PART 2
Except when boats are deliberately trying to be between head to wind and close-hauled for some time, as in the starting line situation, the time during which rule 13 is in effect is brief – even a large modern racing keel boat can go from tack to tack in a few seconds, and dinghies are even quicker. The importance of rule 13 is often not so much the tacking boat’s loss of any rights once past head to wind, but rather what happens next.
The act of passing head to wind always changes the boat’s tack, from port to starboard or vice versa. At that moment, she may now become overlapped on the same tack as another boat: she may have ended a previous same-tack overlap; and she may now be on the tack opposite to that of a nearby boat. At that point, these are largely academic issues, since, whatever her new relationship with others, she must keep clear of them for the moment, and the significance of her new tack starts to apply only once she reaches a close-hauled course, when she
Rule 13 at Work
Yellow must keep clear of Red and Green under rule 13.
Yellow must keep clear of Red and Green under rule 13.
Yellow must keep clear of Red and Green under rule 13.
Red must keep clear of Yellow under rule 10, Green must keep clear of Yellow under rule 11.
may now have right of way, or she will be required to continue to keep clear. If she acquires (or reacquires) right of way by tacking from port to starboard, her ability to exploit this will be limited by rule 15, as we shall see, and if she tacks too close to another boat she may not be able give the room that rule requires. If she then continues to bear away past a close-hauled course, rule 16 may be an issue.
Luffing only as far as head to wind does not bring rule 13 into force, even though the boat intends to pass head to wind, In an RYA case that is no longer published1
, Iris luffed head to wind, intending to tack, but owing to a
jammed winch did not pass head to wind, and fell back onto her starboard-tack course. Daffodil, clear astern, bore away to keep clear. Daffodil won her protest under rule 13, but this was reversed on appeal. Whatever the reason, Iris had remained on starboard tack, and Daffodil was required to keep clear under rule 12 – which she did. Rule 13 did not apply, and no rule had been broken.
A boat is head to wind when her bow is facing the wind and the centreline of her hull is parallel to it, irrespective of the position of her sails – for instance, her jib may still be cleated in or held as for the previous tack, either by accident2
, or deliberately, to assist her tacking. Rule 13 stops applying when the boat reaches a close-hauled course, regardless of her movement through the water or the sheeting of her sails3
, and if she remains on or bears away past that close-hauled course, it will now be one of rules 10, 11 and 12 that will apply.
Rule 13 has its own built-in exception, when two boats are both subject to this rule at the same time – the one on the other’s port side or the one astern shall keep clear. Unless the tacking of the two boats is precisely synchronised, this exception will apply only for the even briefer time while both boats are between head to wind and a close-hauled course. So before either boat luffs, one of rules 10, 11 and 12 will apply between them, then when one of them passes head to wind that boat will lose any right of way, but when the other also passes head to wind that right of way may pass to the boat on the other’s starboard side, and then promptly be lost when one of them reaches a close-hauled course while the other is still between head to wind and a close-hauled course, followed by a further change of right of way when both are no longer subject to rule 13 – all in a second or so.
1 Not because it was wrong, but because it was felt to be too obvious! 2 US 17 3 WS 17
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 45
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