PART 2
Rule 18.2, if not overlapped at the zone.
The simplest case is at a port- hand windward mark. Boats will be approaching the mark on the same tack on the starboard-tack layline, and Yellow clear ahead will have right of way under rule 12. While Yellow remains ahead, Blue clear astern has to keep clear under that rule, to which her obligation to give mark-room adds nothing. If, travelling faster, she is able to gain a windward overlap, she remains the keep-clear boat, now under rule 11, and once again, until the mark is reached, her keep-clear obligation is more significant than her give-room obligation (especially if the leeward boat luffs): but then while rounding the mark the now- windward boat has both to keep clear and, if more, give room.
If instead Blue becomes overlapped to leeward of Yellow, as in fig 1, she becomes right-of-way boat under rule 11, which technically requires the Yellow windward boat to keep
Giving Mark-Room
Blue, clear astern when Yellow enters the zone, must give Yellow room to sail to the mark and to round the mark. Becoming
overlapped inside Yellow is incompatible with this.
Blue on port must keep clear of Red on port while each remains on the same tack, and must give Red room to sail to the mark and to round the mark, until mark room is no longer needed.
Red must continue to keep clear of Green, but Green cannot deprive Red of room to sail to the mark and to round the mark.
Green will have to give mark-room to inside overlapped Blue.
fig 1
clear. However, Blue’s duty is to continue to give mark-room. She cannot force the Yellow boat above the ‘course to the mark’, and at the mark she must not be inside the windward boat, since she would be occupying the space that would represent the windward boat’s proper course in the absence of the leeward boat. If Blue does either of those things, and Yellow does not keep clear, rule 21(a) exonerates Yellow. So effectively the leeward boat must either immediately fall back astern again, or bear away and miss the mark, if she is not to break the second sentence of rule 18.2(b) and the rule 18.2(c).
The same is true when sailing to a gybe mark or reaching to mark 2 of a trapezoid course. It will also be the case when the leeward mark is approached on the same tack and the boat that entered the zone ahead can round close to the mark. Rule 18.2(c) also forbids a boat that was overlapped outside at zone entry from switching to an inside overlap within the zone.
One feature of modern sports boats, skiffs and catamarans is their high speed under spinnaker and their rapid deceleration when it is recovered. Yellow enters the zone of a leeward mark clear ahead of Blue. Neither will need to gybe before rounding it. Both are travelling fast under spinnaker. Yellow removes her spinnaker early, and slows rapidly. Blue, still carrying her spinnaker, must keep clear, which she can do only by passing one side or the other of Yellow. If she chooses to go outside, she will have little difficulty complying with rule 18.2(c). If she becomes overlapped inside Yellow, and removes her own spinnaker, she may find herself in an impossible position – required to continue to give mark-room by rule 18.2(c), but unable to do so. However, if she blasts past Yellow, to get clear ahead of her, not removing the spinnaker until at the mark, and not obstructing Yellow, now astern, in any way, I believe she has given the required mark-room – nothing stopped Yellow from sailing to the mark, and then rounding it.
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 77
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