PART 1
So to try to win a series by using a validly-obtained windward overlap to carry a competitor well past the point where her proper course would have been to tack for the mark does not break rule 21
.
Examples from cases of rule 2 being broken by deliberately breaking other rules include: • Being knowingly OCS at the starting signal and not making any attempt to start, in order to obtain a controlling position2
. • Being knowingly BFD in a Black Flag start under rule 30.3, but not retiring and then covering a competitor3
• Not sailing the course by deliberately missing out a mark to get close to the other boat, thus breaking rule 24.24
.
Incidents of this sort will normally happen only when the aggressor can discard her own bad result in the race in question, and only towards the end of a series when possibilities and options become apparent.
Intent is a clear feature of the rule – even a mistaken intent. In RYA 2011/2, Iris thought that she would retain her second place in the series if Thetis did not win the last race, and so manoeuvred her down to 8th place. In fact, the calculation (complicated by the availability of a second discard) was incorrect, and Iris’s place was secure regardless of where Thetis finished. This was held not to be a breach of rule 2.
If Daffodil manoeuvres against Iris with no objective other than to benefit Daffodil’s associate Thetis in fleet racing, this is unfair ‘team racing’. Since this would be quite acceptable in ‘proper’ team racing under Appendix D, Team Racing Rules, one might expect to find in Appendix D a statement that the Fair Sailing rule does not apply, or only partly applies. In fact, there is no such statement. Instead, D1.1(g) adds to rule 41, Outside Help, stating that a boat may receive help from another boat in her team provided electronic communication is not used. By implication, this ‘help’ is then sportsmanlike and fair. ‘Helping’ is the essence of team racing. So when unauthorised team racing occurs in fleet racing, it is a specific breach of rule 41 as well as a general breach of rule 2. The fact that it may therefore be a gross breach of rule 41 gives rise to the possibility of action under rule 69.1 as well.
Tricking fellow competitors can break rule 2, as for example a port-tack boat that deliberately hails ‘starboard’ when she knows that it is she herself that is the one on port tack5
.
Positioning crew and equipment advantageously does not break rule 2 if no other rule is broken. There is no rule that dictates how the helmsman or crew of a leeward boat must sit, and contact with a windward boat does not break rule 2 unless there is deliberate misuse of positioning6
and touching another boat), with no intention other than to cause a breach of rule 11 breaks rule 27
. On the other hand, deliberate action (in this case reaching out .
RYA 1999/5 puts an interesting gloss on this. Contact between one boat (including her crew) and another is not a prerequisite of a failure to keep clear, as defined. Rather, it is evidence that a boat is already not keeping clear, and many breaches of the rules of Part 2 will not involve contact. So when, racing in larger boats, the crew of L reached out and touched W, this was no more than proof of the closeness of W and therefore that she was already breaking rule 11 – and therefore rule 2 was not broken.
In RYA 1989/13, a spray hood on a cruiser-racer was raised downwind and lowered upwind. This did not break rule 2, since the use of standard designed positions for equipment not restricted by class rules or by the sailing instructions was not a clear-cut violation of the principle of sportsmanship.
.
1 RYA 1967/13 2 WS 34 3 WS 65 4 RYA 1986/6 5 WS 47: the question in the case presupposes that the hailer is an experienced sailor while the hailed is inexperienced, but the decision does not make this distinction. I suppose that a deliberately incorrect answer to a question from another boat as to which way to leave the next mark
would also break rule 2: on the other hand, claims for and oral denials of room at a mark are unlikely to cross the ‘unfairness’ threshold. 6 WS 74: an example of misuse might be launching outboard on a trapeze in light winds. 7 WS 73: similarly RYA 1988/8, when masts touch after L heels to windward.
22 RYA The Racing Rules Explained
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