PART 2
We have seen that contact is not needed in order for a boat to be found not to have kept clear. Can you decide (fig 1) whether P is keeping clear of S1
?
In fact, you do not yet have enough information to apply the test of whether S can sail her course with no need to take avoiding action. What are the wind and wave conditions? What sorts of boats are involved? What are the speeds of the boats, and so how long is there before contact? How quickly can P manoeuvre? Is there eye contact between the helms? Had S hailed ‘Starboard’ and had there been any reaction by P? Has P just hailed that she will duck?
fig 1 In the actual facts of WS 88, P and S were 7m keelboats, sailing in 12
to 15 knots of wind and minimal sea conditions. S hailed ‘Starboard’ at three lengths, and again a second or so later, but P did not then respond. Just after the position shown, S luffed believing contact was likely, while P bore away sharply and missed S’s stern by less than a metre. On appeal, P was disqualified under rule 10, as S was fully justified in expecting a collision and concluding that only her action would prevent it. So S was unable to sail her course ‘with no need to take avoiding action’. You can avoid contact but fail to keep clear.
It was while racing close-hauled in dinghies in sight of each other on opposite tacks on a ‘dark and stormy night’ in a force 7-8 wind in RYA 1986/1 that S hailed ‘Starboard’ at six lengths. P heard it, but did not bear away until two lengths, at which point S took avoiding action that created contact that might not have occurred had she held her course. P said that she was in control of the situation, but her penalisation was upheld because, in the prevailing conditions, she had not taken avoiding action early enough.
WS 50 offers a valuable discussion of keeping clear under rule 10. WS 50
On a windward leg in Force 3, P and S, identical 27-foot keelboats, met. P sailed a course to cross ahead of S. S bore away and protested under rule 10, stating that she had to bear away to avoid colliding with P. The protest committee, in dismissing the protest, said ‘The need to change course could not be substantiated by the conflicting testimony of the two helmsmen.’ S’s appeal was upheld:
Rule 10 protests involving no contact are very common, and protest committees tend to handle them in very different ways. Some place an onus on the port-tack boat to prove conclusively that she would have cleared the starboard-tack boat, even when the latter’s evidence is barely worthy of credence. No such onus appears in rule 10. Other protest committees are reluctant to allow any rule 10 protest in the absence of contact, unless the starboard tack boat proves conclusively that contact would have occurred had she not changed course. Both approaches are incorrect.
P1 S2 S1 fig 2
S’s diagram, later endorsed by the protest committee, shows that S bore away to avoid contact. P’s diagram, which was not endorsed by the protest committee, shows a near miss if S did not bear away. P did not deny or confirm that S bore away but said that, if she did, it was unnecessary.
A starboard-tack boat in such circumstances need not hold her course so as to prove, by hitting the port-tack boat, that a collision was inevitable. Moreover, if she does so, she will break rule 14. At a protest hearing, S must establish either that contact would have occurred had she held her course, or that there was enough doubt that P could safely cross ahead to create a reasonable apprehension of contact of contact on S’s part and that it was unlikely that S would have ‘no need to take avoiding action’ (see the definition Keep Clear).
Is P Keeping Clear?
S P
Force 3 P2
1 WS 88 RYA The Racing Rules Explained 41
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