PART 2
Upwind, rule 16.2 will also apply when S and P were on a collision course, but P has borne away below a close- hauled course to duck S, only for S to alter course towards her; or when P is sailing to pass astern of S, and S luffs in order to tack. Again, the rule is transient. If S luffs early enough, there will be no immediate new need for P to act to keep clear1
. If S luffs too late, it is rule 13 that she may break. But the rule 16.2 window is also there2 .
Downwind, it can apply when P is aiming to pass astern of S, which is not sailing straight down wind, but which bears away to a down-wind course, possibly to inconvenience P, possibly in preparation for a gybe. This is an issue for gennaker-rigged boats making big gybes downwind3
.
The rule can also be an issue for such boats if P is close-hauled and S, deep-reaching to windward of P on a reciprocal course, bears away towards her to gybe.
The need for the rule is unclear, firstly because there was little evidence that the ‘dial-down’ tactic had spread to fleet racing, or was likely to do so, and secondly because an infringement is difficult to prove, given the short time between breaking rule 16.1 and not breaking rule 16.1 in which it operates. A boat length of separation one way or the other will move a rule 16.2 infringement to a rule 16.1 infringement or to no infringement at all.
Rule 16.2 Downwind
Rule 17
ON THE SAME TACK; PROPER COURSE If a boat clear astern becomes overlapped within two of her hull lengths to leeward of a boat on the same tack, she shall not sail above her proper course while they remain on the same tack and overlapped within that distance, unless in doing so she promptly sails astern of the other boat. This rule does not apply if the overlap begins while the windward boat is required by rule 13 to keep clear.
The rule deters ‘undertaking’ and then luffing, when conditions make this possible. This can be on all points of sailing. We now meet the concept of a proper course.
Definition Proper course A course a boat would sail to finish as soon as possible in the absence of the other boats referred to in the rule using the term. A boat has no proper course before her starting signal.
When lecturing about the racing rules, I often remark that if people think the concept of a proper course applies to a situation, they are likely to be wrong. No rule requires a boat to sail a proper course4
. In rule 17, a boat must
sometimes not sail above (i.e., to windward of) a proper course. It does not prevent her from sailing below a proper course. Otherwise, the term is relevant only under the definition Mark-Room as concerns room to sail to the mark: under rule 18.1(b) to determine whether rule 18 applies between boats on opposite tacks: under rule 18.4 to determine how far an inside overlapped right-of-way boat can sail past a mark without gybing; and, under rule 24.2, to decide if a boat is to be penalised for interfering with a boat on another leg. It is a yardstick rather than an obligation.
1 WS 6 2 My experience is that this way of breaking rule 16.2 is little understood. TR call D2 points out that rule 16.2 may apply earlier in stronger winds
or between faster boats. 3 TR call G7 shows another example. 4 WS 9
58 RYA The Racing Rules Explained
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