is clearly valid for at least that boat, and for all other finishers unless the sailing instructions change rule 35. That leaves open the possibility that only one boat finishes within the time limit, as defined, approaching the finishing line in the direction of the course from the last mark of the course, but is then found, after a protest, not to have complied with rule 28 at an earlier mark, which, as has been seen, is not the same issue. The answer is in rule 90.3, Scoring – the race is not to be scored. However, if the boat is disqualified for breaking some other rule, the race is valid.
The rule speaks of a boat that ‘sails the course as required by rule 28.1’. What about a boat in a U flag or black flag start that is to be scored UFD or BFD? If she is then the first boat to finish, does she trigger the time limit? Yes, says Q&A G10, regardless of whether she was behind or across the starting line at her starting signal. That is clearly the case when she was then on the pre-course side of the starting line at her starting signal, since she started, which is one the actions required for overall compliance with rule 28.1.
But what if she was across the starting line at the starting signal and did not return? She did not start, so how can she be said to have sailed the course? The answer given is that rule 35 requires the boat to sail the course, and it does not mention starting. (The situation is not helped by the fact that ‘sailing the course’ is one of three components of compliance with rule 28, the others being starting and finishing: but ‘sailing the course’ is also the title of rule 28, which encompasses all these actions, as well as the string test. However, a rule’s title is not part of the rule.)
Rule 36
RACES TO BE RESTARTED OR RESAILED If a race is restarted or resailed, a breach of a rule in the original race, or in any previous restart or resail of that race, shall not (a) prohibit a boat from competing unless she has broken rule 30.4; or
(b) cause a boat to be penalized except under rule 30.2, 30.4 or 69 or under rule 14 when she has caused injury or serious damage.
The general principle is that, when there has been a general recall (resulting in a restart) or an abandonment (resulting in a resail), most sins are forgiven – with exceptions: when a boat is in the penalty area in the last minute of a black flag start, the whole point of the rule is that she shall carry her BFD and not take part in the restart if there is a general recall or post-start abandonment and resail; nor will those events negate a Z flag penalty, or wipe out misbehaviour warranting a rule 69 hearing or report.
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