Part 3 and Part 4 Conduct of a Race and Other Requirements When Racing
Part 3 contains the rules that govern the conduct of a race (rules 25–37). Part 4 contains other rules that govern us while we are racing (rules 40–56). Most of the rules are straightforward and simple to understand. I’ll focus on the five for which an explanation might be helpful: rule 31 (Touching a Mark), rule 42 (Propulsion), rule 44 (Penalties at the Time of an Incident), rule 47 (Trash Dis- posal), and rule 55 (Setting and Sheeting Sails). Note rule 43 (Exoneration) is discussed in chapter 8.
R U L E 3 1 — T O U C H I N G A MA R K
While racing, a boat shall not touch a starting mark before starting, a mark that begins, bounds or ends the leg of the course on which she is sailing, or a finishing mark after finishing.
Prior to the 1969–73 rules, if you touched a mark and it was your fault, you had to drop out of the race. In the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, the late Carl Van Duyne, sailing the Finn for the United States, saw the leech of his main touch the windward mark as he rounded it in first place. Despite the claims of the race officer at the markwho insisted that Carl did not touch the mark, Carl withdrew
