PART 2
To quote the case’s abstract, ‘When a boat is obliged to change course to keep clear of another boat that has acquired right of way, she must act promptly, since a right-of-way boat is required only initially to give her room to do so. After that, rule 15 does not apply’.
Both Room and Keep Clear are defined terms, and the latter has already been discussed in detail.
L4
Definition Room The space a boat needs in the existing conditions, including space to comply with her obligations under the rules of Part 2 and rule 31, while manoeuvring promptly in a seamanlike way.
Room in rules 15 and 16.1 is, to use the term in rule 14, an ‘entitlement’ of a keep-clear boat that a right-of-way boat must satisfy in certain circumstances.
While the word used is ‘space’, the obsolete rules term ‘time and opportunity’ equally well expresses the concept.
fig 1
Different boats will need different amounts of space, depending on their size and manoeuvrability, and, the worse the conditions, the more the space that will be needed. A boat entitled to room is expected to act promptly, within the transient operation of rule 15, as we have seen, failing which she will have no excuse for then not keeping clear. Whether these requirements have been met is an issue for the protest committee, based on the circumstances and conditions.
If L becomes overlapped to leeward from astern while W is stalled, as on the starting line, the space that she provides may not be the space that W wants to take, namely the open water ahead of W on the course side of the starting line that she will intrude into by sheeting in.
If L becomes overlapped to leeward from astern1 on the beat, and can then sail higher that W, L will have
complied with rule 15 by giving W enough space to tack off, whether or not W wants to. If W does not tack when she can, she will have no defence for being unable to keep clear a short time later.
If L becomes overlapped to leeward from astern on a reach, then L will have complied with rule 15 by giving W enough space to luff.
In all these cases, if the keep-clear boat acts promptly to keep clear as required, but there is contact, then sufficient room has not been given – provided that contact was not caused by the keep-clear boat doing more than was needed just to keep clear2
.’ Up,up! L3 Up,up! L2 W4 W3 RYA 1990/1
Starting line W2
W1
L1
. However, room will have been given if a port-tack boat alters course in one
direction and there is contact with the starboard tack boat, if there would not have been contact had she altered course in the other direction – she must ‘promptly manoeuvre in a way which offers a reasonable expectation that she will keep clear3
So some elements of Room are variables, dependant on the circumstances. One however is not, namely the ‘seamanlike’ standard, which has three implications. Firstly, the give-way boat that is required to manoeuvre must be capable of the ‘boat handling that can reasonably be expected from a competent, but not expert, crew of the appropriate number for the boat4
’. If room meeting this description has been given, a boat that through less-than- competent boat handling fails to keep clear cannot invoke rule 15 (or rule 16.1) as a defence.
1 L must not sail above her proper course, however, see rule 17, but on a beat L’s own close-hauled course will always be ‘proper’, and it will prevail over W’s proper course if she cannot sail so high or is sailing to a different less-windward mark. 2 WS 24 3 RYA 2008/6 4 WS 103
50 RYA The Racing Rules Explained
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