Forum: Rule 18 and Room at the Mark
Definition Mark Room - "necessary to sail the course"
- National Judge
At our club we had an incident which involved the meaning of “Mark Room” (b) which is “room to round the mark as necessary to sail the course.”
Boats Inside Windward and Outside Leeward were approaching a leeward mark to be left to port and they were both on port tack, overlapped at the zone and at the mark, with OL having luffing rights (Rule 17 did not apply). The next mark was a gybe mark and to head to it, the proper course for both boats was a beam reach on port tack.
Assuming OL must give IW Mark Room, when can OL luff IW? Does Mark Room (“round the mark as necessary to sail the course”) mean that IW has the right to round the mark (transom perpendicular has cleared the mark) and she is on a beam reach pointed at the gybe mark ? Or could OL luff her up to close hauled as she rounded the mark, so that she clears the mark pointed higher than her proper course?
Paul Zupan has said in another post that his reading is that Mark Room means to leave the mark on the required side by sailing on a heading necessary to sail the course, but does "necessary to sail the course" mean proper course ? The word "necessary" seems to imply that, but I can find no definitive authority for this.
Any thoughts?
In the attached image there are anchored boats and in order to prevent boats from racing through them the course is defined as follows:
1 round to starboard
2 leave to port
3 leave to port
4 round to starboard
At mark 2 it is necessary for yellow to sail her heading in order to *leave* mark 2 to port. She is on a mark-room course.
How ever as they pass through the zone for mark 3 she it is not necessary for her to continue on her current heading in order to leave mark 3 to port. Should blue choose to luff, yellow may respond and still leave mark 3 on the required side. Yellow is not on a mark-room course.
Where blue to luff yellow to the point that yellow was sailing to the mark, it would now be necessary for her to sail her heading to leave the mark on the required side and she would now be on a mark-room course and entitled to exoneration if she failed to keep clear as windward boat.
Blue can luff yellow unit yellow reaches a point where yellows proper course will take her near the mark. Then blue must give yellow room to sail to the mark.
Blue must give yellow room to leave mark 3 to port at all times.