PART 2 Rule 16.2


The reason for this rule is to deter a risky manoeuvre. P and S are on a beat to windward, and S will cross P. But S needs to finish more than a place ahead of P to have a better series performance, and so wishes either to sail P down the fleet, or provoke an infringement by P, resulting in time lost taking a penalty. S therefore bears away towards P, forcing P to bear away. S continues to bear away, and P ends up sailing downwind. The ‘dial-down’ complies with rule 16.1 if S is at all times giving P room to respond. The problem is that S will be carrying out this aggression from a position of limited visibility for P, and if P does not see what is happening, there is a risk of a head-on collision resulting in serious damage or injury. If P is in fact alert and responds, other competitors could be surprised if the aggression continues. P, forced to run on port tack through a fleet of beating boats, will have to keep clear of all of them.


This tactic originated in match racing, where it was stopped by different means, and the fear was that it would spread to fleet racing.


It is additional to rule 16.1, which continues to apply. It starts to apply after the starting signal, even though the boats concerned may not yet have started. It will apply only when P is sailing to pass astern of S. This may be both on a beat to windward, and when boats are running on opposite tacks. On a beat to windward, this may be when the established closed-hauled courses of P and S would have taken S clear ahead of P.


Rule 16.2 – A Brief Window 2 1 2 1


Red, which would have kept clear astern of Green, cannot now do so. Green breaks rule 16.1, and Red is exonerated for breaking rule 10.


2 1 2 1


Red can continue to keep clear, but only by changing course immediately, which she must do. Green breaks


rule 16.2, even if Red acts successfully to continue to keep clear.


2 1 2 1


Red, which would have kept clear astern of Green, will need to act to continue to keep clear, but if she does not need to do so immediately, Green breaks no rule.


Rule 16.2 operates only in a brief window, between the time that a course change by S will give P ample time to react and the time when a course change by S will break rule 16.11


. The test is whether P will need to change


course immediately in order to continue keeping clear. So it will not apply, and no rule has been broken, if the course change P needs to make, when manoeuvring in a seamanlike way in the prevailing conditions, is less than immediate.


1 However, if S breaks rule 16.2, and then continues to bear away towards P, she may now also break rule 16.1 as well. P is not required to anticipate that S will do this, and is required to react only to what S is doing at the time, not what S may do subsequently. See WS 92.


RYA The Racing Rules Explained 57


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