PART 2
When the boat needing room and the boat required to give that room are overlapped on a close-hauled course and are approaching an obstruction, it will often be the case that the leeward boat that would have to give that room is also affected by the obstruction, giving her the right to hail for room to tack. If the leeward boat hails for room to tack, and the windward boat hails for room to bear away, or does not hail at all, it is the hail for room to tack that prevails, since it must always be responded to1
. 19.2(c)
Giving Room at an Obstruction While boats are passing a continuing obstruction, if a boat that was clear astern and required to keep clear becomes overlapped between the other boat and the obstruction and, at the moment the overlap begins, there is not room for her to pass between them, she is not entitled to room under rule 19.2(b). While the boats remain overlapped, she shall keep clear and rules 10 and 11 do not apply.
This rule has the effect of deterring a keep-clear boat from becoming overlapped between the boat ahead and a continuing obstruction, which, as defined, will not be another moving vessel, and especially not another boat that is racing.
What is a ‘continuing’ obstruction? It can be a physical feature, such as the shore or a river bank. It can be a vessel that is NOT under way, such as an anchored or moored commercial vessel. The fact that the obstruction is of some length is relevant only if the boats are sailing close to it for some time. But for how long? Given that rule 19.2(c) situations usually occur when the boat ahead is sailing only a little more slowly than the boat astern, and given also that the rule requires both boats to be passing the continuing obstruction, I think that the answer is self-referential – is there time for a boat to go from clear astern to overlapped, during which both boats are always passing an obstruction? That suggests an obstruction of at least three boat-lengths, and usually more, as in the breakwater discussed under rule 182
.
Both boats must be passing the continuing obstruction for rule 19.2(c) to apply, so that an overlap beginning when most of the boat ahead has started to pass the obstruction, but none of the boat astern has, will be governed by rule 19.2(b) while the continuing obstruction is still being passed. The right of way will not change, and there is more opportunity for an inside boat with (or gaining) right of way to manoeuvre against the outside boat.
Rule 19.2(c) offers no comfort to a port-tack boat clear ahead of a starboard-tack boat – the port tack boat must either keep clear, or gybe to starboard to limit the options of the boat astern. The rule is a limitation only for a boat clear astern and required to keep clear, namely a same-tack situation (rule 12), or a port-tack boat astern of a starboard-tack boat (rule 10). Indeed, it is important to see rule 19.2(c) as a limitation to a boat’s rights under rule 19.2(b) rather than an opportunity, given the greater rights of a boat clear astern with right of way, which will be entitled to room if she becomes overlapped between the boat ahead and the obstruction, but where in any case her Section A rights are undimmed. Under 19.2(c), the boat astern and required to keep clear has no rights if she becomes overlapped between the boat ahead and the obstruction, unless the space between them is sufficiently wide.
1 Rule 20.1, WS 3 2 There are now fewer cases than previously concerning rule 19.2(c) because of rule changes and case revisions. This analysis and what follows is my own.
96 RYA The Racing Rules Explained
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