PART 4
Current practice is not simply to state that such-and-such TSS is a prohibited area, since a TSS may have inshore zones that need not, and often must not, be prohibited. Nor can the charting of a TSS’s extremities be guaranteed to be up to date. Instead, although it consumes more space in the sailing instructions, it is safest to refer to a prohibited zone as being a polygon, listing the co-ordinates of its extremities – which just happen to be the co-ordinates of the related TSS.
Rule 49 49.1 49.2 CREW POSITION; LIFELINES
Competitors shall use no device designed to position their bodies outboard, other than hiking straps and stiffeners worn under the thighs.
When lifelines are required by the class rules or any other rule, competitors shall not position any part of their torsos outside them, except briefly to perform a necessary task. On boats equipped with upper and lower lifelines, a competitor sitting on the deck facing outboard with his waist inside the lower lifeline may have the upper part of his body outside the upper lifeline. Unless a class rule or any other rule specifies a maximum deflection, lifelines shall be taut. If the class rules do not specify the material or minimum diameter of lifelines, they shall comply with the corresponding specifications in the World Sailing Offshore Special Regulations.
Note: Those regulations are available at the World Sailing website.
Rule 49.1 prohibits trapezes, but this rule is one that rule 86.1(c) allows class rules to change, which of course they will do for a class so equipped. Class rules are also allowed to change rule 49.2, although for safety reasons it does not seem desirable to be less stringent. WS 83 says that repeated sail trimming with a competitor’s torso outside the lifelines is not permitted.
In a race for 24-foot sloops whose class rules require lifelines the wind is about 15 knots with gusts lasting about three seconds; a choppy sea is striking the boats on the beam. A’s spinnaker trimmer is standing on the weather deck holding the sheet, which he is barely able to pull in. His posture changes to compensate for changes in the boat’s trim and the load on the sheet. During some of the gusts he is seen to be leaning back with part of his torso outboard of the lifelines.
Questions
1. Is it correct to equate the words ‘position any part’ in rule 49.2 with a stationary position? 2. Is leaning against the load on a sheet ‘to perform a necessary task’, for example trimming the sheet? 3. Is the duration of a gust ‘brief’ in these circumstances?
Answers
It is clear from diagram 6 of Case 36 that the position adopted by A’s crew member is capable of breaking rule 49.2. To ‘position the torso’ does not mean that the torso is stationary; it implies a deliberate act with some duration.
The phrase ‘to perform a necessary task’ contained within rule 49.2 means that the torso may be positioned outside the lifelines only to perform a task that could not reasonably be carried out from within the lifelines. The use of ‘briefly’ in the rule makes it clear that the torso must be moved inboard as soon as the task is completed.
The rule is clearly aimed at permitting an otherwise illegal action. Permission does not extend to normal sail trimming even when this would be more effectively achieved by positioning the torso outside the lifelines. Rule 49.2 is for the safety of the crew, and it is unavoidable that it inhibits the gains that might be obtained from optimizing weight distribution of the crew. The action of A’s crew member in leaning outboard of the lifelines breaks rule 49.2.
This can be contrasted with US 72, where, in a boat required to be equipped with lifelines, the spinnaker guy was released from the pole 30 seconds from the mark, and a crew member held the guy by hand, leaning out over the lifelines so as maximise the distance between the hull and the guy until the spinnaker had to be lowered, less than 30 seconds later.
Without a spinnaker pole, a spinnaker is less efficient and more unstable. As a boat prepares to round a leeward mark, removing the pole is one of the first necessary steps. From that time until the spinnaker is lowered, holding the guy by hand is a less effective but nonetheless useful means of controlling the spinnaker, which remains a ‘necessary task’ without the pole. The interval of time is normally a brief one, since there is generally no advantage in flying a spinnaker without a pole.
166 RYA The Racing Rules Explained
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